MAKING A MARK

IN A LANDSCAPE DOMINATED BY THE BIG FOUR ACCOUNTING FIRMS, DHRUVA ADVISORS HAS STRUCK IT BIG ON THE BACK OF ITS TAX AND REGULATORY ADVISORY SERVICES, ASSISTING SOME OF THE MARQUEE DEALS OF INDIA INC.

- BY KRISHNA GOPALAN

OFTEN, A MOMENT defines the path a business ought to take. It could be a serendipitous meeting or a big idea. In the case of Dhruva Advisors, one question was all it took. When Dinesh Kanabar founded Dhruva in October 2014, it set out to be a multi-practice firm offering many services. Kanabar, a chartered accountant by training, had begun his career at Ratan S Mama and was the deputy CEO of the taxation and auditing boutique when it merged with PricewaterhouseCoopers in 2007. Kanabar later joined KPMG, which he left as Deputy CEO in 2014.

Being 56 did not deter Kanabar from starting from scratch. With his partners, he wanted to create a new culture (flat hierarchy) and new processes (no competing among partners for accounts) and get big clients with complex problems (premium fees). But what would be its basket of offerings? Then came that moment of blinding focus. Kanabar had invited a former McKinsey strategy head to talk to his new team at its first meeting and provoke it to think out of the box.

Kanabar, now 66, smiles as he recalls, "He asked us a very simple question-why do clients come to you?" The question seemed elementary for the eight partners in a meeting room at the Four Seasons Hotel, Mumbai. After all, they had a cumulative experience of a few hundred years. One spoke of the expertise. Another mumbled quality of service offered.

Neither was wrong, but the answer lay elsewhere. "Clients come to you because they have an unresolved problem and believe you have the solution," said the guest.

The team realised the business was not about service but about offering a solution. Out went plans to do the grunt work of compliance, risk management, forensic accounting, litigation or corporate finance. The focus would be tax and regulatory-related work; coincidentally, all of them were specialists in taxation.