Manish Singhal, founder, Saarthi Integrated Consulting LLP : Entrepreneurs for Entrepreneurs

“Guiding entrepreneurs- Saarthi”

The Ultimate guide from legend and religion has always been the “Saarthi”. Forever symbolized by Lord Krishna’s deft handling of Arjuna’s chariot among other things, the Saarthi has become a synonym for excellent guide. Manish Singhal may be a mere mortal but he too is a “Saarthi” no more no less to the entrepreneurs he helps.

With the experiences of an 18 year career in techno-managerial roles across different companies like Sling Media, Ittiam, and Motorola Manish is no novice. Well versed with developing products right from hardware design to software to applications, he has played key roles in many real time systems and products in multimedia streaming and playback. He was also part of the MPEG committee and contributed actively towards the standardization of the MPEG-4 standard. He is also on the jury and mentor panel for the Times Group initiative, The Power of Ideas.

After quitting his last job as General Manager for Sling Media India center (a CoE for all the R&D work in Sling) Manish has finally unleashed his talents and entrepreneurial acumen to give the world a “Saarthi”

Why do you call Saarthi a company of entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs?

Saarthi is a technology & management consulting company with the single-minded focus of Enabling Success for our clients in a comprehensive and self-sustaining way. We work with organizations and individuals to help them jump orbits by using their own strengths to the maximum.

We especially relish working with startups – in a way, we can be called entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs! We bring in our experience and systematic approach to the budding start-ups as a friend, advisor, mentor, working with them shoulder to shoulder helping them navigate the ups and downs of an entrepreneurs’ journey.We also work with individuals directly as an executive/personal coach to help them maximize their potential and achieve their aspirations.

Why did you make the jump from a flourishing career to becoming a Saarthi?

I have been in the industry, especially in the technology space for the last 18 yrs in various leadership roles and I feel I have worked like a Saarthi – as I have always tried to enable people, teams and organizations along with me. Over a period of time, I felt that staying in an organization had put a boundary on my role, so I decided to step out of that boundary, and give myself a chance to be a Saarthi for many more individuals and organizations.

The journey as a Saarthi has been very fulfilling so far. I am meeting new companies, new ideas and new individuals. Each day, each relationship throws new challenges, creating new avenues for learning for myself.

What motivates you despite the highs and lows of entrepreneurship?

Being an entrepreneur is a refreshing journey. It beats you, encourages you, elevates you and makes you work harder for everything that you may have taken for granted before. Yeah, it is a rollercoaster – that is the fun of it.

To me, as a Saarthi, I feel blessed to have an opportunity to play a role in the success of many individuals and organizations. That is what keeps me going!

What areas can your services help entrepreneurs in?

To enable self-sustaining success, we look at all the aspects, right from Technology, to Strategy, to Operations, to Organizations and to People for a client. We can then work out the appropriate area where our intervention can help. We believe that all vectors have to be in harmony for a stable change to a higher orbit.

To answer the question of who could be our potential client, I think it can be anyone facing challenges - as an organization or in individual capacity.

What business model are you following?

We believe in enabling success coming from our clients’ shoes. We try and create a success path built on their strengths instead of offering a cookie cutter solution. We also take a holistic and structured approach to first define the problem to be solved. Then, we pull in the appropriate solutions to help overcome the challenges.Primarily, we offer two business models:

1. Sounding Board Model: This model typically involves our engagement with the client more in the capacity of a sounding board, where the client can discuss to us about their plans, challenges etc and we give our thoughts and recommendations.
2. White Board Model: This is a more in-depth approach, where we work closely with the client to define and solve the challenges at hand.

How do you want your company to be perceived in the next 2 years?

To establish Saarthi as a trusted partner in your journey – no matter what the journey is – we should have enough depth and breadth to be able to enable success for our clients across all dimensions & domains.

What do you think is a challenge common to all Indian entrepreneurs?

I guess the challenges may be different for different people & domains. However, a common one I think is that there are many more people out there telling you that you won’t succeed rather than helping you succeed. In a way, Saarthi was born out of that inspiration and realization – we want to be out there to help iron out the wrinkles and enable success.

Yourstory wishes Manish Singhal and “Saarthi Integrated Consulting” success and good fortune in all that they attempt. We hope that his journey as a Saarthi will be both fulfilling and challenging in the best sense of the words…