The Solutions Factory: The ConsultantÆs [Hardcover] Arun Maira

In a career spanning over five decades, Arun Maira has an unusual combination of hands-on leadership experience in the business sector, social sector, and in government, as well as experience consulting to all sectors. He was a leader of Arthur D. Little Inc's global strategy and organization consulting practices, CEO of Innovation Associates in the US, and Chairman of BCG India. He is a former Member of the Planning Commission of India. He has worked in senior leadership positions in the Tata Group and has served on the boards of several companies, educational institutions, and social sector organizations. He was Chancellor of the Central University of Himachal Pradesh, Chairman of the Quality Council of India, and presently is Chairman of HelpAge International.

He is a respected thought leader who has written several books on leadership and transformational change, including Redesigning the Aeroplane While Flying: Transforming Institutions, and Transforming Systems: Why the World Needs a New Ethical Toolkit. His most recent books are A Billion Fireflies: Critical Conversations to Shape a New Post-pandemic World, and The Learning Factory: How the Leaders of Tata Became Nation Builders.

A must-read for Indian consultants and managers from the management expert Arun Maira!

In The Solutions Factory, Arun Maira digs deep into his experiences as a consultant and presents twenty human-led business stories that cover all kinds of problem-solving techniques told through carefully picked personal experiences and anecdotes. By distilling the essence of the work that consultants do, he offers a management handbook that is unique to Indian business practices. From cultural understanding to communication skills, this book illustrates the applicability of simple tips for a diverse range of business roles and levels.

Maira's down-to-earth and insightful approach, keenly oriented towards respectful and ethical business practices, illustrates his signature mix of idealism and ­pragmatis­m-be it is about managing an unexpected crisis or about learning more about another company's culture. In this age of financial uncertainty due to the pandemic, a book like this is as essential for small-business owners as it is for the heads of major corporations. Maira's focus on excellence through ethics, success through learning, and valuation through value brings to the fore his people-centric and back-to-basics approach-an approach that every modern corporation will need in order to prepare for the future ahead of us.

As a business leader, policy maker, and consultant, Arun Maira has always focused on the aspirations and power of human beings to achieve transformation. Behind the numbers and algorithms are real people who leaders, policy makers and consultants must always listen to, he urges, in this remarkable book of insights from his consulting practice.Arun Maira has consulted with organisations and their leaders in the private, government, and civil society sectors. The essence of his approach to consulting is helping people to work together to produce outcomes they all want, and can produce only by working together more effectively. In his book he reveals how he has done this.