PK, to your question #1, please see my response in the previous comment. To #2, technically no, but as a business if my working capital problem is solved by a guaranteed demand, why not ask for it. In India, governments have cancelled orders in the past (in swine flu outbreak) and companies have had to throw vaccines worth crores.

Seema Singh

The story did not intend to "spew" numbers. We are a business publication and we wanted to lay out the financial might of the company. That said, it's hard to please all readers. We'll try to do better.

Seema Singh

Badal, Serum is very cash rich. It doesn't need Indian pre-payment money for international investments :)

Seema Singh

Madhusudan, thanks for reading the story. I am not sure what exactly you expected from the story. We have written many stories on vaccines at The Ken. This one was to place Serum and its current decisions and predicaments in context. As you rightly say, big pharma has shed its vaccine business over the past decade or so. Because most vaccines are paediatric vaccines, they are mostly distributed by public health agencies. Big pharma can't make much money off that given their high cost structures. But Indian vaccine companies have found a niche - to supply to global donor or national health agencies. The demand is stable, guaranteed and no salesforce is required. Retail market is not for Indian companies. Bharat Biotech tried its hand at retail biz with its typhoid vaccine and it had a tough time competing with the MNCs. Serum has built a valuable business which gets 40+% margins. It is well placed to unlock some of the value and use that money to raise its game.

Seema Singh

Thanks, Kishore. Deep tech generally means something proprietary (has monetisable IP), not run of the mill, and solves some wicked problems of the world or of business. People today use off the shelf ML/AI models, build solutions and call it deep tech. That's not really deep tech. Eg, Google's Tensorflow, an open source platform for ML, is deep tech, but using Tensorflow to build something is not considered deep tech. Some may still call it deep tech if the new tech solves some hard-to-crack problems and has a deep impact. And no, deep tech doesn't just mean AI or AR or ICT. It encompasses science-driven technologies in material science, life sciences, biotech, (new diagnostics, reagents, devices), robotics, space...The list is exhaustive :)

Seema Singh

Thanks, Anish. McKinsey says two consulting entities exist for "taxation" reasons. I don't get that and they did not elaborate on that point. But what still bewilders me is the fact that a so-called Indian entity, meant to record Indian consulting revenues, is incorporated as Inc. In brackets they also call it "India Branch Offices". Which is why in my response to the previous comment (which I figured is from an ex-McKinsey Partner), I said the story "reveals" a lot about the two companies :)

Seema Singh

Saurabh, your concern about not believing some of the unnamed information is valid. You are new to The Ken, but we've been around for more than four years. If we concocted facts, we'd not be here today :) Our opinions are backed by facts and reporting. We don't just state or report facts, but put them in context. So what may seem like opinion, is analysis borne out of reportage. People are increasingly loath to being identified or quoted by name because they fear retribution or repercussion for speaking out.

Seema Singh

Shailesh, I am sorry to see that you are not seeing the point of the story or the seriousness of the issue. BCG claims it's #1 in an internal announcement. I source its revenue numbers from MCA and ask if they still stand by their claim, they say yes. I source all McKinsey numbers that's possibly available in searchable format on MCA — 3 companies— and challenge them. McKinsey refuses to share revenues of one entity which they say exists because of "taxation issue". It's also named differently for an Indian entity, as Inc. and as "India Branch offices". If the global #1 is cagey about numbers, if the global #2 sticks its neck out and claims it's beaten #1, who will you trust? Triangulating using partner or consultant numbers is not correct because utilisations rates vary. Anyone in the industry will tell you corroborating an MNCs actual revenues when they have half a dozen entity is fraught. Only their accountants know how they count local revenue. With that in mind, I went with BCG's strong claim. To your point that BCG would be twice the size, I did not assume that because I know such companies have wild cards in the form of some entity registered under some rubric. There's nothing sensational about the story. If anything, it reveals so much about the two companies.

Seema Singh

Thanks, Aishwarya. You cite good examples. IAS officers get transferred, politicians also have a short timeline. In SATH, political actors also changed in all the states. So in a way when consultants say, like BCG said, they are "the custodians of the change process" it sounds valid. But why shouldn't any govt be held accountable for basic services? This is copping out and has long term serious consequences.

Seema Singh

Chakradar, you are perhaps right. Without reforming the bureaucracy and building institutions that allow officers to take bold decisions and not just be a pawn in the hands of politicians, there's no point in wasting more resources. But if there's a political will, even without big bang national level reforms, using the NRLM structure, bright young educated graduates can be hired and trained to execute at the lower level. Something like an apprenticeship program which politician Jairam Ramesh once was a champion of. Problem is, no one has the time or a long term vision. Elections happen every 5 years, right?

Seema Singh

Thanks, Umesh. The second part was published today. Here it is: https://the-ken.com/story/bcg-playbook-consultancy-wave-sweeping-government/

Seema Singh

Thanks, Mayur. I don't think I'm giving them an upper hand. It actually exposes how they are inching ahead. Two, it's a journalistic work, a story. How much can you expect from one story? I am not a consultant writing a research report :) 3) You'll find some more insight in Part 2 but, generally speaking, nobody likes to talk about these companies, neither current not past employees.

Seema Singh