Advisory for businesses at a turning point.
Growth, succession, new markets, new technology. The Catalyst, a business consultant in Ahmedabad, helps owners think through these decisions and carry them out.
Working with SME and MSME owners across Gujarat and India.
Why this exists
Business consulting services in India, from someone who has run businesses.
Most business consulting services in India are delivered by firms: a partner sells the work, a junior team does it. The Catalyst is built differently. Chetan Turakhia has spent thirty years running companies, and now works directly with owners as their advisor and part-time CXO.
Clients who compared us with SME and MSME consultants in Ahmedabad tell us the difference showed in the first meeting: the questions were about their numbers, KPIs, growth plans or challenges, not our brochure.
The practice covers business growth consulting, leadership, go-to-market, operation excellence, digital transformation and standing advisory. One person, a fixed monthly rhythm, and progress you can read in your own P&L.
What we do
Six areas. One person.
The work falls into six areas. Most clients arrive with one problem and stay for the monthly rhythm. Each service has its own page, so you can read what the work actually involves before we ever speak.
Fractional CXO & Leadership
A part-time CEO, COO, CMO or CSO for your company. Some call it a virtual CEO; we call it fractional CXO services India businesses use when they need seniority before they can justify the salary.
Read more 02Go-to-Market Strategy
Entering a market, launching a product, or fixing sales that have gone quiet. A go-to-market strategy consultant who writes the plan with your team, then stays through the launch or a permanent fix.
Read more 03Growth & Scaling
For businesses that grew well for years and then stopped. An SME growth consultant works with you on the revenue plan, the team, the numbers, and readiness for funding.
Read more 04Operation Excellence
For businesses where sales are healthy but execution isn't. An operation excellence consultant fixes organisation structure, processes and KPIs so growth doesn't get lost to internal chaos.
Read more Our depth05Digital Transformation
Digital transformation advisory covering AI, automation, cloud and data on the IT side, and data networking, IoT, automation, security and surveillance, audio-video/boardroom integration, and unified communication on the converged-technology side. Thirty years in technology means we can tell you what pays and what is just fashion.
Read more 06Advisory & Consulting
A monthly retainer. Your numbers and priorities get a considered second opinion, every month, from someone who has sat in your chair.
Read moreIf any of this sounds familiar, we should talk.
How we work
Three things define the practice.
Clients tell us these are the reasons they stayed.
Experience First
Chetan has run businesses for thirty years. The advice comes from having done the work, not from having read about it — been there, done that.
One Person, Directly
You work with Chetan himself. He may bring in associates for specific pieces of work, but there's no handover — the ownership stays with him.
Ahmedabad Base, India Reach
Based in Ahmedabad, available in person. Clients elsewhere in India are served through visits and video calls.
The beginning
How an engagement begins.
The process is short by design. You will know within one call whether this is a fit, and within a week what the work would look like.
A Conversation
A free thirty-minute call. You describe the business and the question in front of you. If we can't help, we say so on that call.
A Written Note
Within a week, a short proposal: the priorities as we see them, a schedule, and the fee. Read it, sit with it, no obligation.
- Three to five priorities, with names and dates
- The monthly schedule and the fee, in writing
- The numbers we would be judged on
A Monthly Rhythm
We work a fixed number of days each month and review progress against agreed numbers. The plan adjusts as results come in.
The difference
What changes with an advisor in the room
To be fair, much of this you could work out on your own, given time. What an experienced advisor changes is the speed, and the number of expensive mistakes along the way.
| Working it out alone | Working with The Catalyst | |
|---|---|---|
| Advice | General reading and free opinions | Specific to your business and your numbers |
| Experience | Learning by trial and error | Thirty plus years of running businesses |
| Accountability | No one checks whether the plan happened | Progress reviewed together each month |
| Time | A year or more of experimenting | A written plan within a week |
| Execution | The work stays on your desk | A senior person shares it with you |
Selected work
Nine engagements, with the numbers.
Turning a 20-year-old ERP business into a growth story
100+ partners onboarded and a tripled prospect base.
Read case Operations · IT ProductFrom chaos to a working operating system, in six months
A KPI-driven organisation and receivables under control.
Read case Growth · System Integration2.5x revenue in two years, without changing the core business
Two acquisitions and a new large-account business.
Read case Turnaround · Large B2BTurning a distribution business around in nine months
Sales up almost 60%, floating inventory down 50%.
Read case GTM · TelecomWinning the 42% of the market everyone else ignored
Leadership in India's largest procurement segment.
Read caseAn honest comparison
Looking for a top business consulting company in Ahmedabad?
Here is an honest way to run that search. Every top business consulting company in Ahmedabad list will show you firms with teams, offices and programs. Ask each one two questions: who exactly will sit in my monthly review, and have they ever run a business themselves?
At The Catalyst, the answer to both is the same person. That model isn't right for everyone. If you want a large team executing a program, a firm fits better. If you want thirty years of judgement applied directly to your decisions, that is what this practice was built for.
Read Chetan's backgroundWhat clients say
Six engagements, in their words
We ran the factory well but had no plan beyond the next order. In six months as our fractional COO he restructured the team and set up monthly reviews we still follow.
His go-to-market plan saved us close to a year. The pricing and channel choices came from our market, not from a template.
He told us what not to spend on. Our margins improved before our revenue did.
He put automation only where it paid for itself and left the rest alone.
Having him in our monthly review changed how we make decisions.
We had a strong product and steady sales but no structure behind it. Six months in, the chaos was gone and payments were current.
Years of leadership experience
Businesses advised across India
Industries served in depth
From the insights desk
Answers to the questions owners search for.
Common questions
Straight answers, first line.
“If I can't help, I say so on the first call. It has cost me some projects and kept every client.”
Chetan Turakhia, Founder