Advisor to boards, CEOs, Chief Strategy Officers and Chief Innovation Officers. Former Associate Partner at Innosight, co-author in Harvard Business Review, and author of Alt-Consulting.
Utsav A Bhatt is an advisor to boards, CEOs, Chief Strategy Officers and Chief Innovation Officers. He helps them with a company’s hardest questions: where to grow next, how to make AI pay off in the core business, and how to move a large organisation before the market forces it to. His clients are global corporations and large companies. Leading consulting and venture capital firms also bring him in for his depth in innovation, growth strategy and AI adoption.
For six years he was an Associate Partner (Senior Director) at Innosight, the strategy firm co-founded by Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen. From Singapore, he led work on disruptive innovation, business model transformation and organisational change for clients across Asia-Pacific, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
Before that, he spent seven years at L&T Infotech (now LTM), where he built and led a consulting practice advising CIOs of global banks, retailers and industrial groups in North America, Europe and Africa. He also forged the firm’s relationship with MIT’s Center for Information Systems Research (CISR) and led a joint research project on customer experience with BBVA in Spain. That decade close to technology shaped the conviction behind his work: technology does not transform organisations; people and systems do.
In 2023 he founded StratOff to give senior leaders a strategy co-pilot: the thinking of a strategy partner, without a large consulting team or another hire. He is also a Strategy Advisor to venture studios, including Alloy Partners in the US and Rainmaking in Europe, and is part of Bain & Company’s talent network. His book, Alt-Consulting, argues that AI is rewriting how strategy advice is made and bought. StratOff is that argument in practice.
Working across industries is the part of this work I enjoy most. An idea from one sector often unlocks a problem in another, if you know how to adapt it.
Over two years, drove a premier Australian law firm’s business model transformation, working with the entire partnership, the executive committee and directly with the Chief Innovation Officer. The work saw the firm named the FT’s Most Innovative Law Firm in Asia-Pacific two years running. The firm then brought him back to develop its AI strategy for the Board.
Helped a bank of more than 20,000 employees rebuild around its customers. Within two years it ranked first for Net Promoter Score and delivered record revenue growth.
Advisor to the Global Head of Science & Technology at a global food company and the function’s entire leadership team, helping them drive new growth, innovation governance and portfolio management.
Built the growth strategy for a South Korean food major’s move into plant-based products, identifying ten opportunities for the leadership team to back.
Advised a top-three global consulting firm on the go-to-market strategy for an AI venture built for a Singapore shipping group, presented to its board and private equity investors.
Shaped a future-of-mobility strategy for a global energy company across Asia-Pacific, and the go-to-market strategy for the first electric truck rollout in Australia.
Other work includes the China operating model for a US consumer electronics leader, a strategy bootcamp for thirteen Asia-Pacific country heads of a pharmaceutical company, Singapore’s Emergency Response 2040 vision, and work with New Zealand’s Ministry of Health.
StratOff
Strategy co-pilot to boards, CEOs and the leaders who own strategy and innovation, with the thinking of a strategy partner and the follow-through of a chief of staff.
Clients include global corporations and large companies, and leading consulting and venture capital firms.
Innosight, Singapore
Advised CEOs, C-suite leaders and boards on new growth, business model transformation, culture change and innovation across Asia-Pacific.
Co-authored the Harvard Business Review article “Persuade Your Company to Change Before It’s Too Late”.
Led Jobs-to-be-Done masterclasses for corporate teams.
L&T Infotech (now LTM), Mumbai
Built a strategy consulting practice from the ground up, and an alliance with MIT’s Center for Information Systems Research.
Identified US$29 million in IT savings for the investment banking division of a global bank in New York, cut IT costs by 30% for a Nordic retailer, and designed a ‘One Africa’ IT model for a bank in twelve countries.
Twice received the company’s top individual award among some 15,000 employees.
L&T EmSyS (now LTTS), Mumbai
Developed embedded software, the start of a career that moved from engineering into strategy.
During the global financial crisis, also worked as a marketing executive to support the sales pipeline.
Co-authored with Pontus M.A. Sirén and Scott D. Anthony. Recognised among HBR’s Top 10 Must Reads on change management.
Read on HBR Book, Notion Press 2025What comes after the end of strategy consulting as we knew it. How AI is rewriting the economics of strategy advice, and what comes next.
About the book Podcast hostConversations on how AI is reshaping consulting. From new business models and changing client expectations to the future of consulting careers, with practitioners, entrepreneurs and industry leaders challenging how consulting works.
Listen“A clear-eyed, unsentimental autopsy of the consulting pyramid.”
“I strongly recommend Utsav’s perspectives to anyone ready to embrace what comes after consulting as we knew it.”
Utsav has led sessions for more than 1,000 executives. Recent sessions include a keynote in Manila for more than 100 senior leaders of the Ayala Group, including its President and CEO.
Why most AI programmes stall between pilot and P&L, and what leaders who get returns do differently.
How AI is changing the way strategy advice is made, bought and delivered, and what that means for leaders and advisers.
S P Jain School of Global Management and Schulich School of Business, Gold Medal
University of Mumbai, ranked 5th in the university
HBX, Harvard Business School