One of the WITCH firms is trying to recruit me. They say they are investing in being consulting-led, have full commitment, etc. it sounds interesting. Do you believe they can really transform or is this career suicide?

It’s one thing to have internal belief, it’s another to have client belief. Clients view WITCH as low cost, commodity MSP. There is an inherent issue in getting clients to pay higher rates for traditional consulting when they’ve anchored around low cost commodity for so long (and still do).

Unless you have a 25 year horizon, my vote is to not entertain this. WITCH have deep rooted culture that prevents them from top $ consulting, IMHO. I am not belittling them, they are very good at what they do and are profitable.

It will take them 20 years to break the mold if they were to start doing it seriously, starting today. And I am not sure how they would do that, since they are listed companies that have quarterly market pressures and will struggle to implement a long term plan.

Career suicide - 100%. And you’ll hate the culture.

WITCH are excellent at what they do, but they will never be able to pivot to a higher rate model. It’s just not in the culture.

I’ve known a couple of people who have left at partner level at the T2’s to join leadership roles in the WITCH. Both are Indian origin but grew up in the UK/US. Both left after a year. Exits almost non existent

You might wanna do some deeper searching even on this bowl. Multiple ppl have posted their tales of woe after being lured to a WITCH firm. Don’t think I’ve heard any positive stories. But hey if you think your story will somehow be different, sure, go ahead and FAFO.

Personal experince - was hired into IBM on the same story.
Lasted 9 months, building and hiring a consulting team (during that time I was free to hire from Big 4, and I did as many as I could find) - then IBM machine kicked in.
Sigings this week (not just quarter) no other leader understood the consulting business (they are all SW sellers).
Unless you are going in high enough to force this, don't trust the current group to have your back. They all get rotated every other quarter anyhow

TCS has been trying for at least 15 years and is still a body shop

How is the talent density and capabilities? I don’t think I’m getting straight answers on this from them. Will I have things to sell and good people who can deliver it, or will I literally be on my own trying to make it work as many have described above, and then pushed out in 9-12 months? Thanks for all the help - this is a major choice, made harder by knowing the hiring manager but he’s also new there.

Not suicide but will waste two years of your life. Don't be the LV, "Latest Victim."

I’d also be conscious of the fact that their business models are about to get destroyed by LLMs

IDK how many ways people need to explain this.

Unless you have 5-7 years remaining to retire and wanna be a luminary there. Stay away!

I previously worked at one of the WITCH companies for many years. What I noticed is that they operate very differently than western based companies and leadership generally interacts with their teams in a rather patronizing fashion, as it’s cultural. Interestingly enough, the multiple bosses I had were westerners, with the exception of 1, and they were all excellent!
If you are not South Asian in decent and interested in entertaining this as an option, I would strongly encourage you speak to several in your network to understand the culture of these organizations as I have seen it difficult for non South Asians to integrate into the organization well as several feel a bit of discomfort embracing individuals of different descents. The ones who lasted a significant amount of time either reported to people of non South Asian decent or really understood and embraced the South Asian culture on many fronts.
To the previous points expressed, I believe that many WITCH are trying to make the pivot and I’ve had headhunters come and approach me on roles. What they are looking to do is take big 4 Partners closer to retirement to come on board and flip their book of business to them to start to establish a consulting footprint. The challenge is client organizations can’t justify paying hefty rates for non big 4, non MBB work for strategic initiatives. They often resort to mentioning they will staff aug the WITCH consulting resources. I remember that it took me 18 months to influence one client to give me work, where it started off by me doing an assessment at half the price of a big 4/MBB and then educating what our practice specifically does.

How much money are they willing to invest in this and over what time horizon? If they slap you with a regular sales target right away that is very similar to existing lines of business it’s clear they aren’t serious…

At the very minimum make sure your contract makes it very expensive for them to get rid of you (or ideally for not following through on their commitments)