Dev Malhotra

Senior Associate at Northfold Strategy Partners | Operations & growth strategy | Usually packing running shoes

I'm a management consultant based in Gurugram, working on operations and growth problems for consumer and industrial businesses. Most weeks run Monday to Thursday at a client site, then Friday back home turning a very full notebook into a clear recommendation. I like work where the answer has to survive contact with the shop floor, not just the steering committee. Outside work, I'm building towards my first marathon, following Formula 1, and learning that good pasta dough cannot be hurried.

Lead workstreams on distribution efficiency, operating models and growth strategy. Manage small project teams and work directly with client operations leads. Typically travel to Mumbai or Pune Monday–Thursday, with Fridays based in Gurugram.

Built market-sizing models, conducted distributor interviews and supported implementation planning for consumer and industrial clients. Developed a particular interest in the gap between an attractive recommendation and one a team can actually execute.

Supported supply-chain diagnostics and commercial due diligence through data analysis, customer interviews and field visits. Left to pursue a full-time MBA.

Management Consulting, Operations Strategy, Growth Strategy, Financial Modeling, Market Sizing, Supply Chain Analysis, Stakeholder Management, Project Management, Microsoft Excel, Executive Presentations

English, Hindi, Punjabi — conversational

A small change I've made on this project: every recommendation slide now has an owner, a first action and a date. If we can't fill those three boxes, it isn't ready. A client operations lead in Pune pointed out that our proposed weekly review landed on their busiest dispatch day. Obvious once someone said it; invisible in our spreadsheet. We moved the review. I'm increasingly convinced that implementation starts during the analysis, not after the final presentation.

Running before a client day has become my most reliable travel routine. Nothing heroic: shoes laid out the night before, a route checked with the hotel desk, 35 minutes outside, then breakfast. Some mornings it becomes a treadmill session because the roads aren't sensible. The useful part is having one thing in the day that isn't dependent on a meeting invitation. Six weeks into being more consistent, I'm arriving at the first meeting with a clearer head. Still working on getting enough sleep.

On a recent distribution project, the most useful hour wasn't in the workshop. It was spent with the person reconciling returns at the end of each day. She showed us the extra sheet she maintained because the standard report missed two exceptions. That sheet explained a discrepancy we'd been discussing for a week. A reminder for me: ask people to show you the work, not only describe the process. And leave enough time in the visit for the second conversation.