Recognizing a Gaping Need in the Marketplace

Summary

Your Next Move: Episode Summary - Recognizing a Gaping Need in the Marketplace

Podcast Information:

• Title: Your Next Move
• Host/Author: Inc. Magazine
• Description: Your Next Move features authentic and insightful conversations with some of today’s most innovative and exciting entrepreneurs and business leaders, produced in partnership with Capital One Business.
• Episode: Recognizing a Gaping Need in the Marketplace
• Release Date: April 8, 2025

In this illuminating episode of Your Next Move, Inc. Executive Editor Diana Ransom sits down with Anupam Sachishil, founder of Occam's Advisory. Ranked #1,804 on the 2024 Inc. 5000 list and marking their eighth appearance over nine years, Occam's Advisory stands out as a premier financial advisory firm dedicated to bringing Fortune 5000-level expertise to small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

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1. Founding and Early Beginnings

Anupam opens the conversation by tracing the origins of Occam's Advisory. Having spent several years as an investment banker on Wall Street during a notably bullish period from 2005 to 2012, he witnessed firsthand the rapid market fluctuations and the onset of the financial crisis. This tumultuous environment prompted him to seek stability and purpose beyond the high-octane world of investment banking.

“When I started everything was bullish. Go, go, go. And very quickly you know what it became.” ([01:23])

Drawing inspiration from his father's experience running a small metal scrap business in India during the 1970s, Anupam recognized the challenges small businesses face without access to high-quality, integrated services. This realization planted the seeds for Occam's Advisory in 2012.

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2. Integrated Service Model for SMEs

At the core of Occam's Advisory is an integrated service model tailored specifically for middle-market companies. Anupam explains that SMEs often juggle multiple service providers for accounting, legal, and financial needs, leading to fragmented and inefficient operations.

“Our approach is clients’ various aspects of business can be catered to in a unified manner versus like go to attorney for something, go to an accountant for something else.” ([01:37])

By consolidating these services, Occam's Advisory offers a one-stop-shop experience—rebranded as an integrated service model to better reflect its sophisticated approach. This model not only streamlines operations for clients but also enhances the overall quality and consistency of services provided.

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3. Identifying Market Needs and Strategic Direction

Anupam emphasizes that the inception of Occam's Advisory was driven by a gaping need in the marketplace rather than a sudden moment of inspiration.

“No, it was a gaping need in the marketplace and we thought that probably we can make something out of it.” ([02:40])

This strategic focus allowed the company to carve out a niche in providing comprehensive financial advisory services to SMEs, bridging the gap between large corporate expertise and small business accessibility.

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4. Achieving Consistent Growth: Inc. 5000 Success

Occam's Advisory's consistent inclusion in the Inc. 5000 list is a testament to its sustained growth and robust business model. Anupam attributes this success to the company's unwavering commitment to continuous learning and organizational adaptability.

“We put immense focus on people who are willing to unlearn, relearn and repeat the process over and over.” ([08:36])

This culture of perpetual learning ensures that the team remains agile and responsive to evolving market demands, fostering innovation and maintaining a competitive edge.

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5. Fostering a Culture of Continuous Learning

A pivotal aspect of Occam's Advisory's growth strategy is its emphasis on employee development. The company allocates 3% of each employee's compensation towards a learning budget, enabling team members to pursue relevant certifications, programs, or other educational opportunities.

“We allocate 3% of people's compensation for their learning budget and they can choose whatever they want to do.” ([09:08])

Additionally, the quarterly book club initiative encourages intellectual engagement and creative expression. Employees present their insights through various mediums, such as videos or podcasts, with incentives like a $500 cash prize for the best presentation.

“They make either a video or a news tape or a podcast on the book. And then there's a reward for the best book club summary and it carries $500 of cash prize.” ([09:59])

Books like Good to Great by Jim Collins and Atomic Habits by James Clear are staples in the book club, reinforcing both professional and personal growth.

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6. Learning from Early Mistakes

Anupam candidly discusses the company's early missteps, particularly in overextending their service offerings. Initially striving to be an all-encompassing service provider, Occam's Advisory ventured into areas like contract staffing and digital marketing, which did not align with their core competencies.

“We took the idea of being a one stop shop a bit too far. Some of the service lines we were in that we are not in anymore are contract staffing, digital marketing.” ([11:44])

These experiences underscored the importance of focusing on core strengths and avoiding dilution of their value proposition. Consequently, the company refocused on areas where they could deliver exceptional value, such as tax credits and financial advisory.

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7. Strategic Emphasis on Tax Credits

A significant value-add offered by Occam's Advisory is their expertise in tax credits. Anupam highlights the substantial yet underutilized potential in this domain:

“About $100 billion, give or take, are available to small medium businesses in tax credit every year. And about 70% of it is not taken every year.” ([06:18])

By assisting clients in identifying and securing eligible tax credits, Occam's Advisory not only enhances their financial standing but also builds trust and long-term partnerships. This strategy ensures that clients perceive their services as invaluable, leading to sustained business relationships.

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8. Embodied Company Values and Leadership

The ethos of Occam's Advisory is encapsulated in a set of core values derived from the company name, inspired by Occam's Razor. These values—Ownership, Clarity, Commitments, Standards, and Mindfulness—are integrated into every facet of the organization.

“We have the outcome, six letters. Like ownership, clarity, commitments.” ([15:39])

Regular leadership meetings reinforce these values by encouraging team members to reflect on their roles and contributions. This alignment ensures that the entire team operates with a unified vision and maintains high standards of excellence.

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Notable Quotes:

• Anupam Sachishil: “Our approach is clients’ various aspects of business can be catered to in a unified manner versus like go to attorney for something, go to an accountant for something else.” ([01:37])

• Anupam Sachishil: “We put immense focus on people who are willing to unlearn, relearn and repeat the process over and over.” ([08:36])

• Anupam Sachishil: “About $100 billion, give or take, are available to small medium businesses in tax credit every year. And about 70% of it is not taken every year.” ([06:18])

• Anupam Sachishil: “We have the outcome, six letters. Like ownership, clarity, commitments.” ([15:39])

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Conclusion

In this episode of Your Next Move, Anupam Sachishil provides deep insights into building a resilient and adaptive business tailored to the unique needs of SMEs. Through strategic focus, a commitment to continuous learning, and a strong foundational culture, Occam's Advisory successfully addresses critical gaps in the marketplace, ensuring sustained growth and value for their clients.

Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur or an established business leader, Anupam's journey offers valuable lessons on recognizing market needs, refining business models, and fostering a culture that drives excellence.

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For more insightful conversations with top entrepreneurs and business leaders, subscribe to Your Next Move on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred podcast platform.

Transcript

[Sarah Lynch]

I'm Sarah lynch and you are listening to youo Next Move audio edition produced by Inc. And Capital One Business. For this season, we gathered an array of conversations with entrepreneurs who made last year's Inc. 5000 list. They joined us in our your Next Move Booth at the Inc. 5000 to share lessons learned and anecdotes from building their businesses. In this episode, Inc. Executive editor Diana Ransom interviewed Anupam Sachishil. He is the founder of Occam's Advisory. They're ranked number 1,804 on the 2024 Inc 5000 list and it's their eighth time on the Inc. 5000 list in the past nine years. They are a financial advisory firm bringing Fortune 5000 level expertise to smaller businesses and partnering with clients through their business life cycle. Anupam started the conversation by telling Diana how the company got its start.

[Anupam Sachishil]

We have been business since 2012, which makes us about 12 years old. Before I started the business, I was an investment banker on Wall Street. I saw some very exciting times from 2005 till 2012.

[Diana Ransom]

Absolutely. There was the financial crisis amid there.

[Anupam Sachishil]

So when I started everything was bullish. Go, go, go. And very quickly you know what it became. And then the recovery was kind of setting in. When I had enough of excitement I said let me go to something else.

[Diana Ransom]

So what does your company do?

[Anupam Sachishil]

Yeah, coming to it. So with regard to Ocumus Advisory's focus, we have tried to build an integrated service model for middle market companies. So typically the MSME space, micro small medium enterprises, if they need something they keep going to a variety of places for accounting, business services, financial advisory. And we have tried to build all of them in one place. So our approach is clients, various aspects of business can be catered to in a unified manner versus like go to attorney for something, go to an accountant for something else and go to a different service. And that's our model. So we try to use the word one stop shop sometimes but that does not resonate so well. So we call it integrated service model.

[Diana Ransom]

Got it. I guess it's integrated service model sounds a little higher end than One stop shop I think. When did you realize that this would be the next thing for you? And why this? Because coming from Wall street, why this?

[Anupam Sachishil]

I used to work with very large clients in Wall street. That typically is what you see there. But I have worked for small companies before and my father ran a small business and I always felt that they don't have the same competitive advantage that large companies have. They have access to very high quality service so overall that's the combination of where it came from. Now I don't have a fancy story that one day lightning struck me and I got this idea. No. It was a gaping need in the marketplace and we thought that probably we can make something out of it. Based on our track record so far, it seems that we are making something of it.

[Diana Ransom]

Absolutely. Hitting the inc5008 times. Sure. Sounds like you are. What was your father's business?

[Anupam Sachishil]

He went through a couple of things, but it was mostly in an industrial town in India. Tata is a big name now. The chief person recently passed away, but this is third generation of the leaders. He had metal scrap business. So essentially he used to buy it from large factories and sell it to smaller places, make some margins. That was in 70s, very different world.

[Diana Ransom]

Yeah, absolutely. And would he have benefited from say like an integrated services company like yours?

[Anupam Sachishil]

I guess in those times everyone did everything themselves. Like they knew where their money was, they knew where their tax compliance wasn't even known at that time in India. So I think the world had changed a lot in last 50, 60 years. But I would guess that if his business was existing today, he would have benefited. But in 70s no one cared about these things.

[Diana Ransom]

It wasn't a huge need.

[Anupam Sachishil]

Yeah, the income tax department was known to just go after ultra wealthy people because they had some taxable income. I'm not even sure if tax rules were the same at that time. Pretty sure they were not.

[Diana Ransom]

So who was your first company? What was the first client?

[Anupam Sachishil]

My first client actually was my employer, my previous employer. So in 2000, 2004 I used to work for a technology company. They actually had brought me to us from India and I said I'm starting a business, do you have some work for me? And they said actually we have many things. And that's where truthfully speaking, the idea of integrate came into my mind because on some days I'm solving the ops problem. On a different day I'm looking at their tax efficiency. I was like, yeah, this should be in one place. And we have seen that. So starting with payment processing, to insurance guidance, to raising capital, selling a business, being efficient with taxes, all of them through a group of companies within Arkhams, we have been able to do it pretty well.

[Diana Ransom]

Right. Do the people you work with like your employees? Are they jacks of all trade like you or are they sort of more focused on one service and then you have like other people who are more focused on tax compliance and cybersecurity or whatever it ends up being?

[Anupam Sachishil]

They're all experts. Okay. I joke about my skill set as a mile wide, an inch deep, but they are experts. So they could be a cpa, could be a tax attorney, technology experts, marketing guys. So they have all kinds of skill set. But of course, the leaders need to be a little more diversified.

[Diana Ransom]

Totally.

[Anupam Sachishil]

But four of my partners, they all have different skill set within the business line.

[Diana Ransom]

What's your job entail these days? Like, what do you mainly do?

[Anupam Sachishil]

The subject is your next move. Right. I keep thinking of what is coming through the horizon. What should we actually focus on? What's going to be important in the coming days. So tax credits, for example, have been very popular thanks to the pandemic.

[Diana Ransom]

Absolutely.

[Anupam Sachishil]

And once people get addicted to the free money, they keep looking for it.

[Diana Ransom]

Well, yeah. Yes.

[Anupam Sachishil]

It'll be unsmart, not right for anybody. So we have been building deeper and deeper expertise within tax credit space because about $100 billion, give or take, are available to small medium businesses in tax credit every year. And about 70% of it is not taken every year. That's wild wasted money, right?

[Diana Ransom]

Absolutely. So it tends to be smaller businesses are just unaware that these things exist.

[Anupam Sachishil]

When we talked to them, they were like, I didn't know that exists. How can I get it? We will help you get that money. And it's a good partnership. It's always an easy door opener. Because people are happy to have free money. Yes. And give a share of that to you versus dip into their pockets to pay you for anything.

[Diana Ransom]

Oh, right. So I would imagine part of the selling points for your company are we have the knowledge base that we can help you access different programs or help you access different tools that will help you become exponentially better. Do you do that with all of the different segments that you work with?

[Anupam Sachishil]

Our fees are not like efficiency, savings driven always, but it's always about getting them something for us getting something. So for instance, somebody wants to raise capital.

[Diana Ransom]

Yeah.

[Anupam Sachishil]

And $20 million, we'll say, okay, our fee is going to be two and a half percent and then there's some retainer involved. So those are the most lucrative models that we have. But in general life, we always pay something when the. My favorite way of saying this is then when the value exceeds the price, the deal happens. So whenever the client says, hey, my value is 500,000 and they ask 250k, I will take the deal. So that's typically what our approach is.

[Sarah Lynch]

When we come back. Diana speaks to Anupam about how his company has achieved consistent growth and made the Inc. 5000 list again and again. But first a quick break.

[Diana Ransom]

So what do you obviously landed on the Inc. 5000 for eight of the nine past years. To what do you attribute this growth and consistent growth too.

[Anupam Sachishil]

We have been learning as an organization. We put immense focus on people who are willing to unlearn, relearn and repeat the process over and over. So learning, I would say is the most important thing. I was a single person starting the company and then the leaders who have joined the management, the staff, we try to bring the culture of learning to them that okay, you have to learn something new. You can't just be the person you were a year ago and be worth more in the marketplace.

[Diana Ransom]

So how do you do that? Is there like continuing education for staffers?

[Anupam Sachishil]

Yes. So we have several initiatives. We allocate 3% of people's compensation for their learning budget and they can choose whatever they want to do. They can do a program, certifications, whatever they want to and it should be relevant to their work. If it's not relevant, they want to do something else. In many cases we agree to it, but essentially they spend that money and they get reimbursed. It's as simple as that. Then we have book club. So every quarter there is a book we choose and people get to read it. And there's actually a very fancy way that they conclude. So they make either a video or a news tape or a podcast on the book. And then there's a reward for the best book club summary and it carries $500 of cash prize. So people are really working hard to make the $500.

[Diana Ransom]

What's the best book club presentation you've seen?

[Anupam Sachishil]

Last month actually we had the book being read was the Smartest guys in the Room. You might have heard of it. Then Ron Story and one of our finance guys and one of my partners, David and Rajat, they made that summary. They were supposed to make a newsreel. So it's actually like they start off as anchors and they're reading that. Let's talk about this is what happened. This is how the company went up and they had a commercial break in which they talked about Occam's as no stories, no made up numbers. We provide genuine service. That commercial did it for everybody.

[Diana Ransom]

It was the commercial. I love it.

[Anupam Sachishil]

And they came back and clue it. It was pretty good. Like it seemed like they were actually on television and reading a story.

[Diana Ransom]

Amazing. And what are some other books that you've read in the book club?

[Anupam Sachishil]

Good to great.

[Diana Ransom]

Jim Collins, of course I was actually going to Say good to great.

[Anupam Sachishil]

It read my mind. 7 Habits of Highly effective people influence. We are currently reading Atomic Habits by James Clear which is a phenomenal book Measure what matters.

[Diana Ransom]

Okay yeah.

[Anupam Sachishil]

So typically books which are relevant to but we also try to bring in some story kind of thing like what not to do the Enron story or.

[Diana Ransom]

There was this barbarians at the gate.

[Anupam Sachishil]

That is in the list hasn't happened yet. We had the Spider network, the Libor fixing book and.

[Diana Ransom]

Oh, Libor.

[Anupam Sachishil]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So there's a book on the people who are trying to fix it.

[Diana Ransom]

Oh great. I love this list. I want to read all these books.

[Anupam Sachishil]

There you go. So we have a list.

[Diana Ransom]

Can I join the book club?

[Anupam Sachishil]

Please do. And I'm pretty sure you'll win some prizes.

[Diana Ransom]

I would hope I got some podcasting skills at this point. So obviously you've been growing like gangbusters. But what was the mistake that you made early on that you learned from and how'd you learn from it?

[Anupam Sachishil]

We took the idea of being a one stop shop a bit too far. Some of the service lines we were in that we are not in anymore are contract staffing, digital marketing.

[Diana Ransom]

Okay.

[Anupam Sachishil]

And I think lead generation. One thing to say, I'll do things in an integrated way. But today we say business solutions, professional services, financial services. It's a stream of what we're doing, it's continuous. But if you start doing like you know, provide office cleaning service and office supplies, I mean now it's getting ridiculous. You can see. So we can't win.

[Diana Ransom]

You're like we can't do everything correct.

[Anupam Sachishil]

But those mistakes stakes taught us a lot of things of where not to be. Because contrast staffing is incredibly competitive. And not that we can't win in those places, we win in many of those places. But there are things which we just are naturally good at. This is our skill set and the things which we had to bring in people for and they didn't have the same relationship values or long term plans. But design contract staffing is gig to gig. So how do you have a long term focus? So those are the mistakes we made. And like we got into PNC insurance which is again dog eat dog business realized that there's not enough money in it. Actually we lost a whole bunch of money in it.

[Diana Ransom]

How do you determine something is valuable for you to get into? Is it like do you measure what matters? You can get in there.

[Anupam Sachishil]

Nice, nice, good catch. So we do measure what matters. So we actually read that book and we embraced the OCARE framework But back to the point, it ultimately has to be. We try to be a premium player, not a commodity player. Because there are many services you can go online and just buy, like PNZ insurance. The value add is hard to establish. Like, yes, I'll understand your needs better, I'll give you the best coverage. But eventually there's no real magic to it. The insurance carriers are very powerful. They know what they're doing and they always find ways not to pay when things go really crazy. Ask somebody in Florida. Right now we have Florida office.

[Diana Ransom]

Oh, you do? What happened in Tampa?

[Anupam Sachishil]

Sarasota. We were right in the eye of Milton.

[Diana Ransom]

Oh, geez.

[Anupam Sachishil]

My partner, he lost 70% of maybe 80% of household items because everything got flooded. And everybody's saying, no, not my problem, I'm not going to cover it. Act of God. So again, not a good story in this instance. But in general, we felt that it's hard, difficult to add value in those instances. So we stop being there.

[Diana Ransom]

Right. Do what you do best and trade for the rest kind of thing.

[Anupam Sachishil]

Right, Right. So we like tax credits. Going back to that example is such a nice, clear thing. You didn't know you can qualify for cost segregation or an R and D grade. You already have technology products. You're building things and you're paying taxes. But hey, you can get.

[Diana Ransom]

Yeah. R and D credit. Yeah, do it.

[Anupam Sachishil]

It's a purpose.

[Diana Ransom]

Like winning the lottery.

[Anupam Sachishil]

Exactly. So then that's easier to establish value there.

[Diana Ransom]

Totally. So you said you kind of learn, you were going through the education stipend and then you have the book club. Anything else to sort of prompt continuous growth.

[Anupam Sachishil]

Again, it's a cultural thing. So we have a lot of engagement. We try to bring into people. Now what does it do for us is like when we have leadership meetings Every Tuesday, about 25% people in the company come together on that call. So we ask questions as to why do you do what you do? Like, every time there's a question, which is your favorite book or who is your role model? People are being asked to think about what they do. It's not like mindlessly they show up somewhere and that mindfulness. The quality standards we said the values we follow. Like we have the outcome, six letters. Like ownership, clarity, commitments. We make values and we repeat them. So the culture is such. Where if you come to the work, you are expected to have a certain level of standards. The S is for standards, M is for mindfulness. So we.

[Diana Ransom]

Wow. I love that the name of the company is an acronym.

[Anupam Sachishil]

It was not, but we actually made six values out of that.

[Diana Ransom]

Is it Occam's Razor? Is that.

[Anupam Sachishil]

Yeah, that's where it comes from. The name comes from Occam's Razor. So we made those six values because it's easier to relate to the name of the company. But truth be told, they essentially are seven habits. There's this repositioned, like, you know, he says, be proactive, and we said, have extreme ownership.

[Diana Ransom]

Extreme ownership. I love it. Yeah.

[Anupam Sachishil]

There's a book by the name Extreme Ownership, and that also was in the book club.

[Diana Ransom]

It was in the book club. I love it. Okay, that was great.

[Anupam Sachishil]

Thank you very much.

[Sarah Lynch]

That's all for this episode of youf Next Move. Our producers are Blake Odom and Avery Miles. Editing and sound design by Nick Torres. Executive producer is Josh Christensen. If you haven't already, subscribe to your Next Move on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen, your Next Move is a production of Inc And Capital One Business.