The global Athena Infonomics’ team recently descended upon Goa, India to participate in a multi-day retreat and finally meet our colleagues and advisors across Athena’s India, U.S., U.K., and Sub-Saharan Africa offices. In this meeting of minds, set against the stunning beaches of Goa, team members deliberated on Athena’s vision for growth and the actions to achieve it.

A key priority was to have the team review and weigh in on Athena’s 2030 vision: to be a global impact solutions group with a growing matrix structure that spans geographies, sectors, and services, while continuing to deliver impact through quality insights and analysis. This is ambitious, but considering Athena’s modest beginnings in Chennai, India leading to a compound annual growth rate of 40% over our 12-year existence, the team has grown accustomed to ambition.

Co-founder Vijay Bhalaki shares, “Being a bootstrapped company, which started and grew from a low-middle income country, we deal with a set of unique constraints. However, this very identity helps us stand out from the rest of the industry. A large percentage of our workforce has a decent understanding of what it takes to make things work despite structural barriers (social, economic, political, and environmental, etc.). We want to champion this identity meaningfully.”

Obstacles: Finding (and Keeping) the Right People for the Job

At Athena Infonomics, our mission involves assisting our clients in solving important growth and development problems that are often systemic and complex. We are constantly aspiring to maximize value for our stakeholders (not shareholders). This context often holds a tension, where the highest-impact opportunities don’t necessarily pay the highest price. How do we build business models that support both?

Athena’s unique business model centers on bringing people together who can hold this tension, delivering the highest-quality solutions with key stakeholders at the heart of every effort of work. Athena must look across industries and markets to innovate new solutions, growing our community of colleagues while still delivering the same quality service to our clients.

“Our people are the core of Athena’s strength and brilliance,” reflects Helen V. Chou, Athena’s Director of People and Strategy. “Every team member has a passion to make a difference in the communities they work in. Athena endeavors to continue providing the platform that can launch their passion and lead to tangible outcomes.”

Solutions: Making Our Vision a Reality

Despite the obstacles that Athena and many other growing businesses face, the organization has mapped out a clear plan for this vision.

• We intend to build our position as a globally respected and preferred impact solutions partner by prioritizing personalized and integrated customer experiences through efficiencies in our business model, while continuing to leverage technology and data sciences.
• We seek to address global challenges relating to human development, climate change, and economic growth. Athena recognizes that global issues are primarily local issues. We can provide meaningful solutions by furthering our strong academic linkages and connections with both public- and private-sector networks.
• To support technical and leadership capacities across the globe, Athena aims to pursue a “network model,” powered by a lean, efficient core of central functions that serves as a springboard for a network of entrepreneurial leaders to launch and grow their vision in different markets.
• The above points can only be realized though a strong corporate culture and people-management that attracts and retains talent.

Our vision is indeed ambitious, and the steps needed to realize this vision are numerous, but Athena Infonomics is in a strong position to grow in size and scale while remaining focused on the communities that we serve.