In India a new type of advisory is coming up, one that is as business-like, as entrepreneurial, as geopolitical and as old as the hills.
In an information-rich but clarity-poor world, decision makers, from well-established business leaders to aspiring entrepreneurs and professionals at turning points in their careers, are looking for advice that is more than the textbook routine. They desire actionable advice that can work now and grow in the future and that fits their unique personality.
This is exactly the space Sumit Peer Advisory (sumitpeer.com) has been filling – quietly but surely, for the last few years. The advisory has made an impression with its unique founder Sumit Peer’s guidance framework, which insiders describe as being “three dimensional” in nature — or looking at every decision on three parallel layers.
The majority of advisory relationships are one dimensional – typically the immediate. Sumit Peer Advisory is unique in its approach to look into every problem through three perspectives at once.
The X-Axis – What must be done now. This is the dimension of “in the moment.” The tactical, the urgent and the firefight. Which of the following is the next valid move? What should be done this quarter, this month, this week? In this context, Sumit Peer’s years of corporate leadership experience, holding key roles in highly competitive sectors with decisions to be made under conditions of incomplete information, time constraints and consequences, come into play.
The Y-Axis — What should be built with a long-term vision. This is a dimension of architecture. It demands not what you have to do today, but who you’re becoming. What is the ten year arc? What skills, connections and tools do you need to be developing behind the scenes now to ensure that your future is shaped in your favour? Building a business on their own and learning the hard truths of patience gives this axis a rare authenticity as a Sumit has been through it all as an entrepreneur.
The Z-Axis — What is in line with your planetary chart, with your grahs, with your inner blueprint. It is the dimension most modern advisors can’t quite admit, but is most commonly desired by clients in private. This dimension is based on the traditional Vedic approach, where the planetary positions and the grahas (planets) along with the personal cosmic map each one of us carries are considered and thus it is ensured that what is written on paper is in accordance with the energetic constitution of the person carrying it out. Plans without this axis tend to stall, plans with this axis tend to flow.
“Most advisors give you a plan, fewer give you a vision and almost none ask whether the plan is good for the personality sitting across the table, when he/she is poised to undertake it. A brilliant strategy executed by the wrong personality, at the wrong time in his/her chart is a guaranteed setback. I won’t give advice that doesn’t take into account all three dimensions,” says Sumit Peer.
Takes another look at that common assumption. Challenges that common assumption. The uniqueness of Sumit Peer’s life gives him credibility on all three counts. There are not many advisors who can boast that they have lived multiple full chapters — and lived them well.
He held C-level corporate executive positions for nearly twenty five plus years, with a track record for sound decision making and results-focused leadership. He then went on to do some entrepreneurial work, in which the psychology is very different, from start to finish, raising capital, and surviving cycles.
In more recent times, however, he has become a trusted geopolitical commentator and expert, giving regular inputs on the overall shift of power, regional dynamics and macro forces that impact on every Indian boardroom, whether acknowledged or not. It’s this combination of the corporate operator, the founder, the geopolitical thinker, and the student of traditional wisdom that imparts a unique feel to the advisory.
“I think that 21st century geopolitics is no longer a foreign-policy topic, it’s a topic that’s on the quarterly board agenda: supply chains, currency, talent, regulation — it’s all downstream of geopolitics these days. When I’m advising my client on what to do next, I’m not just looking at their P&L, I’m thinking about the world that their P&L is going to operate in three years down the line,” Sumit says.
The most positive way of highlighting the quality of the advisory is how it has developed. No marketing machine, no surfeit of paid material, no influencer push. The practice has grown almost entirely by repeat clients and word of mouth — which is more characteristic of an old world family doctor than a modern consultancy. Customers come back for second, third and fourth books. They send their friends, their co-founders, their successors.
A lot of the latest enquiries come in through one sentence, uttered at a dinner party, “You need to have a chat with Sumit ji once. “If someone walks out of a session with me and the way forward is not clearer, sharper, and more honest than when they came in, I failed. And I don’t take on clients that I can’t genuinely help, and I don’t run sessions that I haven’t prepared for in a very deep way — I think clients can tell. I think that’s why they come back, and I think that’s why they send the people they love.”
The Spectrum of Advisory—From the Boardroom to the Living Room is what sets Sumit Peer Advisory apart is its conscious effort to not categorise human life into distinct compartments. When a founder marries, their fundraising is impacted. When a teenager is confused, a CEO parent’s focus is affected. Fewer things are as simple as a passport question as migration decisions involve career, finances, family, identity and timing.
The advisory thus covers a rather broad spectrum, from individual to corporate:
Life Advisory — designed for people in the midst of big life changes, second innings, or mid-life pivots.
Business Advisory — to promoters, founders and leadership teams at the scale, succession, restructuring, pivot, partnership or exit stage.
Personal Advisory — for those who want to find out more about who they are, what they are here for, how they want to live, and the deeper “why” of their decisions.
Professional Advisory — for senior executives and specialists dealing with internal politics, reputation building, leadership transitions and influence.
Career Advisory — for professionals at inflexion points: changing industries, going freelance, re-entering the workforce or planning for the next decade.
Financial Advisory — for those and families with wealth posture, asset philosophy, risk appetite and intergenerational planning (in a strategic, non-product driven approach).
Relationship Advisory — for clients facing marital or partnership decisions, co-founder tensions or family fault-lines.
Parenting Advisory — for parents of teens and young adults looking to help guide their education, career and emotional development without leaving behind “legacy scripts.
Career, financial, geopolitical and personal-alignment considerations were all explored together in Migration Advisory — for individuals and families considering relocation, second residency, global citizenship pathways and/or international business expansion.
“A person is not a department. You can’t solve their career without knowing what’s going on with their marriage, or counsel their business without knowing what’s going on with their kid. That’s why I won’t narrow my focus.” The same three rules — what to do now, what to build for the future, and what your chart suggests — holds true for a merger and a migration, for a parenting challenge and for a partnership controversy, Sumit says.
The Advisory Clientele is carefully selected. It encompasses founders who want to raise growth capital or are considering an exit; senior individuals at a career crossroads; family offices outlining the next generation’s trajectory; corporates seeking advice on leadership, geopolitical risk and organisational direction; and individuals and families who are looking to gain clarity for key personal, relational or cross-border transitions. Sessions are usually individual, time-limited and goal oriented.
Client walks in with a question. They walk away with a plan for all three axes — what to do now, what to build for the long arc and what is in their own cosmic and personal grain.
While today’s description of “premium” is more of a marketing term, Sumit Peer Advisory’s definition is closer to the original word: something more rare, more carefully constructed, more durable. No boilerplate deck, no junior associate, no recycled framework. Every meeting is individual, thought out and private. “Premium is not about price, it’s about precision. It’s about the client feeling the advice that they received could not have come from anywhere else and could not have been given to anyone else.” That type of bespoke clarity, that is what I am trying to conserve with each session, Sumit concludes.
In a world where everyone is weary of clichés and is looking for counsel that caters to all three aspects of their reality, Sumit Peer Advisory is one of the few rooms that holds the immediate, the visionary and the cosmic in the same light.
To learn more or to request a private advisory session, visit www.sumitpeer.com.
Sessions are confidential and tailored to each individual client.
