Synovate has roped in two industry senior honchos - Naresh Priyadarshi and Manoj John - who would form the apex team for Business Consulting in South Asia.

Priyadarshi, an alumnus of IIM-A, joins from American Express with earlier stints in Ernst & Young, AF Ferguson and John has earlier worked with Frost & Sullivan and Feedback Consulting.

Synovate Business Consulting has been providing market and competitive intelligence-based strategic advice since 1991 in Asia essentially comprising market opportunity analysis, market profiles and sizing, distribution and value-chain consulting, competitive intelligence, key account profiling, market feasibility and market entry strategy, partner evaluation and selection.

In India, the company's initial thrust would be on Fortune 500 companies in the growth oriented sectors like telecom, biotech, pharma/ healthcare, insurance, IT and ITES, financial services, retail, manufacturing and industry, petroleum and gases, logistics etc. The company will also be stressing on offering advisory services to large infrastructure and government clients.

Says Priyadarshi, "Our strong network in all Asia Pacific countries; the ready availability of local expertise and industry insights would aid Indian companies, contemplating a foray into these markets."

So how does Synovate leverage its services? "Synergising consulting and strategic competencies with market research expertise; Synovate USP lies in its business intelligence expertise and ability to offer accurate, timely and research-based consulting," explained Priyadarshi.

"Most companies in this domain provide business advisory services, using secondary research and limited primary research," added John.