Thomas Kuruvilla
Managing Partner
Board of directors
Head of Arthur D. Little Middle East & India
Thomas has a proven track record of creating value as a trusted advisor to telecom players, public sector organizations and family conglomerates on growth strategy, organization transformation & national regulations management.
Areas of Focus
Education
Melbourne Business School (Australia)
MBA Strategy & Finance
Asian Institute of Management (Philippines)
MBA Strategy & Finance
Kerala University, TKM College of Engineering (India)
Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering
Past Experience
Larsen & Toubro (1990–1995)
Customer Services, Control and Automation Division
Indian Air Force (1990)
Selected as a Pilot Officer
Country Grouping
Thomas is Managing Partner of Arthur D. Little Middle East & India as well as a member of the Board of Directors. He serves telecom operators, ministries and other public organizations, and family conglomerates.
Since joining Arthur D. Little in 1998, Thomas has been actively involved in complex strategy development, organization design and transformation projects across the Middle East and South East Asia to deliver significant and tangible impact – not just for his clients but also at a wider, national level.
His passion and commitment for providing the best value on all his projects acts as a key guiding principle for the entire office.
Prior to joining Arthur D. Little, Thomas worked at Larsen & Toubro as an Industrial Automation Engineer. He was also selected as a Pilot Officer with the Indian Air Force.
In addition to consulting, Thomas regularly teaches various management courses (International Business Strategy, Family Conglomerate strategy & Strategy Consulting) at different MBA schools across the globe.
Outside work, Thomas spends time on natural (not organic) farming and Ayurvedic plants.
Web3 & Metaverse — The rise of the new Internet & the India opportunity
Metaverse and Web3 are often used as umbrella terms for the next generation of the Internet, and the transformation they signify presents both a challenge and an opportunity for India. While some remain skeptical, we believe Metaverse and Web3 will lead the frontiers of the next wave of digital adoption for Indian industries. This Viewpoint explores the market potential of this next version of the Internet across different industries in India and gives an overview of the early use cases tested by industries in India and across the globe.
Reimagining India’s supply chain
Corp-up as a driver of corporate innovation in the Middle East
Corp-up collaboration is the key to quick, effective innovation for the region
INDIA: Surmounting the economic challenges of COVID-19
The Company of Tomorrow
The COVID-19 crisis hit the world as this edition of Prism was in preparation. Needless to say, the outlook for business, at least in the short term, has changed radically in just a few weeks. Nevertheless, it’s becoming increasingly clear that one effect of the crisis has been acceleration of trends that were already there, such as virtualization of the workplace, further penetration of digital technologies (for example, AI and the IoT), and “asset-light” business models that make businesses more responsive and resilient to rapid shocks.
Converging on the Future
Convergence seems to be everywhere in the business world these days. It covers a wide range of factors which can come together to change the status quo in an industry or value chain. Think of food and healthcare in functional foods, or telecoms and energy in smart grids. Digital technology has been a huge enabler of convergence.
Sense of Purpose
From time to time concepts that, at first sight, seem quite old fashioned suddenly get a new lease of life. For example, open innovation has been around for decades, but it’s come to the fore again in recent years in the context of converging industries, start-up collaborations and the rise of the innovation ecosystem.
With the Internet of Things (IoT) every- where, can regulation be far behind?
The IoT ecosystem is expected to grow rapidly in the next few years, with mainstream deployment already prevalent across many vertical industries. Increased IoT penetration across use cases poses unique challenges for ICT policy-makers and regulators beyond traditional telecom-focused regulatory topics such as spectrum, numbering, and roaming. The complexity and scale of the IoT brings increased focus on elements such as the safety of various stakeholders, new business models, data security and privacy.
Samena Trends
Telecom operators have a real opportunity to reduce operational costs by 30-40% whilst improving service quality and customer satisfaction.This is primarily achieved by reducing / eliminating operational complexities accumulated during the growth phase and digitalizing the operations.
Diversification in the Era of Convergence
Corporations have pursued diversification strategies for decades as a means by which to create long-term value and achieve sustained growth. Historically, companies such as General Electric diversified via inorganic acquisitions1, in;addition to investing heavily in R&D programs. We characterize these traditional diversification investment models as “Acquire” and “Invent”:
Urban mobility – Learnings from the Middle East
The Middle East may have been late to urbanization, but this has provided a unique opportunity to shape its urban-mobility strategies. Rather than adopting a piecemeal approach, leaders such as Dubai are following an ecosystem model that addresses mobility holistically. In this article, the authors explain this new model and the lessons it provides for other cities across the world as they struggle to meet their own urban-mobility challenges.
The OTT conundrum for MENA telecoms
In this Arthur D. Little regional telecom report we aim to provide a nuanced view of the growth patterns within the MENA region, as well as deconstruct the growth to its underlying reasons in four key markets. An important focus area is the threat of core revenue disruption by over-the top (OTT) players in messaging, voice and video. On the surface, there exists a deceptive view of homogeneity for the South Asia, Middle East and North Africa region, and for especially the subregions of Middle East and North Africa (MENA), such that these markets appear very similar.
Feed the Lion
The African continent is seeing rapid economic growth, coupled with a substantial increase in middle-class population and disposable income levels. Global companies are eyeing the African market for future growth and investing accordingly, especially in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) segment. For companies planning to enter/expand in Africa, the key is to look beyond the obvious and invest in emerging economies in the African continent for sustained growth.
Primium – business models for a privacy-conscious world
Today’s Internet users expect many services to be free of charge. In the current business model intermediaries provide a free service to users, and in exchange they are allowed unfettered access and full control over user data. In a Freemium model, the user pays for enhanced features, the most common being the absence of advertisements. In this article the authors lay out the idea of another business model, “Primium” digital services in which customers pay more, but have control over privacy of their data.
Leading for Safety
Businesses everywhere are seeing their safety performance plateauing. Busy agendas and behavioral drivers frequently mean that energies for further safety improvement initiatives are diverted elsewhere. Beyond the moral and legal imperative to protect life and limb, safety is a robust metric for highlighting the financial health of operations - there is money to be made in safety – and also to be lost. The increasing focus on the role of leadership for delivering effective safety is clear. By leadership we’re talking of what leaders do and how leaders behave.
Thomas is Managing Partner of Arthur D. Little Middle East & India as well as a member of the Board of Directors. He serves telecom operators, ministries and other public organizations, and family conglomerates.
Since joining Arthur D. Little in 1998, Thomas has been actively involved in complex strategy development, organization design and transformation projects across the Middle East and South East Asia to deliver significant and tangible impact – not just for his clients but also at a wider, national level.
His passion and commitment for providing the best value on all his projects acts as a key guiding principle for the entire office.
Prior to joining Arthur D. Little, Thomas worked at Larsen & Toubro as an Industrial Automation Engineer. He was also selected as a Pilot Officer with the Indian Air Force.
In addition to consulting, Thomas regularly teaches various management courses (International Business Strategy, Family Conglomerate strategy & Strategy Consulting) at different MBA schools across the globe.
Outside work, Thomas spends time on natural (not organic) farming and Ayurvedic plants.
Web3 & Metaverse — The rise of the new Internet & the India opportunity
Metaverse and Web3 are often used as umbrella terms for the next generation of the Internet, and the transformation they signify presents both a challenge and an opportunity for India. While some remain skeptical, we believe Metaverse and Web3 will lead the frontiers of the next wave of digital adoption for Indian industries. This Viewpoint explores the market potential of this next version of the Internet across different industries in India and gives an overview of the early use cases tested by industries in India and across the globe.
Reimagining India’s supply chain
Corp-up as a driver of corporate innovation in the Middle East
Corp-up collaboration is the key to quick, effective innovation for the region
INDIA: Surmounting the economic challenges of COVID-19
The Company of Tomorrow
The COVID-19 crisis hit the world as this edition of Prism was in preparation. Needless to say, the outlook for business, at least in the short term, has changed radically in just a few weeks. Nevertheless, it’s becoming increasingly clear that one effect of the crisis has been acceleration of trends that were already there, such as virtualization of the workplace, further penetration of digital technologies (for example, AI and the IoT), and “asset-light” business models that make businesses more responsive and resilient to rapid shocks.
Converging on the Future
Convergence seems to be everywhere in the business world these days. It covers a wide range of factors which can come together to change the status quo in an industry or value chain. Think of food and healthcare in functional foods, or telecoms and energy in smart grids. Digital technology has been a huge enabler of convergence.
Sense of Purpose
From time to time concepts that, at first sight, seem quite old fashioned suddenly get a new lease of life. For example, open innovation has been around for decades, but it’s come to the fore again in recent years in the context of converging industries, start-up collaborations and the rise of the innovation ecosystem.
With the Internet of Things (IoT) every- where, can regulation be far behind?
The IoT ecosystem is expected to grow rapidly in the next few years, with mainstream deployment already prevalent across many vertical industries. Increased IoT penetration across use cases poses unique challenges for ICT policy-makers and regulators beyond traditional telecom-focused regulatory topics such as spectrum, numbering, and roaming. The complexity and scale of the IoT brings increased focus on elements such as the safety of various stakeholders, new business models, data security and privacy.
Samena Trends
Telecom operators have a real opportunity to reduce operational costs by 30-40% whilst improving service quality and customer satisfaction.This is primarily achieved by reducing / eliminating operational complexities accumulated during the growth phase and digitalizing the operations.
Diversification in the Era of Convergence
Corporations have pursued diversification strategies for decades as a means by which to create long-term value and achieve sustained growth. Historically, companies such as General Electric diversified via inorganic acquisitions1, in;addition to investing heavily in R&D programs. We characterize these traditional diversification investment models as “Acquire” and “Invent”:
Urban mobility – Learnings from the Middle East
The Middle East may have been late to urbanization, but this has provided a unique opportunity to shape its urban-mobility strategies. Rather than adopting a piecemeal approach, leaders such as Dubai are following an ecosystem model that addresses mobility holistically. In this article, the authors explain this new model and the lessons it provides for other cities across the world as they struggle to meet their own urban-mobility challenges.
The OTT conundrum for MENA telecoms
In this Arthur D. Little regional telecom report we aim to provide a nuanced view of the growth patterns within the MENA region, as well as deconstruct the growth to its underlying reasons in four key markets. An important focus area is the threat of core revenue disruption by over-the top (OTT) players in messaging, voice and video. On the surface, there exists a deceptive view of homogeneity for the South Asia, Middle East and North Africa region, and for especially the subregions of Middle East and North Africa (MENA), such that these markets appear very similar.
Feed the Lion
The African continent is seeing rapid economic growth, coupled with a substantial increase in middle-class population and disposable income levels. Global companies are eyeing the African market for future growth and investing accordingly, especially in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) segment. For companies planning to enter/expand in Africa, the key is to look beyond the obvious and invest in emerging economies in the African continent for sustained growth.
Primium – business models for a privacy-conscious world
Today’s Internet users expect many services to be free of charge. In the current business model intermediaries provide a free service to users, and in exchange they are allowed unfettered access and full control over user data. In a Freemium model, the user pays for enhanced features, the most common being the absence of advertisements. In this article the authors lay out the idea of another business model, “Primium” digital services in which customers pay more, but have control over privacy of their data.
Leading for Safety
Businesses everywhere are seeing their safety performance plateauing. Busy agendas and behavioral drivers frequently mean that energies for further safety improvement initiatives are diverted elsewhere. Beyond the moral and legal imperative to protect life and limb, safety is a robust metric for highlighting the financial health of operations - there is money to be made in safety – and also to be lost. The increasing focus on the role of leadership for delivering effective safety is clear. By leadership we’re talking of what leaders do and how leaders behave.
More About Thomas
- Melbourne Business School (Australia)MBA Strategy & Finance
- Asian Institute of Management (Philippines)MBA Strategy & Finance
- Kerala University, TKM College of Engineering (India)Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering
- Larsen & Toubro (1990–1995)Customer Services, Control and Automation Division
- Indian Air Force (1990)Selected as a Pilot Officer