The number of comic ‘superhero’ fans and collectors have always been on the rise! Rakesh Dighe and Chaitanya Kunthe (CK) are two such fans who have passionately transformed their teenage fantasies into reality. Being ardent fans of Superhero comics like ‘Phantom – The Ghost Who Walks’ and the ‘Adventures of Tin-Tin’, the duo transformed their ideologies of beating ‘The Bad Guys and Protecting the Vulnerable’ from the pages of these comics into securing the information security of businesses and stakeholders through their brainchild – ‘Risk Quotient’. 

A Story of Inspiration

Rakesh Dighe

It all started in 2007 when Rakesh was eager to test his entrepreneurial skills, after a stint with blue chip corporates in different geographies. He had a burning desire to create a ‘top-notch’ international consultancy practice in Risk Management with a Global Delivery Centre in India. This led him to experiment with Enterprise Risk Management and later concentrate on Technology Risk Management as he could see the immense opportunities in this area in an increasingly connected world.

In 2012, Rakesh set up operations in Singapore and Navi Mumbai for Risk Quotient, offering a suite of consulting services in technology risk management. As the initial Founder & CEO of Risk Quotient Singapore, he quickly realised that his firm would need a strong COO designate with the technical depth of experience and relevant international experience to make a difference in the market. Fortunately, he met CK and in no time signed him up as the COO and Co-Founder of Risk Quotient, thereby sharpening the focus towards information security and business continuity consulting/tools/learning. Rakesh foresees immense potential in this area to scale up Risk Quotient’s Global Delivery Centre in Mumbai, India. The duo has been successfully creating jobs in India with the dual intention of giving back to society and creating a sustainable ‘Make in India’ business model. Rakesh and Chaitanya initially built up a ‘base’ portfolio of clients in the financial services sector of the Mumbai market, which has now extended over the last decade to include a wide selection of industry sectors.

RQ’s Strengths

Trupti Desai

Since the first day of its inception, Risk Quotient has been extremely selective in recruitment of its people at the Global Delivery Centre in Navi Mumbai. Rakesh adds, “Chaitanya has successfully built-up a world class team of 30+ young technical professionals including senior leaders with Big 4 International experience and Big International Banking experience”. The company has also differentiated itself from its Big Four competitors by keeping overheads at a modest level in terms of deploying the ‘work from clients’ concept instead of a brick-and-mortar office for the first few years until an office space became a necessity.

Risk Quotient takes utmost pride in its well-experienced technical team and competitive pricing through its adoption of agile project methodology and reports using web-based tools for tracking and reporting progress in a transparent manner with KPIs and progress tracking dashboards. In a nutshell, a highly skilled and trained team of handpicked professionals with ‘Think.Learn.Innovate’ as one of their core mantras; competitive pricing and low overheads cost model; Customer First and No Bribes Policy; unique & innovative set of consulting services and proprietary tools; and strong ecosystem of strategic partners give Risk Quotient an edge over its competitors in the industry!

One-of-a-Kind Portfolio

Today, Risk Quotient specializes in offering unique consulting services which are not commonly found even among its big competitors. For instance, the company provides tools and services related to ‘Cyber Risk Quantification’ at the Enterprise level for the client’s Board of Directors to set the ‘Tone at the Top’; a fully managed Cyber Security service; assisting cyber insurance companies to assess and quantify cyber risk and exposures associated with a specific client’s technology infrastructure thus enabling better pricing of cyber insurance, and to establish a fully managed 24/7 outsourced service to respond to customers information security setup queries to potential customers. No wonder, Risk Quotient has been receiving compliments from its client prospects and customers for its quick and honest customer service! Customer interaction is handled by its Head of Sales & Marketing and a dedicated and responsive team.

Despite the setbacks during the pandemic in the first half of 2020, Risk Quotient witnessed a surge in demand in information security ‘managed services’ through cyber security management partnerships. Rakesh adds, “Our consulting customers have repeatedly renewed their annual contracts with us and we are signing up larger customers with a large domestic footprint and also some international brand names”. This resounding ‘customer endorsement’ has given Risk Quotient’s Senior Leadership Team the confidence that they have been doing something ‘right’ by their customers. Moreover, RQ’s Head of Consulting, Trupti Desai is always looking for ways to ‘Simplify and Automate’ their clients information security activities using a collection of proprietary tools such that their clients’ operational processes become simple, resilient and efficient to maintain. This way clients can reduce their ‘Total Cost of Ownership of Information Security’ while increasing process efficiency.

Ace Leadership and Business Principles (BP)

Besides practising strong professional ethics, Risk Quotient’s leadership team strictly adheres to ‘RQBP’ which includes business principles such as a ‘No Bribes Policy’ and ‘Customer First’ policies. They also exhibit a ‘Can Do’ spirit which makes for high quality deliverables and enviable proprietary tools to automate and innovate. Speaking of their expertise, the Founder, CEO and Executive Director – Rakesh is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales. He has deep experience in Technology Risk Management in the Global Oil and Gas sector, prior experience with the Big 4 and a passion for entrepreneurship. Chaitanya, Co-Founder, COO & Executive Director, is a highly revered name in the information security community with vast experience in guiding teams of experienced consulting professionals.

Gautam Sashittal, Non-Executive Director, was previously the CEO of the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) and a part of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. Trupti Desai, Head of Consulting, is a young and dynamic cybersecurity professional with over 17 years of experience. Her journey at Risk Quotient has been amazing starting as the first employee in 2012 to the current role as head of the service delivery team of over 30+ experienced consultants. She is excellent at managing implementations in the area of information security, privacy and business continuity frameworks, performing audits, and managing risks.

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The Road Ahead

Risk Quotient has come a long way from its humble origins and is currently extending its innovative web-based SaaS Tools to a JV in Singapore/Malaysia in the highly specialized area of ‘cyber insurance’ with plans of global domination. For the next three years, the company is uniquely positioned to go from strength to strength by exploring new geographies such as West Africa & EU, and innovative tools and services. During this journey, the company aims to stay true to its mantra of ‘Think’, ‘Learn’ and ‘Innovate’ not only in its products and services but also in fairly sharing the rewards with its hand-picked employees with innovative welfare policies and strategic marketing alliances in frontier markets like West Africa.