TESTIMONIAL 

Naresh Sethi 

• Chairman, VST Industries

• Former Executive Board Director (Business and Digital Transformation), British American Tobacco

Anqi Guo is an excellent reverse mentor and digital coach. She helped me make strategic choices during my role as an Executive Board Director of BAT managing Business and Digital transformation. Having worked with numerous consultants from many firms, I am most impressed by Anqi and her unique approaches to business analysis and coaching. 

In 2018 I took on the challenge of digital transformation for BAT globally, I felt BAT urgently needed some fresh perspectives and imagination. In order to do this, I went on a learning journey speaking to various technology companies and consulting firms. I felt, while they were ‘theoretically correct’, there were some key links missing. This was the vacuum that Anqi filled. Our first very first discussion went from a planned 30-minutes meeting to a 2-hour intellectual exchange. Even before the first meeting ended, I already asked for the next one to be scheduled.

In the following months, Anqi took me on a whirlwind tour to discuss disruptive business models around the world. Her unique approach to business analysis demonstrated best in class consulting practices. Rather than following a prescriptive text-book approach, Anqi showed me what was at the core of consumer needs and how disruptive unicorn companies build their success around those needs in an interactive way. She drew relevance from seemingly unrelated fields to inspire ideas and identify growth opportunities for BAT. I was thoroughly impressed by her wealth of cross industry knowledge, from e-commerce to fintech, and her eloquent and engaging way in explaining her insights. It was invaluable to get inside her head, and this gave ideas to how I steered strategy and make strategic choices for BAT going forward. To this day, I have still kept the notes I took from our mentoring sessions where she lit up lightbulbs in my head.

Anqi often comes up in my conversations with colleagues for the lasting impact she created, and I won’t hesitate to recommend her to other executives who need coaching. If you are a student trying to break into the world of consulting or work for top management, you will be very lucky to be coached by Anqi. She will show you how the best consultants operate and let you get a glimpse into the head of top executives.