Senior advisory at the intersection of AI, financial services, and global strategy. 28 years of industry depth. 25 years of Japan market expertise. Advice that is precise, direct, and designed to move organisations forward.
"Most consultants know about your industry. I have lived inside it — and I am not polite about what I find."
Mandar Kulkarni is the Founder and Managing Partner of SHYFT° Advisory. His career spans 28 years in financial services and insurance, including senior leadership roles as Managing Partner at Gartner Consulting and Managing Partner at Accenture — two of the world's most demanding advisory environments.
What makes SHYFT° different is not the breadth of experience — it is the depth. Having spent 25 years working directly inside Japan's most complex corporate environments, Mandar brings a rare fluency: both the analytical rigour of global consulting and the cultural intelligence that Japanese organisations actually trust.
SHYFT° Advisory was founded on a single conviction: that the AI inflection point is not a technology problem. It is a leadership and strategy problem. The organisations that get this right will do so with a partner who has been in the room when the hard decisions were made.
Start a ConversationBetween where your organisation is today and where it needs to be in the AI era. We close that gap with precision, speed, and the credibility that only comes from having done it before.
"We do not tell clients what they want to hear. We tell them what the data, experience, and competitive reality demand they hear."
SHYFT° Advisory operates on the principle that the most valuable advice is the advice that is most uncomfortable to give. Our engagements begin with an honest assessment of where an organisation actually stands — not where it believes it stands.
We bring the rigour of two decades at global consulting firms, the cultural intelligence of 25 years in Japan, and the domain depth of a career spent entirely in financial services. That combination is rare. We use it without apology.
Operating from Pune, SHYFT° Advisory serves India's leading financial institutions, insurance companies, and technology organisations as they navigate AI transformation, regulatory change, and competitive disruption. India is not just where we are based — it is a market we understand at every level.
Japan is not a geography we advise on — it is one we have lived inside. 25 years working directly with Japan's largest financial institutions, insurers, and multinational organisations has produced a level of market fluency that no amount of research can replicate. We understand how decisions are made, not just what decisions look like on paper.
While India and Japan are our deepest markets, SHYFT° Advisory works with organisations wherever the strategic challenge demands our expertise. Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and European financial services organisations are natural adjacencies — and we follow the work, not the geography.
Every significant shift in your competitive environment begins with a decision to seek a clearer view. That conversation starts here.