The 2019 Rising Stars of the Profession: Ardhendu S. Acharya

Age: 33

Ardhendu S. Acharya pursued his MBA with the goal of joining the consulting profession. Since then, he's worked to deliver value-add, actionable recommendations to clients. "This has helped me establish myself as a trusted advisor for my clients and I am very proud of this," Cognizant's Acharya says. "At this point in my career as I step into strategic pursuit management, I take pride in the network and strong relationships I have cultivated throughout my career."

He says his success so far can be attributed to a combination of factors, including a very committed client-first outlook, a practical results-oriented approach, a continuous learning mindset and most importantly, the ability to motivate team members' best contributions on engagements.

"The diverse and dynamic nature of consulting brings with it a degree of ambiguity," Acharya says. "The excitement and satisfaction of applying original "first principles" thinking to build and deliver well-grounded, actionable solutions to solve new problems has always appealed to me the most."

Working in a consulting organization that provides end-to-end solutions from strategy to implementation, he says he's had the pleasure of seeing most of these solutions take shape. It is an incredible feeling to witness fruition firsthand as clients succeed, and drive measurable change and growth.

Acharya says a seasoned former consultant and C-suite banking leader advised him on sustaining a healthy work-life balance, saying: "Betterment and constant improvement is a life-long journey, do not burden it with perfectionism."

He also received advice from a mentor on how to deal with ambiguous opportunities. He said, "Think of complex assignments as fun and challenging coursework, a contagious, positive thought framework to approach such assignments head-on."