Rising Stars of the Profession 2021: Angad Karunan

Angad is the Business Technology Capability Lead for the New Delhi office, leading an over 1000 member team. He is the youngest to take on the role. He has successfully led multiple large-scale tech implementations consistently with different clients across the globe and was promoted to Associate Principal last year.

He leads the R&D Technology team for one of our large Pharma clients, and has grown the team from 10 members to 125+ within a span of 2.5 years, with many successful deliveries and looking forward to further growth. The revenue growth of this team has been close to 100% YOY each year for the last 2 years.

Angad is known as a great team lead and mentor. During this growth he has also been able to maintain very high engagement and motivation within the team. There is great team bonding in spite of remote working over the last 15 months. In the annual health check scores the team scored a high 70+ engagement score consistently for the last 2 years (80+ the prev year).

When asked about the biggest factor in his success so far, Angad notes, "For me undoubtedly it is the focus on my team members and their individual success. While we work on hectic projects at ZS with tight deadlines, I ensure to maintain a close connection with the team and have them have full confidence that I have their back. This I believe gives the extra nudge for them to work with full accountability. I myself have worked with many great leads over the years, and I would go an extra mile to help any of them if they ask for help (even if I am not directly involved), and I believe many team members would be happy to do the same for an initiative or a project lead by a great leader. I always aspire to be the lead my team loves working with."

"There are many things that have kept me happy in the consulting industry for over a decade," says Angad. "With ZS working primarily in the healthcare sector, my experience has been with Pharma companies only. But each project has its own set of challenges with learnings along the way and also gives great satisfaction at the end when you meet the objectives. I also enjoy the freedom I get to grow my team the way I would like to grow the business with our client, while also getting the required support and 'safety net' of the organization. Even being in India there is a strong connection with the clients, and we work closely with them on the business challenges. Helps us understand the 'Why' we are doing what we do."

Agad's proudest achievement to date, "Was being recognized as the New Delhi Business Technology Capability Lead and lead a team of over 1000 members; the role was held until then by more senior members, I was given the opportunity to lead the team over many other folks more tenured than me at the time."

"The best advice was given to me by my then Manager Pankaj Singhal (now a Principal/ Partner in the Pune office of ZS Associates), says Angad. "We often undermine the freedom we have, and do not experiment enough or take risks; and thereby limit our growth (or pace of it). Feel free to take charge of your team like the CEO of a small firm. As long as you 'do the right thing' it would be fine."

What would this recognition mean to you?

"It would be a validation, acknowledgment and recognition of my efforts to focus on each member of my team and their individual success while we grow together as a team."