The 2023 Rising Stars of the Profession: Shankar Balasubramanian

Shankar has more than 12 years' experience and is currently with Cognizant Consulting as a Consulting Manager. Through his career, he has served clients in shaping their digital transformation journeys, with a focus on data modernization and management. He has rich and diverse experience and expertise in the areas of data management, integration, governance, analytics & visualization. Being part of the Technology Modernization practice, Shankar had the opportunity to observe the emergence of the digital revolution and the pivotal role that data plays in shaping business transformations. As a data enthusiast and practitioner, Shankar has also contributed to initiatives (non-projects) aimed at deepening the data-driven decision-making culture across various clients.

Shankar holds a postgraduate diploma in Business Management from Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar (India). When not working, he loves to spend his time traveling.

What would you say has been the biggest factor in your success so far?

The ability to zoom in and out of the problem in quick succession, has been a key factor in my success. While zooming in to a problem is quite essential to unearth the various causes and their corresponding impacts, it is always essential to not lose track of the big picture and the primary objective, through a periodic zoom-out. This helps ensure that we stay within the scope guardrails and not get lost in the way by spending too much time and effort toward a cause that is unlikely to provide commensurate marginal returns. I brought Inside-Out and Outside-In views to win the trust of client and deliver value to the consulting projects.

What do you enjoy most about your career in the consulting industry?

The best part of being in the consulting industry is the variety of exposure one gets, naturally. While the problems may appear similar, the change in the landscape (industry, organizational culture, maturity level, business model etc.) alters multiple variables, sometimes causing the solutions to be radically different. This profession thus keeps a consultant always on their toes. It teaches nimbleness where one must be good in leveraging past learnings and yet adapting them to present circumstances to keep the solution workable

What is your proudest achievement to date?

The proudest achievements would be the ones where one had managed to surpass customer satisfaction and achieve customer delight. While working with a Hospitality client, we were thrown a challenge to help the organization nudge their field sales team to adopt a data driven decision-making process. The leadership was investing to inculcate a culture of data-driven decision-making but were facing challenges in overcoming the entrenched sales processes, driven solely by tribal knowledge. We had only about six months left for the next corporate sales season to begin. Within this timeframe we managed to understand the inhibitors and incentives that would drive the transformation, created an MVP product to deliver the quintessential features to the sales team, in a way they would happily consume and delivered a convincing proposition for the sales team to start adopting the same. It was a fantastic experience, as a lot of it had to do with overcoming psychological barriers

What's the best advice you've ever been given?

During my graduation days, one of the learned professors gave me an advice of a lifetime – "Assumption is the mother of all goof ups. It's better to ask and clarify than assume," which I find very useful in both the professional and personal walks of life, more so in the consulting industry. This sagacious advice not just helps one keep away the inherent biases and prejudices but also keeps the thirst to learn, alive. The problem may be the similar across two entities but the difference in their way of functioning and their culture would demand different solutions. A sense of open mindedness and an ability to listen and learn (and unlearn) are hence critical to providing practical solutions

What does this recognition mean to you?

Being recognized in Consulting Magazine as a Rising Star is undoubtedly one of the biggest recognitions that any budding consultant can dream about. Such recognition is not only a motivator, but I believe will also open up the doors for more professional forums to help one expand one's knowledge and worldview.