We sat down with Allen Titto, Principal at ZS’s Pune office to learn about his motivation to help clients, his desire to help people at ZS grow, and work-life balance.
Allen who joined ZS as a consultant in 2009, leads the business consulting capability group in India. Allen built his career around helping clients discover the right insights that help bring products to market and monitor key success factors post-launch. He likes to think of it like a rocket-launch where there's a whole lot of preparation required, in terms of understanding the market and helping teams create all the data points they need.
How does ZS’s Core Purpose - ‘together, we love solving complex problems to help companies and their customers thrive’ resonate with you?
What's interesting to me is the fact that we usually problem-solve alongside our clients and we never follow a “set in stone” procedure. Across all our work, we start with analyzing the client’s problem. We always have a clear point of view on the result, but we work hand-in-hand with them to build a customized solution. I think this combination of deep domain knowledge and the flexibility to customize it for each client is unique to ZS.
“We were in a meeting with a client and she said, “Hey if it was a simple problem, we would have not come to ZS.” I believe that’s what sets us apart. ”
We were in a meeting with a client and she made a comment that has stuck with me. She said, "Hey, if it was a simple problem, we would have not come to ZS." I believe that’s what sets us apart in the client landscape.
Who has been the most influential person in your career at ZS? Why?
At ZS, I've had a lot of senior folks have looked out for me and had a tremendous influence on my career. The list is long, but I want to mention Principal Joachim K. He has had an amazing influence on me as a coach and mentor, guiding me through difficult phases of my ZS career. I think what he helped me realize is that at ZS, as with life, it's always the team that makes you special, not just the work by itself.
I think consulting can be unforgiving at times, so I also appreciate my wife. She's always had a calming influence and her advice has often helped me put things in perspective and carry on.
What is your life like outside of ZS and how do you balance that with your career?
We are blessed with three young boys, so a lot of time outside of ZS is family time. As a family, we love playing board games and cards. I also love football, so something I used to do very regularly before COVID hit, was to go and play on the weekends. I hope I can get back to the grounds sometime soon.
I've not found it much of an issue balancing work and home. I feel I have been largely able to meet commitments in both ways. Of course, sometimes it gets difficult. Thankfully, I have an understanding family. What I try to do is keep the weekends sacred, so I try not to keep any work pending for the weekend, even if it means working late on other days.
When you move on from ZS to the next chapter of your life story, what do you want people to remember about you?
Most importantly, I want to be remembered as someone who grew a strong set of leaders. That would be my way of giving back, for all the mentorship and support I was lucky to receive through my career. I’ve always wanted people to remember me as someone who was never happy with the status quo and someone who helped improve our firm’s capability. I'd take that as well, although the people would be my top focus.
