BackThis year will be better for us, says TCS CEO
N. Chandrasekaran talks in an interview about the firm’s new all-women development centre in Riyadh, and West Asia’s potential as a market
Premium(Abhijit Bhatlekar/Mint)
Bangalore: On Tuesday, India’s largest software services provider Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) established a all-women development centre in Riyadh along with Saudi Aramco and conglomerate General Electric Co.
N. Chandrasekaran, who in October will complete four years at the helm of TCS, expects the company to grow faster in 2013-14 fiscal than it did last year and sees the West Asian market as a multi-billion dollar opportunity.
In a telephone interview, Chandrasekaran spoke from Saudi Arabia about the new joint venture, important landmarks for TCS during his tenure and West Asia’s potential as a market. Edited excerpts:
How big an impact will this venture have in the Saudi region?
This (venture) will be part of our global delivery network, run by an all-women workforce. There’s a lot of emotion today at the launch. It’s a historic moment because it’ll make a big impact to the Saudi market primarily because of the women workforce.
Can you share any details on assured business that you will get through this venture?
GE has already assured (us) in terms of people in the BPO to start with. Aramco has also assured some 400-500 (seats) at the BPO. TCS has also started hiring on the ground and we’ll probably launch it after New Year’s (day), sometime in Q4 (fourth quarter). I think it will definitely grow to a few thousand people. The expectation is that it will easily cross 3,000 people.
As we go forward different markets will need different solutions. One is doing IT services, ADM (application development and maintenance), discretionary kind of work; another one is BPO (business process outsourcing). Both from a cultural aspect as well as from a job creation point of view, and socioeconomic aspects, each market will demand a different model.
We have ambitions of doing BPO work for Saudi clients out of India.
This operation will also help us expand into a different set of clients. We may do the technology work in India, but the BPO side in Saudi. If you ask me if the same model will be applicable elsewhere, it probably won’t
What are your expectations from West Asia? Do you think it has the potential to become the next billion dollar market?
Absolutely. Multi-billion dollar.
This October you will complete four years as CEO of TCS. A lot has changed over these four years, both at TCS and in the industry. How do you look back at the important milestones?
We have grown substantially, we have got a platform, we have made the right investments in the current model— in terms of having few service lines, having the global footprint that are scaling. We have emerged from a full-fledged services player to a full-scale stakeholder player. And then we have made investments in terms of non-linear initiatives, several of them. Each one of them is growing at a remarkable scale. In the next few years, that will be a big advantage.
How do you balance your current battles with your future bets?
There are opportunities in the current model which can give you scale. Technology is changing and digital re-imagination is the biggest opportunity that is going to come— digital software as well as digital services. We’re looking at three different types of software—digital software, horizontal software and vertical domain software. Social, cloud, mobility, Big Data, analytics will continue to be big opportunities.
As far as demand for services is concerned, what is it that you’re seeing in your markets, especially the US and Europe?
The demand environment is quite good: I still maintain that. (We have made) investments in terms of optimization simplification as well as digital re-imagination in addition to compliance and risk, so I think in the digital area, we are looking at momentum.
Demand is good—both for (cost) optimization and change the business (transformation projects).
And do you still maintain that this year could be better than last?
Yes, I’m sticking to that.
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