Financial Chronicle: Executive Vice Chairman of Cognizant India Outlines the Company’s Growth Strategy

“We are in the midst of a once-in-a-decade shift in the technology landscape,” says R Chandrasekaran. “This shift is propelled by a confluence of technologies — social, mobile, analytics and cloud or “SMAC”. In addition, developments in areas such as sensor technologies, the internet of things, machine learning and 3D printing will further disrupt the status quo in many industries. These technologies are enabling our clients to reimagine and redesign part or all of their business models and become digital businesses.”

As clients grapple with the dual mandate of improving current business performance, while investing in technology-based innovation for future growth, Chandrasekaran says the company’s “run better, run different” approach in 2013 helped clients address their dual mandate and was central to many of the company’s digital transformation engagements with clients. “Going forward, in continuing to work with clients to design, build and operate digital businesses, our range of integrated capabilities across advisory and consulting services, industry-specific business processes, and at-scale technology and service operations, together with our culture of innovation and agility, positions us well as a strong transformation partner to our clients in 2014 and beyond,” he says.

On the company’s growth strategy in Europe, he says, “The overall European IT services market is roughly the same size as the North American IT services market, yet the penetration of the global-delivery model in Europe is currently a fraction of that in North America. As such, Europe merits our continued focus and investment. We continue to focus on building local teams on the ground across key markets in Europe to address the specific needs of European clients. We are also systematically ensuring that we have the capability to deliver the full range of Cognizant service offerings in discrete European markets to meet client demand.”

“During the past two decades,” he adds, “we have successfully navigated several economic and business cycles and seamlessly transitioned between several technology shifts. We have done this through an expansion of our services and geographical footprint, but more importantly, by developing enduring characteristics and values such as our client-first approach, empowered teams, and an ability to keep challenging the status quo by reinvesting and reinventing for the future.”

Chandrasekaran says, “We shall continue to focus on organic growth and do strategic tuck-under acquisitions to help expand our geographic footprint, complement and enhance our solutions spectrum, and strengthen our domain, consulting or analytics capability. Our strategy is to acquire for “capability” and not capacity. The idea is to enhance our depth and sophistication in key markets, while preserving our unique culture that both clients and associates expect of us.”

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