Retail Insight Network spoke with Cognizant head of products and resources Rohit Gupta to find out how the demise of these large retail empires will affect the rest of the retail industry and what lessons can be learned.

Professional services company Cognizant announced today a series of new corporate social responsibility initiatives, including a commitment of $250 million towards efforts to advance economic mobility, educational opportunity, diversity and inclusion, and health and well-being in communities around the world.

Beginning in 2021, Cognizant said that it would expand grant-making in the US and India to new global markets where the company is growing its operations, including Australia, Canada, Germany, and the UK.

As a retention strategy, Cognizant has enhanced its leave policy by increasing the number of annual paid leaves and the company will provide an option for employees to work from home or office, or choose a combination of the two, subject to client approvals and security clearances.

By continually assuring the currency, accuracy, and relevancy of business-critical data and analytics models, organisations can better anticipate and solve whatever market and environmental challenges they may encounter. However, perishable data and analytics models make it much harder to predict and respond to unexpected events.

Negative news about the new post-Brexit challenges for the UK’s financial services currently dominates headlines. The market structure is still far from settled ahead of upcoming talks between the UK and the EU on equivalence.

Cognizant has stepped up its hiring efforts for both freshers and lateral hires in the country and expect the number of new recruits in the March quarter to be “more than ever,” Cognizant India Chairman and managing Director Rajesh Nambiar said.

Cognizant India hired more than 17,000 fresh graduates from campuses in 2020 and expects to hire over 23,000 fresh graduates in 2021—indicating a 35% increase year-on-year.

The insurance industry is on the cusp of having its entire lifecycle reimagined as the shift to digital accelerates. From product development and underwriting, customer engagement and self-service, to claims and fraud detection, digital transformation is impacting every step in the insurance value chain.

The B2B2C, or business-to-business-to-consumer, model has seen a huge jump in demand after the COVID-19 outbreak disrupted operations of businesses globally.