Mint: Cognizant Chairman Talks About the Company’s Strong People and Client Focus, Proactive Market Approach, and the Dangers of Living in a Safe Zone

John E. Klein, Chairman, Cognizant

“Ever since I have been involved with [Cognizant], we’ve never changed our fundamentals of putting our people first. We hire the best talent and train them in not just technology, but on our DNA, which means putting the customer first, and understanding our ethics. In our company, we don’t tolerate egos very well,” says John E. Klein.

“One of our strengths over time has been to not react to the market, but anticipate the market,” Klein notes. “We anticipated the importance of having a strong front-end machine and adding the consulting capability, which served us very well.”

He adds, “I think we have enough experience on the board to say that if we don’t fail, we are not trying hard enough. If you live in a safe zone your whole life it is not going to be exciting.”

Klein says that Cognizant spends a lot of time creating a knowledge and talent base in the company to fill slots and keep the DNA. “But we are not naïve enough to believe we have all the answers. When we make an assessment that we want to be in a new area where we may not have the expertise, without any hesitation we will go to the marketplace to bring that person.”

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