Business Ideas
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Transition at TCS
he. “TCS has a strong client focus, and we will work towards offering full services (from BPO to IT services) to all our clients, and hence increase our margins. We will also look at new growth markets.” Ramadorai, on his part, believes the transition will make smoother the rough edges in the business. “As you grow, you become more tolerant. You start accepting inefficiencies. Chandrasekaran will now have to be on his own,” he waxes philosophical. He also admits that they are different. “Of course, our styles differ. But he has to make his own choices and accept responsibilities for them. I will not question his daily functioning. I will only be there in an advisory role, and help extensively in brand building, and communicating the TCS story to younger people. But, I reiterate, all this will be in a purely advisory capacity,” says Ramadorai. “I’ve learnt how to stay calm in tough situations from Ramadorai. He leads from the front, is soft-natured but firm. These are values that I would love to imbibe,” adds Chandrasekaran. The road ahead Internally, Chandrasekaran is known for his aggressive and bold vision about the direction that TCS should follow. Given that he’s 46, it is expected that he will have a long tenure. He is building a team that will give the desired momentum to the company in the direction that he seeks. In doing so, he is drawing young talent that is in the age group of 35 to 40 years. This might sow some degree of discord with the current senior management team which has the median age in the 50s, says an analyst who does not wish to be named. Chandra is known for strong orientation on short- to medium-term performance. It is expected that he will move up the performance bar and work closely with the sales team. He’s also likely to address structural issues within TCS. For example, TCS has been known for its staid and bureaucratic pace of work — this is expected to change to fast decision cycles. Also, some of the acquisitions that TCS has done in the past including Tata Infotech and CMC retain slack and have lost direction, note analysts. It is expected that there will be a sharper focus on some of the competencies these firms brought to the table. More importantly, under Chandrasekaran, the enterprise markets, the TCS playground, will see tectonic shifts in the next decade and a half — exactly the tenure that Chandra is likely to serve. New and disparate waves such as cloud computing, the fruition of the opportunities in the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) markets, global warming and the diminishing cost arbitrage in the offshore game as India’s income rises will bring extraordinary challenges and opportunities for companies such as TCS. How will the TCS leadership embrace these challenges and stand to its pedigree is an evolution to watch. Management guru Peter Drucker has pointed out that “no institution can possibly survive if it needs geniuses or supermen to manage it. It must be organised in such a way as to be able to get along under a leadership composed of average human beings.” Chandrasekaran’s task thus is to build an army of leaders. The organisational recast of last year, he hopes, will address the concern. The underlying belief of the reorganisation was that this will increase the number of people in leadership positions. It will become a nursery for future leaders, especially those who harbour growth ambitions in the company. “These (unit heads) are our next level of leaders. Each of these units rakes in anywhere between $250 million and $400 million. We are targeting $1 billion from each unit. The flexibility of these units lies in the fact that we can pull out any leader from within the group to create a new division if required,” says Chandrasekaran. You could call it retirement planning at 46.Pages: 1 [2]