TCS CEO-designate Krithivasan rules out a 'great' organisational or strategic reboot

No 'great' organisational or strategic change will be on the anvil for Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Krithi Krithivasan told mediapersons on March 17 morning, hours after being named the IT services firm's CEO designate.

There would be no change in strategy as of now, Krithivasan, who takes charge in the financial year 2023-24, said. TCS has a core set of beliefs that it would continue with, while strategy and priorities would be recalibrated in keeping with market conditions, he said.

‘It's a continuum'

“We (Rajesh Gopinathan and Krithivasan) have enjoyed every moment in this organization. It's a continuum. It's not that as every CEO changes, we come up with a new strategy or new set of priorities. We have a core set of beliefs and values. We're focusing on employees, focusing on our customers is the most important engine that drives our growth. We always try to be close to our customers,” he said.

Like his predecessor Gopinathan, Krithivasan is also a TCS lifer who has been with the company for 34 years.

Read: A day of mixed feelings: Rajesh Gopinathan, on resigning from TCS

Gopinathan, who will stay on till September 15, said he wanted to ensure that the transition was smooth and would be available to Krithivasan 100 percent.

Before his elevation, Krithivasan was the global head of the company’s BFSI (Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance) business group, the largest vertical for the company which accounts for 35-40 percent of the revenue.

He has held various roles, including delivery, customer relationship management, large program management, and sales.

Read: Who is K Krithivasan? The newly-appointed CEO of TCS

Krithivasan, who will move to Mumbai from Chennai, said in a lighter vein that it was the move that was harder than taking on the role.

He takes on the mantle at 58, which is relatively late compared to his peers in other top Indian IT companies.

Gopinathan said that the retirement age for executive directors at TCS was 65, which gives Krithivasan at least six years, and appointments for five-year terms.

Commenting on how the Board chose Krithivasan, Gopinathan said, “If you look at the history when I took over, your questions were is this guy too young? Now Krithi is taking over, your question is this guy too old? Those kinds of questions will keep on coming.

“The board and NRC looked at a complete variety of candidates and current situations and what is required and what they felt is the best fit. And the unanimous choice was that Krithi is the best fit and the best person for the job at this point in time.”

Challenging times

He also takes on the role at a time when the IT sector is facing significant headwinds amid a challenging demand environment and macroeconomic climate.

“As the market situation changes, we’ll recalibrate what we want to do, where we want to focus on and I'm sure along with Rajesh in the next six months, we will rework on what we have to do,” Krithivasan said.

He said they believed that every change in the market was a new opportunity.

“Just because we have a macroeconomic situation doesn't mean the customers are done with all the digital transformation and they have to stop doing any transformation. If at all, there is actually more need to continue and maybe for a quarter or two, this disturbance will remain.

“But growth has to come back, our customers have to transform and leverage all the digital technologies available. We will continue to focus on transforming our customers, bringing technology to the center of their business. In the short answer, we will not make any change we will continue to focus on core principles and fine-tune as we go along,” Krithivasan said.

He added that the company didn’t see any insurmountable challenges ahead of it.

For now, Krithivasan said their role was to remove hurdles faced by associates, so that they could perform well.

“We will look at what is the best way to reorganize yourself as required. We don't expect any dramatic change in terms of how we are going to reorganize. In terms of priorities and strategy, what we'll focus on is core principles.

“Strategy and priority, we'll tweak as we go along every year, the core principle is work closely with customers, look at what their needs are as proactively as possible. Go to them with the solutions and work with our associates who have been the bedrock of our success... You should not expect to see a great strategy change or organizational change coming in,” he said.