With over 50% staff in the country, India’s role in Capgemini is growing: CEO Aiman Ezzat

India accounts for over 50 percent of the staff in Capgemini and the nation’s role in the company is only growing as it becomes a big centre of innovation, said Aiman Ezzat, chief executive officer of Capgemini Group on February 17.

The company's total headcount stood at 324,700 at the end of December 2021.

“We have half of our staff today in India. We are growing very fast, and attracting a lot of talent. We are growing the role of India,” Ezzat said at the Nasscom Technology and Leadership Forum 2022 (NTLF).

He was in conversation with Govindraj Ethiraj, founder of IndiaSpend and factchecking platform Boom. The three-day NTLF is being held from February 16-18.

The company’s executives for growing India accounts are rising in number and many are now becoming global executives. The country is also now host to innovation labs and the company is planning to set up a centre of excellence around the internet of things, smart factory, and intelligent supply chain in India this year.

“We have hired industry experts, not just consultants. These people are really coming from the industry in India, to help set up and operate these platforms. So for us India is a big centre of innovation and growth for the firm,” Ezzat said.

“We have grown the pool of Indian executives in the firm. In the future, there will probably be more Indian senior executives overall in Capgemini,” he added.

While India is becoming a key market, talent continues to be a huge challenge. “The fact that we have moved to digital has really created more fluidity in the workforce. And that's something we have to accept,” he said.

This means accepting that employees will leave for better opportunities. But the company is looking at several initiatives to address this. “We are making attempts to bring some of these people back after six months or one year. And we have been very successful on some,” Ezzat said. The company is also making it easier for employees to move to a different project instead of leaving the firm.

Talking about technologies, Ezzat said that quantum computing, metaverse, and synthetic biotechnology are a few of the technologies that could fundamentally change things. In the metaverse, the company is looking at what will work for clients and how to start working with firms. It is currently working with a gaming firm on this.