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Executive Interviews: Interview with Lakshmi Narayanan on Indian IT Industry
March 2006
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By Dr. Nagendra V Chowdary
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How do you see the Indian software
industry in the future and what
according to you will be the major
drivers of the future growth of the Industry
and what will be your
company's contributions in this regard?
The Nasscom-McKinsey 2005 report
states that there is a $300 bn opportunity
and we believe that a large proportion
of that would come to India
over time. India would become the
de facto destination for application
of technology and for high-end backoffice
work, with increasing amount
of innovation and fundamental research
happening out of the labs set
up by multinational corporations.
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We believe that therewill be a significant
amount of consolidation in the
industry and there will emerge Global
10 or Global 20 companies. Cognizant
is confident that it will grow
above industry average and find a
place in that list, specifically known
for providing a unique customer experience
helping thembuild stronger
businesses. -
Of late, many Indian Companies,
particularly IT and Pharma companies
are acquiring companies
abroad. What are your plans in this regard? Is Cognizant looking to acquire
companies in India and
abroad?
Cognizant's acquisition philosophy
is three-pronged-to expand our geographic
footprint, to further
strengthen our solutions capabilities,
and to further enhance our vertical
expertise. Cognizant has done six
small acquisitions in the last several
years; three in the US, two in Europe
and one in India. We continue to aggressively look for
acquisitions globally, but the focus
will clearly be on relatively small,
tuck-under acquisitions, which we
believe will add real value to our
business and can be easily integrated
into the Cognizant culture. Cognizant
is very careful in going after culturally
aligned acquisitions, as that's
the biggest challenge in acquisitions. There is a very apt saying that goes as
"culture eats strategy for breakfast",
meaning that unless there is the right
cultural ecosystem, strategies are
bound to have implementation challenges.
Therefore, the importance of
culture cannot be underestimated in
acquisitions. -
Where do you see Cognizant in the
next 4-5 years?
Five years is a long period for us to
speculate. But there are some clear
trends that we see look positive for
us. One notable trend we are seeing is
that the customers' reliance on a
single vendor to provide end-to-end
services is diminishing. Consequently,
they are unbundling their
requirements and partnering with
multiple players in specific areas of
their strengths. This trend is also reflected
in a report by theMeta Group,
which highlights that 76% of customers
today are using multiple service
providers to source their requirements.
This trend clearly provides greater opportunities to companies
like Cognizant, which is focused
with a high degree of discipline. Having said that, we believe that
Cognizant would continue to be the
first choice in the minds of the customers
in the areas of our specialization.
We would continue to expand
our circle of offerings across industry
segments and solutions, and continue
to expand our geographical
footprint globally to be a global solutions
provider.
1.
Indian Industry Case Study
2. ICMR
Case Collection
3.
Case Study Volumes
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