Blazing a trail
It has got plenty of firsts to its credit. To begin with, there aren’t too many firms that can be referred to as “India-incubated American companies.” Recently, Cognizant Technology Solutions became the first India-incubated American company to make it to the Fortune 1000. The Chennaibased US company is one of the fastest growing IT companies in India. It recorded its first billion dollars in annual revenue in 2006 in less than 12 years since inception and crossed the second billion revenue mark in the next 18 months. The company is expected to post revenues of just under $3 billion (Rs 12,900 crore) in 2008, up 38 per cent over the previous year. The Fortune 1000 listing (rank 859) comes in just its 14th year of operation.
Francisco D’Souza, President and CEO of Cognizant, is optimistic about the company’s immediate future, a US slowdown notwithstanding. “I see client demand driven by two trends in 2008—a cyclical trend related to the current macro-economic environment and a secular trend resulting from different structural pressures within the industries.
We are exceptionally wellpositioned at the confluence of these two trends.’’ He says that at a macro level the company is focussing on four key priorities that would further expand business. First, it will strengthen operations by expanding scale of newer offerings (like infrastructure services, BPO) and grow in Europe to win large deals. Second, it will build a leadership talent pool to capitalise on new and existing growth opportunities. Third, it will expand the global delivery network to enhance the breadth and depth of services to global customers. Finally, Cognizant will strive to preserve the company’s culture in the midst of its furious pace of growth.
—Nitya Varadarajan
