Restructuring redux

It seems like restructuring is the mantra for the Indian IT industry. A couple of months after Infosys restructured its business units and Mindtree Consulting announced an organisation restructure, India’s largest IT company, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), has followed suit. Last fortnight, TCS rejigged its organisation into five units, which the company hopes will provide customers a single view of the company. Till now, TCS’s businesses were split along geography, industry verticals or types of services. “The earlier model was apt five years ago when we were 20,000-odd people. As we have scaled up to over a lakh people across geographies, we felt the need for a new structure,” said N. Chandrasekaran, TCS’s COO, announcing the new structure.

Under the new structure, the five units—industry solutions group (ISG), new growth market group, major markets group, strategic initiative group and organisation infrastructure units—would have a director each, who in turn would report to the Chief Operating Officer. “The new structure announced aims to impose greater accountability and client centricity even as it focuses on leadership development and employee empowerment,” notes a report by brokerage house Prabhudas Lilladher.

The major markets will focus on the company’s bread and butter markets—the US, UK, and Europe. The new growth markets will look at India, APAC, and other emerging markets. The strategic initiatives group will comprise three key ingredients— TCS financial services, the yet to be announced SME business unit and the BPO platform services.

The ISG unit will have multiple units dedicated to all the verticals, including key verticals such as BFSI and manufacturing. “We have been working on this for the past nine months… we have identified people to fit these roles and are putting processes in place. The new structure will be effective from April 1,” says Chandrasekaran. TCS, like the other Indian IT majors, must be hoping that a more streamlined organisation will help it navigate the choppy waters ahead.

— T.V. Mahalingam