Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) on June 1 welcomed its new CEO and MD — K Krithivasan, the company’s fifth CEO since it was set up in 1968. The fact the IT giant has had only five CEOs in its 55 years of history shows it is a stable ship and is a testimony to the stability and quality of its management.

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Krithivasan will be succeeding Rajesh Gopinathan (2017–2023).

K Krithivasan is a TCS veteran — one could call him a lifer just like his predecessors. He joined in 1989 and has been with the company for the last 34 years.

During his long tenure at TCS, he has held various leadership roles in delivery, customer relationship management, large programme management and sales. Prior to his elevation as CEO and MD, Krithivasan was the President and Global Head of the BFSI vertical, which contributes 32 percent to the firm’s revenue.

Krithi holds a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Madras and a master’s degree in Industrial and Management Engineering from IIT Kanpur.

The question that now arises is — Does the change of guard mean a strategy change?

In the fourth quarter earnings call, Krithi said, “Leadership change doesn't mean a strategy change. All of us have been working with this organisation for so many years and all of us have a good understanding. Whatever strategy Rajesh put in place was also a collective leadership decision on how we want to go forward. So I don't expect a drastic strategy change. We'll be tweaking what we do based on the market situation.”

The key ask from new TCS CEO Krithivasan?

It seems the key expectation from him may be to make TCS grow faster than its peers. While there is no doubt, under Gopinathan as CEO, TCS delivered a strong financial performance, with revenue growth of 11.5 percent and constant currency revenue growth of 8.8 percent over the last six years, but its peer Infosys has grown even faster than TCS over the last four years even TCS maintained its margin supremacy.

Infosys growth beats TCS for the 4th straight year

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First Published:Jun 1, 2023 8:55 AM IST