Mark Livingston: On Business and Technology
1. What do you think is the broad role of a consulting firm in the technology domain? Do you foresee a reliance on technology for technology’s sake, or are firms using it more and more to define new business opportunities?
Aligning IT with business is among the key concerns of enterprises today. Businesses are being increasingly powered by technology, so much so that banks have started looking like technology companies. We believe that technology alone is rarely the key to unlocking economic value: Companies create real wealth when they combine technology with new ways of doing business. Armed with a deep understanding of corporate strategy and the challenges that are likely to be faced during implementation, our consulting teams are well placed to unlock this value. Our consulting practice focuses on IT, operations, business as well as strategy — not just technology. Needless to say, there are strong inter-linkages between them.
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2. What do you think are the value propositions for a firm like Cognizant? What are some of the challenges and opportunities that you see for Consulting within Cognizant? This might have lessons for Indian firms.
The value proposition of Cognizant Business Consulting (CBC), the consulting practice of Cognizant, is uniquely crafted consulting solutions for our customers’ problems. We also take pride in “actionable insights.” In other words, we not only recommend, but also stay with the customers, at their choice, for the implementation of our recommendations. We have also innovated with an onsite-offshore model of consulting execution.
The challenge is going to be talent acquisition and retention. Smart consultants are highly sought-after in the industry, not just in consulting, but also in the user industry space. Another challenge is training and apprenticeship. Moulding new talent into consultants calls for extensive training and apprenticeship under principals/partners.
The stakeholders we talk to as a consulting unit are mostly from the business. Business customers typically have a different set of buying considerations vis-à-vis their IT counterparts in the technology division. IT managers typically tend to look at cost as a major driving force behind their sourcing strategy. While that objective is changing, the premise still continues to be visible in sourcing situations where business customers are not directly involved. On the other hand, business customers tend to look at the alignment of IT delivery with long-term business objectives. They tend to look at long-term returns on their investment dollars, not necessarily worrying about near-term or immediate cost ramifications. If vanilla IT services are pitched to business customers, they may not see prolonged value in engaging the service provider. To establish and grow our consulting credentials, we need to demonstrate value and a strong thought process.
3. What has your experience been in heading CBC? How has past experience shaped this?
There are several unique attributes of consulting at CBC that I did not experience in their full depth and breadth in my earlier assignments. We run a matrix model where individual consulting units have dual reporting lines, one to their own business unit and the other to CBC.
Onsite-offshore delivery of consulting adds another layer of complexity. Besides, selling, branding, and building a consulting organisation in an IT services company come with their own opportunities and challenges. Cognizant has an existing client base of over 700 marquee organisations globally, where we need to push consulting as an additional value added service offering.
Understanding and tracking business challenges and the related operational and technology imperatives across different client businesses pose a big challenge. One key aspect of building a business that I learnt from my past experience is to hire and empower the best leaders with specialized knowledge and strong customer connects. I spend a lot of time ensuring that the right talent is in the lead, and is set up for success via the right organisational support.
4. What is India’s role for strategic consulting in today’s world?
India’s role has primarily been that of a talent source. We have really smart and perceptive people graduating from ISB, IIMs, and so on. Several Indian managers have made their mark at the global level in various user industries, such as banking and telecom. These managers bring with them subject-specific expertise and the experience of building strong businesses in a challenging and developing market.
Two of the most important aspects of any consulting business are: Solving complex problems for the clients, and working relentlessly to create strong client businesses. I believe India has the right managerial and consulting talent and skills to help consulting firms achieve these objectives for their clients.
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