Award: Best CEO Multinational
Francisco D’Souza
CEO, Cognizant Technology Solutions
Age: 45
Interests outside of work: A gadget freak, believer in Maker movement and likes to spend time with his children.
Why he won this award: For refocusing Cognizant after the 2008 shock so as to deliver superior growth based on customer-orientation. Married short-term aggressive performance without sacrificing investment for long-term growth.
Francisco D’Souza, the 45-year-old CEO of Cognizant Technology Solutions, should have a persistent headache. Pain, after all, does afflict those who are forced to look at the world through two different kinds of lenses: Telescopic for one eye and microscopic for the other. “A telescope to consider opportunities far into the future, and a microscope to scrutinise the challenges of the moment with intense magnification,” is how McKinsey’s global managing director Dominic Barton once put it.
There is no escaping this duality if you are in the IT sector today; you don’t have a choice but to consider both the short term and the long term. The crisis is interesting, two-pronged. On the one hand, there is a slowdown. The momentum that helped the Indian IT services industry grow from a few million dollars to $100 billion (from exports and domestic sales), bestowing its top executives with superstar status, is lost; there is a struggle to generate revenues. On the other hand, it is facing the kind of disruption that occurs only once in a decade or so. In 2000, it was the internet. Now, it is social media, mobile, analytics and cloud computing. Together these technologies are changing the way businesses are run and, in order to retain relevance, IT services companies have to evolve.
This change is risky. There are examples of companies that took the new technologies too seriously and got burnt. Consider Infosys. Many of its problems over the last few years can be traced to its ‘Infosys 3.0’ strategy, with its focus on products and platforms, and with its ambition to create tomorrow’s enterprise. The leadership was so enamoured with that vision that they dropped the ball on the cash cow—application development and maintenance. NR Narayana Murthy was compelled to come back from quasi-retirement, and one of the first things he did was to acknowledge this lost focus.
Cognizant did a rejig too, dividing its business into cash cow, immediate future and long-term future, calling these horizon one (H1), two (H2) and three (H3), respectively. D’Souza took charge of H3.
They had found that companies, expectedly, wanted to cut costs but, at the same time, they were also willing to invest if it helped them ‘variablise’ their costs (ie, keep the costs in proportion to the volume of business through outsourcing, using contract workers, etc). That was because there was no clarity on how long the crisis would last and the direction the economy would take. They were seeking ways to ramp up or down depending on how the tide turns. For Cognizant, that showed a clear path. D’Souza and his team quickly developed a theme that would guide them and their clients through the crisis, shining through the fog, if you will.
(This story appears in the 01 November, 2013 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)
What a personality he is.....person like him wudn't have time for small things but still he manages things well....being an employee of this company, i really feel proud after seeing such an honor for him.....It s always true that your vision, high thinking n nothing Impossible attitude makes the difference. Employee friendly environment and appreciate at the right time makes this company totally different from others. Hats Off Mr. Frank. Really nice to see free flowing appreciation for you (US):)....way to go... Thank You.
on Oct 28, 2013A Real Visionary.Understand nerves of market as well as understands a companies building block and real asset is employees.Gives full freedom to employee.
on Oct 27, 2013Looks like the writer of this piece is slightly biased towards the company/ person. Percentage comparison is not the correct way, 100 out of 1000 is 10% and 10000 out of 100000 is also same. Still there is a size difference in CTS and TCS in headcount and numbers. TCS is still leading in all terms, lets not talk percentage here, size also matters. P.S. This comment is posted by a person who has NEVER worked in TCS
on Oct 26, 2013I agree that given it\'s size, TCS performance is amazing but at the same time Cognizant is not anymore minuscule to TCS size. Today Cognizant is 70% of TCS Size ((not like 1000 vs 100000)) but it is 20 years younger company. Cognizant North America geography revenues are very close to beating TCS North America revenues (as majority of Cognizant revenues comes from that region). We also commend TCS for not only growing top line very well but also the bottom line. Not only in % terms, Cognizant absolute incremental revenues are higher in last 3 of 8 quarters. That tells the story of Cognizant.
on Oct 30, 2013I really liked the thinking and the bold statement \"Your universe cannot be Cognizant\'s Enterprise Customers\". How true
on Oct 24, 2013What an inspiratonal piece. Really liked the imagery of a Lytro camera.
on Oct 23, 2013