Today in Tech: TCS Vs Infosys: How many people can you manage; Marissa Mayer on mobile; Bill Gates on Windows 8

TCS Vs Infosys: How many people can you manage

Responding to a question on managing half-a-million people under one organisation in a not-too-distant future, Tata Consultancy Services CEO N Chandrasekharan  told Mint: "There’s nothing wrong in becoming a 500,000 people organization, but our investments in non-linear initiatives are equally important. A good measure is whether our incremental revenue is coming from non-linear areas." Now, there are many differences between TCS and Infosys. The most striking difference is the speed at which the two companies have been growing in the last few years. However, a more important, but less noticed, difference is their views on optimum headcount.

As the quote from the Mint interview suggests, TCS seems to be fairly confident of managing a large workforce. Infosys, a little less so. When Shibulal visited our Mumbai office in August, he said if Infosys continued to hire in the same pace as it does now, it would have to hire two lakh people a year. "That's not a viable option," he said.

It's not clear if either company has a specific number in mind. Whatever that number might be, it's clear that it will determine a lot of things - business model, growth rate, markets and portfolios.

Marissa Mayer on mobile
A couple of weeks back we heard Steve Balmer say that Microsoft will be seen more as a devices and services company , rather than as software company. Now, Marissa Mayer says "at some point in the near future, Yahoo! will have to be a predominantly mobile company, which means that at least 1/2 of our workforce, our technical workforce, should be working on mobile."
In Yahoo's earnings call yesterday, she gave two reasons why.

• Today, there are more than 1 billion smartphone users globally. As expected, that will double in the next 3 years. And while we've made progress, Yahoo! hasn't capitalized on the mobile opportunity.
• And I also think that the mobile wave is a huge wave for us to ride, and it's a great way for us to take our content and our current investments and make them more relevant moving forward.

Full transcript here

Bill Gates on Windows 8
No surprises here: Bill Gates endorses Windows 8

 
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFDTN25qip8[/youtube]

In another Microsoft news, Skype for Windows 8, which is to hit the market on Friday along with its operating system, has a new user interface in line with Windows 8's metro design. Engadget has good summary of its new features - here.

 
Also of interest

• Amazon Cloud Service Goes Down and Takes Popular Sites With It: NYTimes
• Judge Questions Tools That Grab Cellphone Data on Innocent People: WSJ
• An App To Tell You If There Are Genetically Modified Ingredients In Your Food: Fast Company
• Microsoft rebrands entertainment as Xbox: FT
• Italian Scientists Convicted Of Manslaughter For 'Inexact' Earthquake Predictions: Popular Science

The thoughts and opinions shared here are of the author.