‘Strengthening ops is a top priority’
BENGALURU: Nasdaq-listed Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. named Ramkumar Ramamoorthy as chairman and managing director of Cognizant India on Tuesday. Ramamoorthy, a Cognizant veteran with over 21 years experience in the company, has risen up the ranks to report to the global executive committee. In an interview, he spoke about his journey, priorities and the demand environment. Edited excerpts:
Tell us briefly about your journey with Cognizant?
I joined Cognizant in early 1998 from Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), when Cognizant’s revenue was under $50 million and it just had about 1,000 employees. Cognizant then was preparing to take the company public on the Nasdaq. I initially took on the responsibility of building a dedicated corporate marketing and communications function as well as supporting the chief financial officer with investor relations. The rapid growth of Cognizant presented each one of us with abundant opportunities to spearhead newer initiatives.
The first new opportunity that came my way was to build out the company’s interactive business (then called Content and Design Services).
Likewise, when knowledge management became a competitive advantage, I was appointed chief knowledge officer to evangelise a culture of knowledge sharing within the company and build a knowledge management platform. I then went on to incubate and handle several other portfolios including Market Research and Intelligence, Public Affairs and Purpose. Two years ago, I was elevated as executive director to provide strategic direction to all of Cognizant’s business-enabling functions in India.
What are your immediate priorities as the new head of India operations?
I have three key priorities. The first is to build a management committee and an operating committee in India to further strengthen our operations across 13 cities, drive greater diversity and inclusion, and extend our corporate citizenship efforts. The second is to strengthen all corporate functions to enable the most admired delivery engine in the world, blending efficiency and innovation, while driving high levels of client satisfaction. And given the digital disruptions happening across industries, the third priority is to sustain our position as an employer of choice in campuses and the lateral market, and extend our recruiting engine beyond engineering and management to data science, artificial intelligence, information security, internet of things and human sciences.