TCS will continue investing as per biz requirements: CFO

MUMBAI: Despite facing shortterm volatilities like higher attrition, Tata Consultancy Services will continue to invest as per business requirements and not look at protecting profit margins, a senior official has said.

The company, however, continues to be focused on the 26-28% operating profit margin band and has its structures aligned towards achieving the aspirational band, its chief financial officer Samir Seksaria underlined.

“(as we see) short-term volatilities, it is not that we will do things only to protect the margins. Whatever the investments are required, whatever is the right thing to do we will continue to invest. In the short term, we are not looking at… the shortterm focus will be to feed the needs of the business as far as possible,” Seksaria said.

In the September quarter, the largest software exporter reported margins at 25.6% and stated the possibility of shortterm volatilities on this front like supply-side constraints as the attrition goes up, currency headwinds and the possibility of demand getting impacted due to future waves of pandemic.

The company, which employs over 500,000 people, also reported an increase in attrition at 11.9%.

“Currently, the short-term volatility is in terms of supplyside challenges mainly due to elevated attritions,” Seksaria said, adding that in the quarter gone by, it also faced headwinds from currency,” he said.

TCS has been able to manage better than peers on the supply side front because of its upfront investments even when demand had shown difficulties in the initial days of Covid, he added.

The same is seen in the 75,000 new hires done in the last one year, or over 43,000 hires in the first half of FY22, he said.