Rajesh Gopinathan, who will take over as the CEO of Tata group crown jewel Tata Consultancy Services on February 21, has big shoes to fill. But experts believe the 46-year-old will bring freshness into the company at a time when technology trends are shifting at an unprecedented pace.
With N Chandrasekaran at the helm of Tata Sons and Gopinathan as TCS’s CEO, analysts expect a better realignment of businesses within the group. For example, in the engineering services space, TCS, Tata Technologies, and Tata Elxsi compete with each other in a few areas.
Gopinathan will have three added advantages with Chandra as Tata Sons Chairman; firstly, there will be better alignment of TCS’s strategy with Tata Sons and TCS might be open to acquisitions, especially in the digital space, where it lags behind some of its global peers.
Secondly, TCS might get a bigger share of the IT spends of other Tata group companies. “Earlier there were cases where Tata group companies used TCS’s competitors. TCS might also consolidate a few Tata group companies that compete with it,” said Pareekh Jain, research Vice-President, engineering services, at HfS Research.
Digital shift
Analysts believe that the move is a great one for TCS, which is trying to transition from a traditional outsourcing business towards agile digital contracts
“With continuous guidance from Chandra and the support of the TCS team, I am confident of continuing this great journey that TCS is on,” Gopinathan said after his elevation to the CEO post.
Gopinathan is being seen as an excellent choice for the top position not just because he has been a great CFO for TCS but also because he was part of Chandra's core team, signalling continuity in TCS’s strategy to customers, employees, and investors.
“People wanted to see a young CEO like Gopinathan. With digital transformation, it is good to have a dynamic CEO to adapt to changing situations. Moreover, with Chandra at the helm, he’ll ensure Gopinathan is successful,” said Binoy CS, Director, ICT practice, Frost & Sullivan.
Experts don’t expect any major changes right away. “However, in the short to mid-term there’ll be some need for fresh thinking and Gopinathan is the perfect choice for that,” said Sanchit Gogia, CEO, Greyhound Research.
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