The critical challenge facing Ganesh Ayyar, Chief Executive Officer, MphasiS Ltd, is to get back the lost business from its parent Hewlett-Packard.

Revenue from HP has been declining steadily for MphasiS - from nearly 70 per cent of total revenue three years ago to 41 per cent at the end of the latest quarter. At the same time, revenue from non-HP clients has been increasing steadily in the said period.

Key contributor

The American information technology company holds nearly 60 per cent in MphasiS. It is the biggest customer for the Bangalore-based software service provider.

“In the last 11 quarters, we have not succeeded in reviving the HP business. At the same time, I refuse to get drawn into a victim’s mindset. We are not a victim. This is a challenge. We are trying to overcome it,” he told Business Line .

“While we are going with different value proposition, my view is that the HP business will continue to decline at least for the next couple of quarters,” he said.

“The fault lies with us. If the customer is not buying from us, we cannot blame them. My business is going down from HP and we need to find the answers. We did not manage to revive the growth from HP business. Accountability lies with us and not with the customer. I cannot replace HP over a period of 12 months with a new customer. It will take ages to find a client like HP and give that kind of business,” he said.

When asked on the action plan to revive the HP business, Ayyar said the company can approach HP with a different value proposition and the business model can be different. The type of portfolio offered to HP as a customer and as a partner can be different.

The places where business units with whom the company works in HP can be different units.

“We have so many options. I do not think we have exhausted everything in terms of possibilities. We have not given up,” he said.

“Decline in HP business was due to combination of factors. However, from the available data we could say why it has caused but could not explain why we could not stop from declining. Even if a contract has got over, if we had renewed it, it would have made up. This did not happen.

>raja.simhan@thehindu.co.in

comment COMMENT NOW