TCS 'won't make any change', focus on principles: CEO designate Krithivasan

For K Krithivasan, designated as the new chief executive officer (CEO) of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) moving from Chennai to Mumbai seems to be a bigger challenge than taking over the helm of the $25.7 billion IT services firm.

Krithivasan, 58, is perhaps the oldest to join as CEO of the country’s largest IT services player. When N Chandrasekaran, who is now chairman of Tata Sons, took over TCS’s leadership he was 46. Rajesh Gopinathan, the company’s outgoing CEO, was 46 when he took over that role. The retirement age at TCS is 65 years.

In his first media interaction Krithivasan, outlined his plans for the new role. “Our core set of beliefs and values, that is, focus on employees and customers is the most important engine that drives our growth. We will not make any change, we will continue with our focus on core principles and fine tune as we go along,” said Krithivasan on his priorities.

"I do not think there are any insurmountable challenges ahead of us, there are a lot of opportunities and how do we leverage and seek those is the task in front of us, and make TCS grow," he said in Mumbai.

“Just because there is a macro uncertainty it does not mean that customer are done with digital transformation and they have to stop…if at all there is more need to continue and maybe or a quarter or two will be disturbance, growth has to come back and we will leverage all the digital tools we have,” said Krithivasan, who heads the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) business group at TCS.

Asked if there will be internal changes as he takes up the CEO’s role, he said: “We will look at all the plans and how we will handle that. TCS has always been built on a continuous evolutionary approach. We will do our best to reorganize ourselves.”

In an unexpected announcement, TCS on Thursday evening announced that Gopinathan, CEO and MD, has stepped down. He will be with the company till September and will ensure a smooth transition.