Eyeing The Digital Fast Lane

Brian Humphries, who took over as CEO of Cognizant in April, is betting on more and faster exposure to digital technologies opportunities to restore growth

- Harichandan Arakali

Brian Humphries, CEO of Cognizant Technology Solutions, comes to India—where the company has 13 centers—every two months. He sees the centers as a “prized asset and a source of huge competitive advantage” in a world increasingly moving to software and digital technologies.

Cognizant is the biggest IT services company after Tata Consultancy Services in terms of revenue among those with much of their operations in India. In fact, the bulk of the US-headquartered firm’s staff is based in India.

The technology services company has a growing position in digital services. On the digital services front, it is outgrowing the industry, says Humphries, who was previously CEO of Vodafone Business and took over the top job at Teaneck, New Jersey-based Cognizant in April. His predecessor Francisco D’Souza remains on the company’s board as vice-chairman.

His goal, adds Humphries, is to ensure that the digital services front records a bigger portion of the IT company’s sales. Cognizant’s sales for the third quarter this fiscal rose by 4.2 percent to $4.5 billion from the year-earlier period. The company is also looking at net job cuts of about 7,000 mid-to-senior level staff worldwide in the coming quarters, it said in a statement.

The pain points of clients today, regardless of their industry, relate to efficiency in their operations while they simultaneously embrace innovation and digital transformation. They either fear being disrupted by digital technologies or take to digital as an enabler of their business. “Increasingly, digital technologies become the business itself because of consumer expectations. That is an area of great opportunity for Cognizant,” Humphries tells Forbes India.