Cognizant to focus on large deals, employee retention to trigger growth By CIOTechOutlook Team

Cognizant to focus on large deals, employee retention to trigger growth

CIOTechOutlook Team | Saturday, 04 February 2023, 03:38 IST

  •  No Image
Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. has chosen three key areas of concentration to pursue growth in the medium term under the leadership of newly appointed chief executive Ravi Kumar S. According to Rajesh Nambiar, MD and Chairman of Cognizant India, the company with its headquarters in New Jersey would "accelerate growth" by putting a greater emphasis on its employees, focusing on closing more significant projects, and improving operational metrics.
 
"The team will meet 100 clients in 100 days, including the CEO. Later this month, he (Ravi Kumar) will also visit delivery facilities and conduct employee-engagement (programmes) in India "Nambiar. Since the Infosys veteran took over as CEO in January, this is the first quarterly earnings report for the NASDAQ-listed company.
 
Due to impairment charges and increasing operational costs, the US-based software exporter's net profit dropped 9.6% YoY in the fourth quarter to $521 million. However, the company's sales increased, increasing 1.3% year over year to $4.84 billion over the three-month span. Revenue was steady while the profit decreased 20.7% on a sequential basis. According to Cognizant, the first quarter's sales is forecast to be between $4.71 and $4.76 billion, which would represent a flat or 1% fall in constant currency terms.
 
Nambiar said that even in the current quarter, the numbers were "a touch muted" because of the organisational changes the company is going through when asked about the Q1 guidance. "Our booking numbers are strong, up 12% from last year. It will take 1-2 quarters to start seeing the benefits in some of the larger transactions, according to the nature of the best.
 
Demand is not a problem. Due to the fact that clients have not yet been "seriously" affected by the impending recession, Cognizant is still not viewed as a challenge in the market. "Even the tech business, which has been affected by layoffs, is being closely watched. We are already starting to notice a small influence in the banking, health sciences, manufacturing, and retail sectors. However, possibilities for cost-cutting and vendor consolidation will offset any slowdown "Nambiar tacked on.
 
Cognizant's attrition decreased from 28% to 26% during the course of the last 12 months (LTM). Attrition was reported to be down at 19% on a quarterly basis, down sequentially from 29%. This contrasts with the top four Indian IT enterprises, each of which had LTM attrition decline from peak levels of 25–30% last year to roughly 20–21% in the December quarter.
 
At the end of the fourth quarter, there were 355,300 people employed worldwide, a rise of 5,900 from the previous period. The business claimed to have made 50,000 campus hires for the entire year and 10,000 freshmen for the quarter that concluded in December. Nambiar stated that a "similar" fresher intake can be made while the company was still assessing a full-year recruiting headcount for FY23.
 
Nambiar added that internal measures like "internal Job Moves" to fill vacancies immediately rather than waiting for the promotion cycles will help attrition decrease even further in the upcoming quarters.

On The Deck

CIO Viewpoint

Technology Partner and Business Growth

By Mehdihasan Naqvi, Head IT, Otis Elevator Company

"Technology Partner" - in today's dynamic business

By Uday Sakunala, Head-IT, Hexagon Capability Center India

Collaborating with Technology Partners for...

By Joseph Kiran Kumar, Director and Head- IT, Eisai Pharmaceuticals India Pvt. Ltd

CXO Insights

How Low-Code is Transforming the Future of Work...

By Deepak Pargaonkar, VP, Solution Engineering, Salesforce India

Autonomous Strategic Behavior

By Suresh .V. Menon – Principal Consultant on Six Sigma and Strategic Management.

Ecosystem innovation: an enabler for digital...

By Avnish Sabharwal, MD, Accenture

Facebook