Cognizant Strengthens Leadership Team To Return To Growth

CIOReviewIndia Team | Monday, 02 November 2020, 09:53 IST

  • No Image

Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp, Nasdaq-listed, is strengthening its leadership team with a combination of internal promotions and external hires in a bid for returning towards growth.

Brian Humphries, CEO, Cognizant, said, "We are focused on returning Cognizant to IT services industry bellwether status. To achieve this, we need a combination of long-time Cognizant veterans along with newcomers who bring fresh perspectives to our business.”

Cognizant invested in growth by strengthening its leadership with the senior hires in Germany, the Nordics, Australia, and the Asia-Pacific region and Japan.

In the previous week, the New Jersey-based company, appointed Rajesh Nambiar as the Chairman and the Managing Director for India and also a member of the executive committee, which is effective from November 9. Nambiar’s induction into the committee is regarded as the measured approach for increasing focus on India and thrusting more power into the hands of the India CMD. Nambiar’s predecessor Ramkumar Ramamoorthy left the company in July, was not a part of the committee, but reported to it.

The leadership changes mark Ursula Morgenstern joining as the President, Global Markets, which will effect from January 2021 and Adrian Jones will join as Managing Director for Asia Pacific and Japan.

Recently, Cognizant appointed Anil Cheriyan as the Executive Vice President, Strategy and Technology and Andy Stafford as the Head of Global delivery. Every one of them is a member of the EC, directly reporting to Humphries.

Humphries said, “We are making bold moves to supercharge our talent and have invested considerable time and thought over the past 18 months in building and nurturing our executive committee. The team now in place can drive a company of Cognizant’s scale and complexity to higher levels of growth in our intensely competitive technology services industry."

For measuring of retaining and rewarding high performers, Cognizant is implementing a targeted merit-based increment and promotion structure in the December quarter. Humphries said, “We are accruing 2020 bonuses at higher levels than 2019.”

Cognizant started this year’s campus hiring in October and nearly doubled its entry-level salary for engineers graduating in June 2021 with premium technology skills.

Humphries said, “The emphasis will be on hiring new talent in our digital battlegrounds as well as in other strategic areas such as cyber security, Salesforce, and business modernisation technologies. That said, we will continue to enforce meritocracy and upgrade our talent.”

In the past week, Cognizant reported flat annual growth in revenues at $4.2 billion for the third quarter, which ended in September. The company’s digital revenue went up by 13 percent year-on-year, contributing 42 percent to the total revenues for the September quarter as digital bookings continued to show momentum. Humphries said, “We are well on our way in the journey towards 50% digital revenues.”

 

🍪 Do you like cookies?

We use cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Read more...