MUMBAI: The man who joined the joined Tata Consultancy Services Limited as a trainee engineer thirty years ago, took over as its CEO in 1996 and since then has been instrumental in helping the company cross the one billion dollar mark. However, TCS managing director, S Ramadorai who heads the global software and services company that has a talent base of over 28,000 associates and geographical reach of 53 countries, still feels that there's still a lot that can be done. His single-point agenda and vision for TCS is to put India's largest software company amongst the global top 10 by 2010. Talking to Rahul Gupta of CyberMedia News, the big daddy of the Indian software industry shares his thoughts on the changing times, the challenges and strategies for the company.
Excerpts:

From being a computer business company in 1968 to being a $1.5 billion company, TCS has come a long way. How has the company evolved over the years and has there been a major shift in its business philosophy?
As time changes, business models change and so does the business philosophy of any company. As business demand changed, we changed business models accordingly and would continue to do so. Business models change as per clients' requirements and we intend to provide fast response to customer needs, which is the biggest challenge today. TCS has grown to become a global brand and our customers worldwide recognize it likewise. That is the reason why I emphasize on quality products, price and stability as our image. There is a lot that can be done. The time has come to be quicker, faster and more efficient than ever.

Now that TCS has gone public, do you foresee a change in the management approach?
There won't be any major change in the management approach. But yes, to create a world-class organization, we need to take some major steps. We have organized all our client relationship teams for our customers. We're betting on the fact that customers are primarily after new and better ways of working-and that they are tired of IT companies throwing technology at them and letting them put it together.

TCS has been projecting 40 percent growth on a base of $1.5 billion revenue. How is the company planning to steer this growth? What are your mid-term and long-term projections?
As we are a listed company now, I cannot make any forward-looking statements. However, we are very clear about our vision to be amongst the top 10 global IT companies by 2010. To achieve this, we are concentrating on streamlining every aspect of our business. We will hold TCS together and make the depth and breadth of our products, services and skills a competitive advantage. That means we have a lot of work to do, because the strategy would only work if our services offerings can compete on its own merits. We restored the competitiveness of our product lines, moved more aggressively into services, and built a solutions business that begins with an understanding of the customer's core business issues-speed, competitiveness, global expansion, customer satisfaction-and work back from there.

While TCS adds around 4000 people every year, is there any resource utilization model that the company follows?
Yes, we do follow resource utilization model and this not only helps employees to keep in touch with top management, but also makes employees spell out where we intend to compete, and where we want to work together. We have told people that our partners are valued customers of TCS. We've picked critical growth opportunities, basically a short list of things we have to do right, if we are going to make TCS a global industry leader. One of them is accelerating our progress in building relationships with our partners. We review our progress monthly and involve individuals in the decisions making and investment plans. We have built team around professionals who are empowered and connect them through technology framework and system measurement through processes. The entire exercise is all about building confidence.

All major Indian companies TCS, Wipro and Infosys are still considered Indian software giants rather than a global IT powerhouse. Don't you think TCS should get out of this mould and compete with companies like IBM, EDS?
TCS is competing in a big way with the global companies and as I said earlier, we would be in the top 10 global companies by 2010. We need to articulate this vision. We have been in this business since 1968 and we have not only created a world-class organization but we are pioneers in creating IT industry in India and the entire world knows that very well. Today TCS is considered a global organization. We've learned a lot-from cultural change to how to make better use of our own IT systems, to getting more involved in the higher-growth areas of the business. We don't lack great people, innovative technology, strong customer relationships or confidence in our financial model.

Do you foresee a consolidation of the various Tata companies-CMC, TCS, Tata Elxi and Tata Infotech?
We already own more than 51 percent of CMC and the other Tata companies are listed separately and have their own board. If we see any synergy between any of these companies, we will look into the matter, but currently all these companies will run separately on their own. At present, there is no formal discussion on the merger of these companies. The business would remain as usual for all these companies.

Despite the fact that Intelenet was a profitable venture for TCS, you moved out. Does that mean TCS is planning to move out of the outsourcing business?
It was decided in very early stages, that one of us will move out of this venture and since TCS has already been offering processes that Intelenet is doing, it didn't make any sense for us to be in that venture. But we would continue to focus on BPO, both for organic and inorganic growth, provided it adds value to us.