It has been a satisfying journey: Ramadorai

BANGALORE, INDIA: Subramaniam Ramadorai who has spent around 37 years in Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), has stepped down as the CEO of TCS and has been appointed as chairman of Tata Elxsi Ltd. He will retire from his current position on October 5, 2009. He would also continue his association with the company as its non-executive vice-chairman.

While addressing the media here, Ramadorai said it is part of the company's succession plan where, beyond the age of 65, the chief executive officer of the company has to give the place to the next best person.

He said, “It has been a satisfying journey, building and organizing Tata Consultancy Services to what it is today. When I was appointed the CEO of TCS in 1996, we were an around 100 million dollar company, and today we are among the leading services company, serving top ten clients in the world and having crossed the six billion dollar mark.”

He added, “N Chandrasekaran (or Chandra as he is well-known) who was the chief operating officer (COO) and the executive director of the company, will now take up the position as the CEO. We have full support form our employees and our customers.”

Ramadorai, who is retiring as the CEO of  TCS, was last week appointed the non-executive board of director and vice-chairman of the company and the appointment would be effective from October 6.

On being asked if he would be interested in taking up a government responsibility akin to the one given to Nandan Nilekani, he said that he does not have any offers in hand, and would therefore remain as an advisor to Tata and will continue with his commitments to the company and the other companies where he is one of the advisors and board of directors, like HUL.

Sharing his market observation, Ramadorai said that there is a stability on ground with good demand coming from the market. Despite a few occasional shocks from the manufacturing and telecom, other segments like BFSI, retail, utilities and life science show a good market outlook. The company is looking forward to more revenues from developed markets like the US, UK and Europe, apart from that of the developing market like Latin America and India.