As the new Infosys CEO Salil Parekh gets ready to officially take over the reigns of the Indian IT major, he will need to focus on getting big deals for the company from the very beginning. IT services companies in India are facing a similar problem of not getting big deals and that includes Infosys as well. The new CEO who will have a honeymoon period of atleast six months is expected to initially address the sales force of the company and will need to visit the top customers of the company particularly, in the United States, from where the company gets the majority of its revenues
Experts such as Kris Lakshmikanth, CEO and founder of Head Hunters India Limited, feel that besides the focus on getting big deals, Parekh will have to speed up the traction of the company in the digital space from where the key growth is coming. Though Infosys has had much exposure to conventional business such as the financial services the growth is very slow in these businesses.
“Infosys has lagged behind MNCs such as Accenture in the digital space and the new CEO will need to look at ways as to how the company can grow in its digital space offerings. His predecessor Sikka was trying to grow the business in the digital space and likewise Parekh should also try to focus deeply as to how Infosys can grow in this space. Perhaps he may go in for sub-contracting of work in the digital space to some smaller firms because if he tries to acquire companies in the space there may be some opposition from Murthy. However, for the first six months there won't be any major challenges for him,” Lakshmikanth told THE WEEK.
Experts also felt that the last quarter of the fiscal year (Jan-March) will be a good quarter for the company where the company will try to execute new orders that may have come in its way. “Parekh may eventually try to bring in some senior people from his earlier company, Cap Gemini, which may range from half a dozen people to say a dozen people. This may not happen immediately but will happen over a period of time. It is a usual affair whenever a new CEO joins he tries to get people who had earlier worked with him. Even Sikka got people from SAP after he joined Infosys. During the announcement of the last quarterly results, which is expected in January 2018, Parekh may not speak much as he is still new. Much of the talking is expected to be done by Nilekani or Pravin Rao,” added Lakshmikanth.
