Co vows by global delivery model

Moving into the role of CEO at India Inc’s most-admired bluechip is no mean task. S Gopalakrishan who took over as the CEO and managing director of Infosys Technologies on June 22, has come in at challenging times with the rupee appreciating almost 10% against the dollar and the competitive landscape turning more intense

Are you at the helm of challenging times for Infosys?

As we have grown large, the business also becomes complex. There will be challenges. New issues that are coming up is primarily because of our size (for instance, rupee appreciation shaved off Rs 287 crore in Q1) and the nature of the problems will keep changing.

Will the global delivery model (GDM) of Infosys with the theme “cheaper, faster, better” continue given the backdrop of a very strong rupee?

Yes, we will continue with GDM. One needs to realise what started as labour arbitrage has now evolved into availability and capability model. This is a positive spiral with the Indian IT services market now shifting to value and availability (of skilled manpower). Infosys is moving towards providing end-to-end services. Further, we want to grow our non-US revenues and expand into new regions. Wherever we have our centres like Philippines, Mexico, China, we have our potential new markets as well.

Has the competitive environment intensified with more MNCs upping their presence in India?

For some time now we have been competing against the global system integrator and the top tier Indian IT companies. Now, the band of players, who are competing globally, has been established with a few MNCs and 3-4 Indian companies. So, there has not been much change really.