TCS CEO K Krithivasan wants engineering culture to be the centre of the IT services giant

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) new CEO K Krithivasan on January 18 said he wants to bring back the engineering culture at India’s largest IT services firm both by market cap and the number of employees.

Speaking to CNBC-TV18's Shereen Bhan on the sidelines of the Davos World Economic Forum (WEF) 2024, Krithivasan who took over the reins from Rajesh Gopinathan on June 1 last year, was asked about what he wants to reshape at the company. He said, “I wouldn't call it reshaping, but in certain areas, I would want to focus. One topic that's very close to me is getting the engineering culture back.”

TCS CEO was also asked if in any way the firm lost the engineering culture since he wants it “back.” To that he replied, “Sometimes your focus turns to different things. I used the word ‘back’ in the sense of getting the emphasis again on that. We want engineering culture to be the central piece of our organisation.”

Krithivasan explained that he wants employees at all levels, be it seniors or associates at the lowest level, to have the ability to learn and decipher any technology very quickly. They must have a sense of automation, which shall give them and the company a sense of pride in being the best engineer.

“That’s how we want everyone to feel and behave… First, it is a cultural thing. So, we have to first talk about it and tell the associates what the firm is going to appreciate. When you tell them that these are the appreciated areas, they also move along that.”

The company then must enable them with appropriate training and that’s why TCS is doubling down on training and associate communication, he said, noting that this is his medium-term mission.

Krithivasan’s remarks come days after TCS reported results for the October to December 2023 quarter, in which its revenue and profit came in higher than analysts’ expectations. Though the firm expects fiscal 2024-25 to be better, it believes it is too early to say things will return to "good old days."

Following the Q3 results, the TCS management was also asked why salaries for freshers have remained in the ₹3-4 lakh range for the past many years. TCS’ chief human resources officer (CHRO) Milind Lakkad said, “We are paying based on the talent and we encourage people to come at different cadres.”

He said if freshers or existing employees are willing to upskill, then they can earn double and for some skills salaries go up to ₹10 lakh. “We offer close to ₹10 lakh for innovators. We are hiring people from NITs and IITs where we pay a lot more,” Lakkad said.

However, when specifically asked what the starting salary is for freshers now, he said it’s the same as it has been for the past many years. He believes the point is, that once they join, they must understand the path to take. “You take this path, your salary will double.”

This came against the backdrop of the company’s headcount witnessing a net reduction for the second consecutive quarter by 5,680 employees in the October to December 2023 period, taking the total strength to 603,305.

Earlier this week, the IT services exporter’s head of 'AI.Cloud' unit Siva Ganesan said that TCS will train its entire staff of over five lakh software engineers on the upcoming Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) opportunity.