CM: In what ways do you think that Indian consultancies offer different approaches to working in this industry? Kant: I think that in many ways the Indian model really has revolutionized the services business. It has changed the way people look at the services business. . . . What has happened is that we have brought a certain freshness to the business. The freshness is in terms of the way we work with the customer. The freshness is in the way we ask, "Are you looking for your success or are you looking at the success of the customer?" The success of the customer is in thinking, "I have been given this work and I have to ensure that this work is for the benefit of the customer, and it makes the customer successful." For some of the customers that we saw, this was really a fresh thing. They saw that now they could indeed hold their budgets in check. They were more certain about when the work was going to finish. And they were more certain about going to their own business customers and telling them "Yes, this will be delivered to you."
CM: Consultants have played an important role in the implementation of new technology for decades. What has TCS's contribution been? Kant: What we brought to the whole thing was what I just said: We finish the work on time, finish within budget, so the customers are more certain. We brought the whole equation of certainty to the business.

CM: And customers grasped the cost effectiveness of TCS's approach? Kant: The customers could see that what they were looking for was not that expensive. It was not that difficult. And we had a single-minded devotion to the success of the customer. . . . As we talk to customers who have been working with us for some time, we ask them to articulate or attest to what we have brought to them, and this is what they tell us.
CM: So do you think that you've raised the bar as far as accountability in the consulting services goes? Kant: I would say so, yes. Again, when the customer says, "You know, this needs to be done." And we say, "Yes, this work will be done in this period of time," we are accountable to do that. We value the whole idea that work is done with a fixed price and fixed schedule. We encouraged that more and more in the market, and people saw that. If I can come back to you and say, "This is going to cost you this much and it's going to take this much time," it kind of gives you a kind of empowerment that was, you know, not there earlier. Now you can say, "Yes, I know that I have better control over my business — my work — as a customer. Now this work will be finished in this period of time." So you can look at where the allocations of your own people are, you look at the allocation of your budgets and the allocation of other resources.
CM: The Indian approach to globalization appears to be somewhat different from Western approaches . . . Kant: You're right. Our approach is not the replacement of some resources by other resources. There's a lot more to it. There's a lot more to this, which brings in innovation — innovation in the sense that whatever I'm doing today, tomorrow I'm going to provide you something better than this. So you have a right to ask me to provide better services next year.

As TCS Expands, Its History Follows

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