Tata Consultancy Services in Mumbai, India, has grown into an offshore outsourcing powerhouse by attracting and keeping high-level, powerhouse clients such as General Electric and American Express. Venguswamy Ramaswamy, or "Swamy" as he is better known, has played a key role in maintaining those relationships for almost a decade. His knack for building client trust led him to his current role as director of TCS' global consulting practice, one of six service units, which he helped launch as a separate practice almost three years ago. Under his leadership, TCS' consulting revenues have jumped from $10.5 million to $145 million.
"We have put together a consulting practice operating model that is redefining the way consulting solutions have been delivered to the customers," Swamy says. "By 'redefining' I mean, how can we deliver consulting solutions in a global network delivery model, or in an onsite offshore model, by which value for the dollar to the customer is maximized? That's a very important aspect that I focus on."
Swamy also has grown his consulting team to more than 700 professionals worldwide, including 200 foreign nationals. That growth has brought some unique challenges. "The most important thing is the ability to integrate those people into the organization. You need a lot of resilience—we are still a $145 million startup." He looks for candidates with exposure to the Indian culture and experience with other startups, which shows their ability to handle the inevitable ups and downs. "I do a lot of scenario playing—'If this is the challenge, how would they go about solving it?'" he adds.
During his 15-year tenure at TCS, Swamy has held several key roles, including managing key customer relationships, building and heading the process consulting group, managing the corporate resource management function, leading numerous centers of excellence, as well as launching TCS' first steps in Hungary and China. "It's really new for us because we are moving out of our geography in order to create delivery capabilities outside of India."
Looking ahead, Swamy faces the ongoing challenge of integrating highly talented people into the organization and presenting TCS' six service units as a single, unified organization. "There are always a few more challenges to solve," he says. "It keeps me going."
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