Over 10% of our new hires to come in from tier-2 cities: C.P. Gurnani
PremiumIn an interview, C.P. Gurnani, MD and CEO, Tech Mahindra talks about what’s driving the demand, its foray into the metaverse, and hiring strategy
BENGALURU : Pune-based IT services major Tech Mahindra Ltd is betting big on the opportunities provided by 5G and digital transformation. It has recently also forayed into the metaverse space with the launch of TechMVerse, to offer interactive and immersive experiences to customers. It plans to hire and train about 1,000 people dedicated for the TechMVerse in the first year and initially, the operations will be spread across four hubs – Dallas, London, Pune, and Hyderabad. Tech Mahindra’s entry into the metaverse is expected to be an extension of its NXT.NOW framework, which aims to enhance human-centric experiences by investing in emerging technologies and solutions that enable digital transformation to meet the evolving needs of the customer. As it builds a digital-ready talent pool to power its new initiatives, it is expanding into various tier-2 cities to find and attract the best of talent. In an interview, C.P. Gurnani, MD and CEO, Tech Mahindra talks about what’s driving the demand, its foray into the metaverse, and hiring strategy. Edited excerpts:
How is the overall demand environment, and what are clients spending on?
It is very clear that 5G and digital transformation are driving demand. And clearly, the legacy stacks are moving towards the cloud. When it comes to engineering, there is a demand for electric vehicles. The third demand driver is cybersecurity, and the fourth driver is sustainability. So, in general, I would say that 5G, experience design, and ‘phygital’ (a combination of physical and digital) are driving consumption.
What are your hiring plans for the next fiscal, including your strategy to hire from tier-2 cities?
We don’t share hiring forecast numbers, but we have opened up a lot of new centres in tier-2 and tier-3 cities. For example, we have opened up international centres in places like Latvia, Romania, and Costa Rica. We expect over 10% of our new hires to come in from tier-2 cities. It is helping us attract talent. We believe that the level of skills is extremely good, and the attrition rates are much lower. We are decisive about expanding our global reach through tier-2 cities. In India, for example, very good talent is available in places like Bhubaneshwar, Chandigarh, Kolkata, Indore, Vijayawada, and Coimbatore.
Tech Mahindra has launched its metaverse offering. How do you intend to take it to your clients?
A key focus area is helping our customers’ digital journey, and technology is helping us build the differentiators. Metaverse is clearly a key differentiator. Like any other new technology, our metaverse offering will be initially incubated in a smaller group and then shared with our clients because it is also a new way of running their business for most of them. By definition, you are now saying that you have redefined the universe to become a meta-universe. We believe initially, our metaverse offerings, including DealerVerse, metaverse-based car dealership; Middlemist, our NFT marketplace; or Meta Bank, a virtual bank, will be run as a separate unit. But eventually, it will work together with various verticals.
Who are the early adopters of metaverse?
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The first is the gaming sector that comes under our media and entertainment vertical. The second is healthcare and then retail. I don’t think we have seen much adoption in the manufacturing sector immediately. But we have clearly seen it in banking. We are also seeing it in dealer management and on the NFT (non-fungible token) marketplace.
You have made eight acquisitions in FY22. What’s your acquisition strategy?
From a strategy point of view, our mergers and acquisitions have been driven by capability building, portfolio de-risking, and geographic expansion. I am not trying to say that I want to be effective in all markets, but I want to take advantage of my clients requiring a presence there. Some of the recent acquisitions include Com tec Co IT, Infostar LLC, We Make Websites, DigitalOnUS, and Activus Connect.
What could be the impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on Tech Mahindra and the IT sector?
If you look at it from a purely mathematical point of view, there is no direct impact because the Indian IT sector is not really dependent on either of the two countries. I am sure there will be an overall impact on the global economy. There could also be an advantage because some of the companies dependent on the talent in Russia and Ukraine may want to de-risk and come to India. But we consider this to be a very unfortunate event. We do not have employees or offices in Ukraine and Russia, but we feel bad. We are not a firm that wants to look at the opportunity because of war unless a client comes to us and asks for help.
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