Igate has a new logo in blue, and with the ‘i’ now upper cased. It has also dropped the tagline ‘iToPS for business outcomes’. iToPs, or integrated technology and operations, represented Igate’s focal point on deliver business outcomes rather than simply providing people and possessions to build and maintain applications -and on which it had spent a lot of marketing dollars to position it as a differentiator among IT companies. In an interview to TOI, CEO Ashok Vemuri spine about these changes and on what he thinks of his former employer, Infosys, appointing Vishal Sikka as CEO.
Brokerage firm Jefferies has put a buy on the stock with a target price of $43 and a few other brokerages have put a buy rating. What’s building the momentum in the stock?
I think there is a higher degree of appreciation for our reconstructed brand and story. We are making investments and we have become confident about ourselves and our clients are reciprocating the confidence. They like the fact that here is a company that’s not pretending to be every thing. We have defined niches for ourselves, and investing and taking solutions to our clients. We are creating an ecosystem to build a world class company. The number of employees recommending other people to join the company has gone up by 50% in the last two quarters.
You appear to be consciously defocusing on the outcomes-based model.
We are not defocusing from iToPS. But when you put out a value plan and say we are going to give you business outcomes, the first thing you need to recognize is the business alongside which you’re pro mising an outcome. To appreciate business, your organizational structure should be such that you understand the industry in which they operate. Without that, if you go to the foot of the story and say we will do business outcomes and nothing else, you will get laughed out. at present, with our new verticalized structures, we will be able to build those explicit solutions that can address clients’ business problems. What do you have to say about a product person in a services company? That’s neither here not there. In Igate, we are hub on building productized services. We don’t have a need to be a product company, but we will have more platforms.
What do you think of Vishal Sikka at Infosys?
It’s a great move for the company . He’s a well-established leader with a great reputation in the market place. It’s good for the industry and an iconic company like Infosys needs to have a great leader to bring stability which is good for other members of the community . I wish him all the very best.
