The growth of 22 % was not exactly spectacular, but not a bad show either. While factors like rupee appreciation and the US slowdown in the last quarter did become tactical challenges, the sluggish growth in India revenue, in a year most domestic services companies have registered very strong growth, points to a missed opportunity.

TCS focused too much on very large deals, that too primarily in the government sector. Competitors Wipro and IBM, on the other hand, targeted enterprise and SMB as well and were rewarded with strong growth.

But the star domestic play was its strong entry into domestic BPO. It made as much as Rs 500 crore from it, again a lot of it contributed by large deals such as the end-to-end passport processing. In fact, in a market where there is very little organized outsourcing beyond call centers, this was a market-making move.

The global story, discounting the usual industry challenges, was good. A 26% growth (excluding BPO) in an uncertain year was robust. Moreover, what was noteworthy is that TCS finally proved that an Indian company could bag a billion dollar deal with its $1.2 bn contract from Nielsen, the largest in Indian offshoring history.

Rank-1
l Start-up Year: 1968 l Products & Services: Software services, IT consulting, and BPO l Branches: 245 l Employees: 110,061 l Address: TCS House, Raveline Street, 21 DS Marg, Fort, Mumbai-400001 l Tel: +91-022-6778 9999 l Fax: +91-022-67789000 l Website: www.tcs.com
Highlights n  Bagged a $1.2 bn deal from Nielsen, the biggest ever outsourcing deal by any Indian company n Became the largest employer in India in the private sector n Opened a subsidiary in South Africa to tap the African market, with focus on governments Strengths p Is the only big non-American company that is seen as a truly global company p Manages employees very well, despite scalea strategic advantage inIndia Weaknesses q Not much reach in India beyond government sector q Consulting yet to mature		S Ramadorai, CEO & MD N Chandrasekaran, COO & executive director S Mahalingam, CFO & executive director Ajoyendra Mukherjee, VP & head, Global HR Phiroz Vandrevala, executive director & head, Global Corporate Affairs

TCS has the most robust global business. In terms of delivery, it is the most global. In terms of market penetration, no other offshore firm comes close to it. Beyond North America and Europe, TCS grew in Latin America, drawing 4.4% revenue from there, up from 3.8% a year earlier (even more if you include BPO). In the emerging and new markets, such as Africa, TCS wants to target the governance sector, based on its learning from India. That made it form a subsidiary in South Africa, with equity participation from the Black Economic Empowerment Group, a developmental group.

On the organizational side, it crossed the 1 lakh employee mark and emerged as Indias largest private sector employer.

If TCS has to compete with IBM effectively, it could do with a few more MCA/BSNL like deals, but what it really needs is a few more Nielsen like dealsin India.

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