How talent from top tech services companies is changing the game for laggards
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Bengaluru: When Pune-based Persistent Systems crossed the $1 billion revenue mark in FY23, a tech services leader asked founder Anand Deshpande how the company, which was formed in 1990, had finally gone past the landmark figure. An industry veteran recounted to Mint that Deshpande smiled when the question was posed, then responded saying, “Credit goes to our team." That team, under chief executive officer (CEO) Sandeep Kalra, who had joined Persistent in May 2019, put the technology services and solutions company on the path to rapid growth, increasing revenue from $501 million in 2020 to $1.18 billion in FY24.
Kalra had spent 16 years at HCL and later at Symphony Teleca before joining Persistent. After taking the helm, Kalra revamped the go-to-market strategy, worked closely with large vendors, including Microsoft and Amazon Web Services, focused on key verticals such as banking, financial services, insurance, healthcare and life sciences, and refreshed the leadership team. In five years, that team was able to deliver what had not happened in over three decades.
The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for the three years before Kalra joined was 6.4%; between FY21 and FY24 it zoomed to 28%. At Noida-headquartered Coforge, five years prior to Sudhir Singh being appointed as CEO, the CAGR was 3.1%; after he joined in 2019, it has surged to 16% (till FY24), as Mint wrote in its Long Story on 28 November. Singh had previous stints at Infosys and Genpact before joining Coforge.
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