Cognizant CEO Brian Humphries looks outside to ramp up digital talent

MUMBAI: Cognizant has stepped up hiring of outside talent, as CEO Brian Humphries steers the IT outsourcer to the faster growing digital business.The company has hired Gaurav Chand, a former executive at communications and IT services company CenturyLink, as head of marketing to improve its positioning.This comes at a time when the Teaneck, New Jersey-based firm has been sharpening focus on rationalizing costs by shedding talent in its top-heavy pyramid.Chand replaces Malcolm Frank, who was tasked with driving its digital business in May.Frank led strategy and marketing for the company for the last 14 years and, earlier this year, replaced Gajen Kandiah, a company veteran, as president of Cognizant Digital Business, the unit responsible for digital services.The company has brought in former Mphasis CEO Ganesh Ayyar as president of its digital operations and former Wipro executive Jeff Heenan-Jalil as the global head of healthcare.Cognizant’s pursuit to refine its strategic agenda and sharpen its positioning in the market means marketing would get a huge role in areas such as “market positioning, differentiating services and solutions, evolving brand attributes, executing account-based marketing, optimizing media and industry analyst relations, evangelizing customer success stories and designing digital experiences,” Humphries wrote in an email on Monday to the 290,000 employees of the company. ET reviewed a copy of the email.A spokesperson for Cognizant confirmed the development.Under Humphries, Cognizant has been undergoing large-scale restructuring to increase growth and reduce costs. Humphries said in the email that he looked forward to Chand’s leadership to “help grow revenue, extend our global brand, develop greater thought leadership by industry vertical and better position Cognizant in the market.”Debashis Chatterjee, who was EVP and president of global delivery, and Sumithra Gomatam, the president of digital operations, have either left or are leaving the company.Cognizant needs stronger storytelling focused on its digital services, analysts said. “The common feedback we have given the company is that they needed stronger marketing and storytelling. Their clients were happy, but Cognizant was not able to build a story around it,” said Mrinal Rai, principal analyst at ISG, a global technology research and advisory firm.“Cognizant also needs to emerge as a market thought leader in digital services. Clients appreciate services providers who share their views on emerging technology changes on a regular basis,” Rai added.Revenue from digital services contributes to 35% of Cognizant’s overall revenue, as per its second quarter results.

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