Bengaluru: Infosys CEO Salil Parekh said the IT company had hired 4,000 out of its 2021 target of 10,000 US locals, as its model adapts to tightening immigration policies and meet a growing demand from clients for local professionals who can jointly work on emerging areas such as digital.
Parekh has made localisation one of the company’s four main tasks in his three-year strategic plan. The other three are investing in digital, increasing the use of artificial intelligence and automation and re-skilling the company’s talent.
“Out of our target for 10,000 local hires, we have achieved 4,000 local hires. We made 800 college hires in FY18, we are looking at getting that to 1,000 in the next year,” Parekh told investors at Morgan Stanley’s Twentieth Annual India Summit held in Mumbai.
He added that the IT industry would have to adapt its business model as the global dynamic surrounding immigration has changed. Parekh, who took over as CEO earlier this year, has looked at putting the corporate governance battle at the company and the acrimonious resignation of former CEO Vishal Sikka behind the Bengaluru-headquartered company.
“With the transformation we are driving, we need a phase of calming down and stabilising. If we can do that doing this year, we will be a far stronger company going ahead,” Parekh said.
Parekh’s strategy requires the company to stabilise in FY19, build momentum in FY20 and accelerate in FY21. Parekh’s plan also requires the company to sacrifice some of its margin to make investments that will lead to faster growth. Infosys has reduced its target margin band to 22-24% in FY19 from 23-25%. It expects to grow 6-8% in dollar revenue, lower than the 7-9% industry growth forecast by software lobby Nasscom.
Parekh attempted to calm investor fears over the uncertainty in the margin in FY20 and beyond.
“Operationally, our business is in a very strong position with respect to margins. We built a high margin business over a large number of years and we are not going to give up building a high-margin business for the future.
What we are doing with the investments is very specific – to increase our client relevance and to reskill our employees for the future,” he said. He added that the investments would make the digital business grow and gaining share from weaker competitors would help boost growth in the core business.