One of the youngest chief executives of the Tata Group, Gopinathan is effecting change from within to project a bolder TCS in line with the real capabilities it already delivers
Rajesh Gopinathan, CEO and managing director, Tata Consultancy Services
Image: Mexy XavierÂ
Rajesh Gopinathan became CEO at TCS in February 2017, when his boss N Chandrasekaran was tapped to run the Tata Group. Gopinathan, one of the youngest CEOs in the Group, has overseen TCS’s change into an organisation that is geared to meeting the needs of customers in a world where automation and AI will play a central role.
He is credited with conceptualising TCS’s machine-first delivery model. Last year, the company also successfully implemented its ‘Agile 2020’ plan, even as Covid-19 forced the bulk of its employees to work from home. The plan is a reference to both the name of a technical framework for software development that developers have increasingly adopted, and to the idea that the company needs to be nimbler in anticipating and meeting the IT and software needs of customers.
When Covid-19 struck, no one could have anticipated it, but Agile 2020 gave the company the tech infrastructure and the collaborative mindset to come up with what TCS today calls 'secure borderless work spaces’; the company has helped customers adopt their own versions of this framework as well.
Going forward, Gopinathan sees TCS sitting at the intersection of the business and technology needs of his biggest customers, offering advice and tech know-how to help those customers choose ecosystems best suited for their needs.