Rank - 1 : TCS : Baptism By Fire

The perennial #1 in the DQ Top20 club, TCS recorded its
lowest growth in recent years. Not a particularly auspicious beginning for
Chandra as the new man at the helm of affairs, even though he has been the
official CEO designate for years now. What should have assured him though are
figures like operating margins going up 304 basis points to 26.7% and net
profits going up 33%. And, anyway, the CEO could not be responsible for the
revenue diprecessionary economy, forcing budget cuts and consolidation into
fewer vendors, market economics dictating pricing reduction by close to 4% and
the drastic fall of the pound and euro. In fact, revenues from UK dipped from
19% to 16% and even that from continental Europe dipped marginally.

Chandra and TCS overall should be commended for growing
the offshore component from 44% to 51%, reducing the SG&A from 21% to 19%,
increasing fixed price-fixed time contracts from 45% of its revenues to 48% and
increasing manpower utilization (including trainees) from 69% to 74%all helped
tide over the storm with minimal damages. Even though revenues from telecom and
manufacturing dipped by 3% and 11% respectively, the impact was offset with
increase from BFSI and retail and CPG13% and 28% respectively. Not surprising,
considering that a European government agency awarded TCS a $500 mn full
services contract to administer its pension scheme; a global electronics
conglomerate for its end-to-end infrastructure services and a US based
commercial insurance company to shift to a managed services model.

The much touted 10-by-10 (once a key strategic statement
in TCS House yielded mixed results. TCS failed to reach the $10 bn mark in FY10,
but was definitely among the Top10 IT services providers globally. The equitable
geographic as well as vertical distribution re-emphasized its global pedigree;
but more importantly, facts like manpower strength of 1,60,429 (including the
largest ever quarterly gross addition of 16,851 in Q4) and overseas employees
from eighty nationalities elevated TCS to an Indian showcase on the global
arena.

Except topline all other figures mentioned include
BPO revenues