Cognizant is hiring sociologists and anthropologists to read clients' minds

Cognizant is hiring anthropologists and sociologists on its payroll as it tries to broaden customer base with differentiated offerings. This comes after the Nasdaq-listed IT services company hired doctors and paramedics.

The aim is to understand the clients’ psyche better and improve customer experience, apart from strengthening the consulting practices that are key to garnering a larger share of clients’ new technology spends, R Chandrasekaran, executive vice-chairman and co-founder of Cognizant, told Business Standard.
 

"Everyone knows about hiring engineers. Now, for digital business to be successful, we need to understand the end-customer's psychology. Unless you do that, you will never be able to serve him," he said.

The Teaneck, New Jersey-headquartered company, which has a huge delivery presence in India and fiercely competes with India-based IT services majors such as TCS and Infosys, derives close to 30 per cent of its revenues from digital services and solutions.

Chandrasekhar said as those skills were not available within the organisation, the company was hiring professionals with human factor engineering skills, like anthropologists and sociologists. “With their involvement, we would be able to give the right kind of application to our end customers," he said.

While Cognizant has already hired around a 100 anthropologists and sociologists, it has also invested in a human resource firm Red Associates, which gives the firm access to another 300-400 such professionals.

Cognizant figures upto Sept 2018, Calendar year financials; Compiled by BS Research Bureau. Source:Bloomberg

Cognizant — completing its 25-year journey this Saturday — is one of the first firms in IT that has roped in doctors and paramedics to strengthen health care practices. Of late, companies in this space have started hiring people from varied backgrounds such as economics, statistics, mathematics and design.  

"In the past 25 years, we have gone through several transformations. But that has taken a long time. When I look at the next transformation, it is going to be faster with a shorter life cycle. This gives Cognizant a great more opportunity," Chandrasekhar said.

Started in 1994 as a captive of Dun & Bradstreet with headquarters in Chennai, Cognizant today has positioned itself as one of the fastest growing companies globally. In the past five years, it reported the highest CAGR in its revenue and profit at 11.4 per cent and 12 per cent, respectively, when compared with Indian rivals such as TCS, Infosys and Wipro.

"We are in a good space to cash in those opportunities and make investments ahead of time. So, for us, the future only looks brighter than what we have seen in the past," he said.

One of the early ingredients of its growth, according to Chandrasekhar, was sown in the very first workshop it conducted in Chennai after establishing itself as an independent company in the 1990s, and that was on ‘value system’.