We focus equally on tech and innovation: Capgemini CTO Patrick Nicolet

Capgemini measures the impact in terms of growth, not the margin, says Patrick Nicolet

French information technology (IT) services major Capgemini has laser-sharp focus on the services side of business, while all its tech innovations are aimed at improving client delivery. In an interview, Capgemini Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and member of the Group Executive Board PATRICK NICOLET tells Debasis Mohapatra and Bibhu Ranjan Mishra that the firm looks at innovations to grow the business. Unlike Indian IT firms, he does not want to get into product and platform business. This will help it remain product-agnostic and bring in the best of the breed solutions to clients. Edited excerpts:

CTOs are rare breed in IT services firms. As group CTO, what has been your mandate? How does such a structure support the company’s growth?
 

I report to the chairman and chief executive officer because of the strategic importance of technology. The company is also organised around technology domains. By design, we have decided to decentralise because in a service organisation, you need to build capabilities. We have eight domain leaders. We focus equally on technology and innovation to develop and shape the agenda of the group and define the road map by connecting with client organisations. Typically, we don’t start from scratch, as we have many used cases. For instance, in case of blockchain, the adoption is slow. Our job is to find the growth pattern (in new technologies). All our technologies and innovations are focused on driving growth.

Can you give some specific examples?
 

We are the suppliers of distinctive technologies for a client. The firm floated a request for proposal for finding a strategic partner to create a digital arm. In a matter of weeks, all our units and account teams had to reposition themselves, so that we could be the strategic partner. How did we do this? We have done this through shifting of knowledge, which helped us to win the mandate.

India has a vibrant start-up ecosystem. How is Capgemini tapping into this space?

From our perspective, we have been working with start-ups for years, though we have not spoken much about it. Now we are giving it formal shape. We are also planning to launch Capgemini Venture, through which we will manage our venture capital activities in start-ups. This has been launched a few months back. This is the way to enhance our ability to enhance our engagements with start-ups. This fund would look at all geographies, including India.

How do you see India’s talent base as Capgemini has more than 100,000 engineers here? What are your expectations?

It (India centre) is the backbone of our group and constitutes the bulk of our global delivery capabilities. In our industry, young engineers are only excited about a challenging assignment, and it has been our constant endeavour to support them. We have also launched what we call an Innovation Theatre in India, which will allow us to draw inspiration from companies and start-ups that we work with globally. Here, all our successful used cases will be showcased.

How have you been able to translate these innovations to drive revenue and improve profitability?

We report two numbers. Rotation of portfolios has accelerated. From our point of view, we measure the impact in terms of growth, not the margin. We focus on innovations to achieve growth and not for productivity. The company has an industrialisation team and a portfolio team, which look at margins by optimising delivery. But, I don’t want the technology and innovation team to be constrained by our current capabilities. We need to look at the demand to capture that. Also, when we say growth, it is basically new kinds of growth. Also, we are not in the business of IPs, as we are a service organisation. It’s not part of our strategy to develop products.