TCS strengthens leadership to accelerate focus on AI, data, Cloud

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India’s largest information technology (IT) services firm, is sharpening its focus on emerging technology areas such as artificial intelligence (AI), data, and Cloud. In line with this strategic push, the firm has announced key leadership appo­int­ments following its results for the fourth quarter of 2024-25 (Q4FY25). 

Aarthi Subramanian has been named executive director-president and chief operating officer (COO), while Mangesh Sathe has been appointed as chief strategy officer. These appointments are aimed at bolstering the company’s leadership capacity as it aligns itself with next-generation growth drivers. Providing more insights into Subramanian’s role, K Krithivasan, managing director & chief executive officer (MD&CEO) of TCS, in an internal communication viewed by Business Standard, said: “To further strengthen our leadership capacity and drive our strategic priorities, Aarthi will lead our service lines. She will also provide executive oversight to manufacturing and TechSS industry verticals. The business leaders of these areas will report to her.”

  Subramanian will take charge of key service lines identified as core growth areas — AI, internet of things (IoT), cybersecurity, enterprise solutions, and Cloud. These focus areas were highlighted during “Blitz”, TCS’s annual strategic event. “These five will be TCS’ hyper-focus areas,” said a source familiar with the matter. Similarly, Sathe will look into mergers & acquisitions (M&As), consulting, and all other strategic initiatives, ensuring alignment with the company’s growth road map. 

Asked about these senior-level appointments, Krithivasan told this newspaper, “We believe that AI, data, and Cloud are important drivers for our growth. We also looked at digital engineering, cybersecurity, enterprise solutions, and a few others… these are the key service lines that will drive growth. Once we identified certain service lines as key drivers of growth, we realised that we have to double down in terms of what we do in each of them. We believe that we require additional bandwidth to drive this focus. We, hence, appointed a COO and chief strategy officer, who would focus on executing the strategy we have taken. We are also setting up an India consulting business.” 

In a further move to strengthen operational capabilities, TCS also appointed Chandrasekaran Ramkumar as the global head of Resource Management Group (RMG). His appointment is effective from May 1, 2025. Before this, Ramkumar was playing the lead human resource (HR) role for the UK and Ireland. 

“Ram, as he is popularly known, brings rich and diverse experience as a HR leader at TCS spanning over 25 years. His experience in RMG includes leading RMG in Chennai and North America. In the past, he has been the head of HR for retail and CPG (consumer packaged goods) group, and HR head for the Chennai branch,” said an email from Milind Lakkad, Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO), TCS. In 2023, the RMG came under scanner due to irregularity in hiring business associates or contractors. TCS works with close to 1,000 staffing firms. After the investigation into the issue, TCS had sacked six employees and blacklisted as many staffing firms.