Capgemini views India as more than a delivery centre: Group CEO Aiman Ezzat

The company is increasing the number of centres of excellence in the country this year. Many of these will now focus on technologies like IoT, smart factory, intelligent supply chain

For Paris-headquartered IT services major Capgemini, India has always been a key part of its operations, with almost 50 per cent of its employees here. Aiman Ezzat, group CEO of Capgemini, is now making sure that Indian team members also actively become account leaders in terms of managing clients.

“We see India playing a bigger role in managing our clients. A few years ago we did not have a single account executive in India, but today we have managed to grow the number to 100. And many are now becoming global account executives,” said Ezzat in a session of the ongoing 30th edition of Nasscom Technology and Leadership Forum 2022.

The company's total headcount stood at 324,700 at the end of December 2021.

He said that the company was also increasing the number of centres of excellence in India this year; many of these will now focus on technologies like Internet of Things, smart factory, and intelligent supply chain this year.

“In India we have a lot of talent in terms of delivery but it's also a big centre for innovation and growth for the firm. What our India teams are doing on delivery to customers is phenomenal in terms of value creation. We have grown the pool of Indian executives in the firm and in the future there will probably be more Indian senior executives overall at Capgemini,” said Ezzat.

Ezzat also had a different take on the attrition or the trend of ‘great resignation’. He believes that with war for talent now real, one needs to look at engaging people in a different way.

“I have been telling my team that their next best recruit is a person who has just resigned. Because this is the person you want back. We have taking initiatives to bring back some of these people after six months or after one year, and we have been very successful with some initiatives to achieve this,” he added.

Eizzat also said that Capgemini was looking at creating a talent ecosystem that would go beyond the current employee base. “A talent pool where we can tap into people who know how to work with Capgemini -- for example, if somebody has just retired in such a short labour market, I might put them back to work with us on a project for three months. But for that you need to be the talent ecosystem and manage it proactively,” he added.