You have taken helm at a time when global economies are shrinking due to the Covid-19 storm?
I’m used to them (economic storms) because I took over as the CEO of our Global Financial Services Unit in January 2009, just at the end of the financial crisis. Yes, it is a storm, but with any big change, there’s always great opportunities. This is what our business is made of.
What have client conversations been like in the past six-to-eight weeks?
We are working with them on how to recast some of the economic (business) models. A lot of the discussions are around either how to help them in short term to reduce their cost, how to restart the supply chain… and (help them in) transformation. As you have seen from the numbers of some of the big cloud firms, cloud is booming. So, it’s a lot of work around cloud and cloud migration because it provides flexibility, agility and cost optimisation.
You haven’t given any guidance this year, but given how optimistic you sound, could there be a revision in that decision?
The next few quarters are going to be difficult for everyone — businesses across the world, clients and us. My optimism is around the level of change this will push and our ability to be a big participant in helping companies drive the change. We are here to help companies drive change and change their models, using technology. On the other side, Q2 is going to be difficult and it is going to be a challenging year. Nobody today can assess the speed of recovery.
Will you continue with the large-scale work-from-home setup even after the pandemic?
We are going to have a lot of work from home. There are two parts — our own people who basically work internally and there is the work we deliver for clients. Of course, the clients will authorise the amount of work from home. But overall, there’s no return to where we were before. But for me, because we have experienced some of it in the past, we have to be careful on work from home.
How is the India team shaping in the Capgemini journey?
Half of our employees are in India today. I have been involved with India since 2005, when we had only 2,500 employees here. I had been tasked by (then chairman) Paul (Hermelin) to drive the transformation programme in India and grow India to 10,000 mark. I am deeply convinced that in terms of access to the talent pool and capability, engineering in India is at the centre of success of the group and definitely key, in terms of our ability to provide competitive services to clients. India is also important in terms of developing all our sectoral knowledge and innovation.