MUMBAI: It’s now two years since Ravi Kumar took charge as CEO of Cognizant, and some metrics suggest he’s pulling the company out of the trough it had fallen into.
Kumar said Cognizant has moved to the ‘middle of the stack’ among its peers, after remaining at the bottom – an apparent reference to the company doing better than Capgemini, Wipro and Tech Mahindra in the latest quarter. “I’m not saying I’m going to be in the top three this year, but I’ve directionally moved up. From the middle of the stack to the top of the stack is harder because now you must compete with performing companies. I have all the machinery aligned to be a market leader, and that’s why I feel confident about it,” Kumar said at the Nasscom Technology & Leadership Forum 2025 in Mumbai. Peers like Accenture, TCS and Infosys are continuing to do better than Cognizant, which registered a 2% organic growth in Dec quarter.
In the last two calendar years, the Nasdaq-listed firm experienced a decline in organic revenue.
Kumar said he has improved significantly on the number of large deals signed. In the Dec quarter, Cognizant signed ten large deals with a total contract value of more than $100 million.
He said Cognizant’s two core verticals – healthcare and BFSI – are doing better than earlier. He also said he has diversified the business, both in terms of industry verticals, and horizontal services, thereby bringing greater resilience to the firm. He said the task of geographic diversification will take longer.
“We’re starting to enter a growth phase. We are guided for organic growth this quarter too. There are places where we are not doing well and areas where it’s work in progress. We have a margin expansion plan. We are no longer a company sitting on the side,” Kumar said.
He said Cognizant improved employee utilisation, directly impacting the bottom line. It also implemented AI-driven productivity measures. He said with machines writing 20% of the code, teams can accomplish more tasks with fewer personnel.