From humble beginnings, Infosys has transformed itself into a global player on the basis of ethics, values and performance. Now, it’s time for the company to take the ultimate leap by marrying its global delivery model with consulting
The textbook definition of holistic marketing is that the entire company must think customer. But it’s rare to actually listen to a person with a finance background talking so extensively about marketing strategy.
Infosys CFO V. Balakrishnan is an exception to that norm. In a write up titled, CFO strategies for winning in a Flat World, he mentions how the company measures its success by the success of its customers and how the key is to be a transformation partner for clients. He also indicates the company’s strategic intent when he says, “Leveraging countries like India is critical to our ability to select the best talent so we can address the needs of our global customers.” We don’t mean intent in terms of customer commitment; Infosys has been famous for that, with 97.3% of turnover as repeat business in FY 2009-10. The interesting part is where he says “leveraging countries like India”. Clearly, Infosys now finds the tag of ‘Indian IT company’ relatively irrelevant as compared to the tag of a ‘global IT company headquartered in India’. Going by the ‘chop shop’, and later ‘body shop’ remarks made by US senator Charles Schumer recently, the strategic shift is spot on for a company that has always endeavoured to be ahead of its time.
Infosys measures its brand value on an internal basis using the ‘generic brand earnings multiple model’ by Michael Birkin. For the financial year 2009-10, the value works out to be `36,907 crore; around 24.7% of its market capitalisation for the year. One of the most interesting facets of brand Infosys is that it is a unique case of a B2B brand that prides itself in the tremendous recognition it enjoys in the B2C space. In fact, the company has been monitoring brand recall regularly since 2004. It does surveys on brand recall in the US, with the target audience as ordinary people rather than CIOs. Of course, the larger challenge is to ensure that all the key stakeholders remain positive about their association with the company, which they ensure through both performance parameters as well as regular communication. Ramanujam Sridhar, CEO, Brand-Comm has elucidated Infosys’ branding strategy quite elaborately in his book – One Land, One Billion Minds, and comments to 4Ps B&M, “Infosys is a typical South Indian company in a certain sense, since they are largely conservative, profitable and well run. But South Indian companies are generally “understated” in their relations with the external world, that includes the media.
Infosys talks about its achievements in the media, that too in a planned and strategic way.”
For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.
The textbook definition of holistic marketing is that the entire company must think customer. But it’s rare to actually listen to a person with a finance background talking so extensively about marketing strategy.
Infosys CFO V. Balakrishnan is an exception to that norm. In a write up titled, CFO strategies for winning in a Flat World, he mentions how the company measures its success by the success of its customers and how the key is to be a transformation partner for clients. He also indicates the company’s strategic intent when he says, “Leveraging countries like India is critical to our ability to select the best talent so we can address the needs of our global customers.” We don’t mean intent in terms of customer commitment; Infosys has been famous for that, with 97.3% of turnover as repeat business in FY 2009-10. The interesting part is where he says “leveraging countries like India”. Clearly, Infosys now finds the tag of ‘Indian IT company’ relatively irrelevant as compared to the tag of a ‘global IT company headquartered in India’. Going by the ‘chop shop’, and later ‘body shop’ remarks made by US senator Charles Schumer recently, the strategic shift is spot on for a company that has always endeavoured to be ahead of its time.
Infosys measures its brand value on an internal basis using the ‘generic brand earnings multiple model’ by Michael Birkin. For the financial year 2009-10, the value works out to be `36,907 crore; around 24.7% of its market capitalisation for the year. One of the most interesting facets of brand Infosys is that it is a unique case of a B2B brand that prides itself in the tremendous recognition it enjoys in the B2C space. In fact, the company has been monitoring brand recall regularly since 2004. It does surveys on brand recall in the US, with the target audience as ordinary people rather than CIOs. Of course, the larger challenge is to ensure that all the key stakeholders remain positive about their association with the company, which they ensure through both performance parameters as well as regular communication. Ramanujam Sridhar, CEO, Brand-Comm has elucidated Infosys’ branding strategy quite elaborately in his book – One Land, One Billion Minds, and comments to 4Ps B&M, “Infosys is a typical South Indian company in a certain sense, since they are largely conservative, profitable and well run. But South Indian companies are generally “understated” in their relations with the external world, that includes the media.
Infosys talks about its achievements in the media, that too in a planned and strategic way.”
For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).
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