CMC has been a part of the Tata group for more than a decade now. How has the company evolved over the years?
The journey over the last 11 years has been one of transformation. In 2001, when CMC became a part of the Tata group, it had an operating margin of 4.3 percent and weak financials; as much as 36 percent of its projects were low margin and its overseas market presence brought in only 26 percent of its business.

Though competent people in the company had worked on several key projects, there were still several challenges to overcome. To set the house in order, CMC embarked on an aggressive plan — called ‘ability to agility’ — and worked on processes, people, certifications, mindsets and a new business model.

We transformed ourselves completely. We fixed the back end — got the necessary ISO certifications, established CMMi Level 5 processes, etc — and we focused on the front end. We created a solid business development team, rationalised our businesses and our product portfolio, and we started paying attention to high-margin projects, process compliance and innovation. Moving away from low-value business helped immensely. Though it meant sacrificing the top line, it ensured better margins and a healthy bottom line.

All of these created systematic benefits for the company. As of now, our operating margin is 15.1 percent, 60 percent of our business is from abroad and our domestic business has a 50-50 contribution from the private sector and the government. Within this mix, 90 percent is value-adding, high-margin business.

CMC now has bases in the United States, Britain, New Zealand and Dubai, and we handle large projects for customers in America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

What are the key businesses and verticals of the company today?
Our fastest growing business today is embedded product development. A decade ago CMC had a bunch of engineers from some of the best institutes in India; these people were proficient in both hardware and software. To make the best of this talent pool, we created a group called embedded and real-time systems, which was later converted into a strategic business unit (SBU). This SBU grew rapidly and it brought us the first set of our overseas projects, which were high-tech in nature and inspired a lot of pride in the company. It established the fact that we were capable of catering to the international market in a domain that we are unique in.

We have grown this practice by over 1,500 percent, through marquee clients such as the Danaher group, Motorola, Ericsson and Xerox. The work that this SBU is doing is world-class. Our Hyderabad facility houses laboratories for our customers, which are extensions of their own product development labs. For example, Xerox has set up a testing lab in India with CMC, where the latest Xerox printers to be released in the market are tested for both software and hardware, to ensure that they work across platforms, devices and networks.

A few years ago we started the process of rationalising our product portfolio (bringing our range down from about 100 to 20). We looked at what needed to be sustained, what needed to be exited from and what needed to be built or developed upon. We decided to focus on replicable and value-adding projects; we were able to invest our efforts once and reap the benefits on an ongoing basis.

Over the years, these capabilities have shaped into several verticals: banking and financial services, insurance, government, manufacturing, energy resources and utilities, transportation, hitech and telecom, retail and fast-moving consumer goods, defence and space, and education and training.

CMC has several global hubs, of which CMC Americas, the American subsidiary, has been doing remarkably well. What is the focus area for this company?
In a time when most IT organisations have faced challenges in the United States, CMC Americas has grown by 47-48 percent over the last couple of years. It has been a very heart-warming performance for us. The company focuses on three areas: asset-based services and solutions, embedded and real-time systems, and digitisation and work-flow management services.

With analytics becoming more and more important, digitisation has gained importance. This practice has grown fast for CMC in the United States. More than 50 percent of the company’s business comes from outside India, where, five years ago, this was nil. The same focus is now being replicated in Europe. We have intensified our presence there and we have a senior person in charge of operations there. We are already seeing some positive results.

What is CMC doing in the area of sustainability?
We introduced ‘C-Green’ — where C stands for CMC and to “see” — to promote our green initiatives in three ways: to provide green IT-based solutions, to use IT to green business processes in organisations, and to spread awareness on how to adopt green practices and help mitigate the effects of climate change in day-to-day life. CMC has a computer-based training programme that is offered free and distributed through the Computer Society of India, where we head the green initiative special interest group.

In 2011, we launched ePragati, an initiative to empower emerging India. ePragati focuses on 22 emerging cities in India and offers a platform for dialogue between technology companies and academic institutions, industries and government bodies that function at the local level. The idea is to develop an ecosystem in a region while addressing the needs of that region.

CMC has always been known for pioneering projects. We want to take this to the next level in all the identified emerging cities. We want to help bring technology to the masses.

People are important in an IT industry; they are also a challenge. Being a mid-sized IT company, how do you keep people motivated?
Historically, CMC has had a talented pool of people. When the Tata group took over the company it chose to retain all of the 3,000 employees and, over the years, this employee strength has grown considerably.

We have several people-related initiatives. CMC Connect, for instance, is aimed at people bonding and team building. A monthly function is held in every region; it is theme-based and a fun event, with employees participating in skits and singing.

In the monthly CMC ki adalat (CMC’s court room), conducted as part of CMC Connect, employees can grill a senior executive on any issue. It provides employees with a platform to share critical feedback in an environment where they don’t feel threatened. We try to lace it with humour, but we do have a judge to deliver judgement on the issue.

We also have a scheme, called Our CEO Call, where I am available on the phone and any employee can log in and ask a question. This is held once every quarter and it gives people an open field to listen and to ask about the company’s directions and strategies. When we found that there were several HR-related questions being asked, we introduced the Our HR Call process to address such problems.

How is innovation encouraged and promoted in CMC?
We have a lot of innovation capability in the company and we want to be seen as an organisation that is constantly spurring innovation. To encourage people to continue innovating in all that they do and give them their due credit, we recognise and reward people on CMC Day, which is an annual event. The highest honour, the CMC Ratna, is given to someone whose innovative service has brought great benefit over a sustained period of time. The interesting bit here is that the winners are decided by a committee and there is weightage for peer reviews as well. The awards have contributed positively to the innovation culture of the organisation; today, everyone feels capable of innovating.

CMC actively participates in Tata InnoVista [the annual innovation competition of the Tata group]. When InnoVista was launched three years back, in the first year itself we received about 150 entries, the second year the figure jumped to 227, and this year we closed at 456 entries. It is astonishing to see the level of participation, with people turning in entries and checking if they could be considered even after the last day. While not all entries can be sent for InnoVista, each entry is addressed within the company to see which of these ideas can be taken forward. This has had a positive impact.

What are CMC’s plans and projections for the year ahead? How does the company see itself evolving over the next few years?
Having achieved the agility target, in 2011 we launched a new initiative called CMC 3.0, where the focus is growth through customer centricity. We want to bring the benefits of technologies such as cloud, mobility and enterprise analytics to help customers improve their businesses. The idea is to look upon technology as an enabler for the customer’s business and measure ourselves as positive only if the outcome for the customer is positive.

We want to be among the global top 20 system engineering and integration companies by 2020. There is an opportunity for CMC to be a quick value accelerator to our parent company, Tata Consultancy Services, and to the Tata group. We would also like to explore synergies with Tata companies that have a global presence. For a company of our size, there is a huge advantage in being a part of the group — we can set new standards and we can achieve them.