The way forward
The economic outlook for the United States is showing a positive trend but the recovery is slower than expected. The American economy grew at 2.7 per cent in Q1 2010. This growth was below forecasts and was a deceleration of the 5.6 per cent expansion in Q4 2009. Economists are forecasting that the economy will grow about 3.8 per cent in Q2.

We are always looking to contribute more to the overall growth of TCS. Currently North America accounts for 55 per cent of TCS’s global revenues; last year it was 52.3 per cent. We are now generating close to a billion dollars a quarter in revenue and continuing to increase our contribution to the bottom line.

In the coming months, TCS North America will maintain focus on its core business while expanding its footprint and giving special focus to nonlinear growth models. We will also focus on dream accounts by establishing a strategy for pursuit and closure, and will leverage our full services capabilities to bundle services and pursue large, multi-tower deals.

The challenges to growth will come from the continued uncertain economic outlook, government regulations and the maturity of the market to accept platform-based solutions.

New clients
Our key new clients in FY10 in sectors including insurance, banking, hospitality and retail are ramping up well. For Q1 2011 we had 14 new client wins, including a leading wholesale provider of technology products and supply chain services, and an industrial distribution company.

The overall pipeline scenario for new business is also showing positive trends, with a couple of large deals in the $100-million-plus category and many deals in the $20-50-million segment in mature sales stages.

The challenges ahead
Clients are always looking to get the best value from their investment. However, we have been able to keep our pricing stable while also maintaining margins by providing differentiated value-added services.

Yes, there is going to be margin pressure but we expect to hold our margins by moving up the value chain and commanding a premium for our quality, brand name, process maturity and full services capabilities.

Brand building
We launched the ‘Experience Certainty’ campaign more than three years ago through internal and external media. We were successful in aligning TCS across the United States to this message, and our clients’ perception of our brand corresponds highly to our positioning. They believe that we deliver results with a higher level of certainty than our competitors.

Taking this forward, we have begun to engage in some key sports sponsorships, including the Boston, Chicago and New York City marathons, and will be leveraging these sponsorships to continue to promote our brand in this market.