Infosys has outlined a three-year roadmap, made some tweaks to its sales and reskilling initiatives, and plans to hire a significant number of non-engineers in its effort to get back to industry-leading growth.

In a call with investors, new CEO Salil Parekh outlined his vision for the company. “In the first year, we will stabilise the company; in the second, we will build momentum and in the third year, accelerate our business,” he said.

Four-pillar strategy

Parekh reiterated to analysts some of the things he said on April 13 — the four-pillar strategy and his effort to reignite growth at a time when some foreign institutional investors have reduced their holding in the company. At the end of March 2018, institutional holding dropped from 38.31 per cent to 35.24 per cent, as per shareholding data. Last fiscal, Infosys’ annual revenue grew 5.8 per cent. The overall market opportunity for digital is $160 billion.

Parekh told investors that since taking over, in January 2018, he had met many clients. They were, he said, unanimous that Infosys knows them best and would best help them navigate the complex business environment as a result of the rapid technological shifts such as digital and automation.

He explained his four-pillar strategy, which includes scaling digital business, energising its client’s core technology business using automation and AI (that forms more than 60 per cent of its business), employee reskilling, and expanding its localisation efforts in the US, Europe and Australia. Digital revenues are pegged at $2.79 billion or 25.5 per cent of its total business. Parekh, who had announced the acquisition of WongDoody, a digital company, also reiterated that the company will look at more M&A opportunities.

The call, with all the top leadership, including COO Pravin Rao and CFO MD Ranganath, dialing in, briefed investors in detail on the strategy that Parekh envisions for a “strong” Infosys.

As a part of this, the company gave out more details on a slew of initiatives. On the technology front, it has identified AR/VR, blockchain, 3D printing or additive manufacturing. Apart from the technological push, the company, which pioneered the model of hiring from engineering colleges and deploying them in projects that involved managing the backend system of banks, is now looking to hire designers. Rao said that the revamped hiring would include going to campuses in India and the US. “More importantly, a diversified talent mix would include designers who can create a user interface which appeals to our customers and building an onsite pyramid, a first in our 37 years existence would be our focus,” said Ravi Kumar S, President and Deputy COO.

This talent pool will be hired in India and the US, in the fields of economics, liberal arts and other connected skills and upskilling them through gamification techniques. The same strategy would be pursued in Europe, Rao added.

Infosys is also betting on automation in many of its service lines like IT infrastructure management and software testing. For example, in testing, Infosys is looking to increase automation from the present 40 per cent to 70 per cent.

Finally, on the sales front, Infosys has put in place a new approach that would focus on specific geographies.

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