With over 70 percent of the company’s workforce of more than 13,000 based in the country, India is the centre of expertise in R&D and innovation, says Arun Shastri, Principal of the US-based management consulting and technology firm ZS. In 2025, the company intends to add close to 2,000 more employees in the country, he said.

“We consider India our expertise center, driving a lot of innovation then implemented across our global offices. Approximately two-thirds of our employees are based here. Our first office was in Pune, where we now have two offices. We also have offices in Gurgaon, Noida, and Bengaluru. Our Indian offices mirror the global operations, with teams working in tandem with colleagues worldwide. The microcosm of everything we do globally happens across these three offices,” he added.

In the country, ZS started its operations in 2005. Today, it has six offices across Pune, Bengaluru, Gurgaon, Noida, Chennai and Hyderabad. In the past 19 years, the company’s India headcount has grown close to 9,000 people.

Campus recruitment drives

This year, the company added about 1,700 employees, most of whom were from campus recruitment drives across the country. In 2025, it will target close to 2,000 new additions including campus hires.

With 90 per cent of the company’s innovation and client impact driven out of India, the country is an innovation, technology, and talent hub for global clients, he said.

Shastri continued, “We recently opened a small office in Hyderabad and have a small entity in Chennai that we might expand. We aim to strengthen our existing offices and expand geographically.”

The Hyderabad office will support ZS’ expanding client needs by delivering GCC services, he noted, adding the company is harnessing Hyderabad’s workforce to provide clients with advisory and consulting expertise, managed operations, platform development and management, and scalable talent augmentation.

However, most of the company’s Indian workforce is aimed at serving its clients on a more global basis. “We work globally, in Europe, Japan, China and the US. We have limited, if at all, any India-originated clients. In the past, we have targeted India as a market. We do work with clients’ needs in India,” Shastri said.

The privately held company has about 400 principals globally who collectively own the company. ZS caters to clients across sectors including life sciences, high tech, travel and hospitality, agricultural products, and medical technology solutions.