Do you know which is the largest IT services company by revenue and Total Market Capitalization in India today- It’s Tata Consultancy Services. Popularly named TCS by all Indians, it is a leading global IT service, consulting, and business solutions organization. The company traces its history back to 1968 when Faquir Chand Kohli, Tata Sons, and J.R. D. Tata laid the foundation of TCS. There are many facts about TCS that one must want to know.
Tata is practically everywhere. Every product we use today has some role of the Tata empire in it. The group has become one of India’s most respected business conglomerates because it grounds itself on five core principles- Integrity, Excellence, Responsibility, Pioneering, and Unity.
The TCS network of partners includes well-reputed software providers, platform and IT infrastructure vendors, and niche technology developers. Some of its partners are Oracle, Google Cloud, Microsoft, Bosch, IBM, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Salesforce, and Ayehu to name a few.
Let’s quickly talk about 10 important facts about TCS that we bet you didn’t know.
1. Invests in Startups
Can you list the names of all the startups, TCS has invested in? There are many.
In the words of Ratan Tata “If you want to walk fast, walk alone. But if you want to walk far, walk together.” Ratan Tata’s style of investment and funding is remarkable as all the investments he has made so far have emerged as giants in their respective sectors.
He has invested in startups like Ola, Paytm, Lenskart, Abra, Urban Clap, Xiaomi, Infinite Analysis, Zivame, and more. Moreover, Tata’s investments helped these companies raise their profile and funds. His growth and business development investment strategy make Tata a giant and progressive company.
The company invested Rs. 3,000 crores in FY21.
2. Humiliation by Ford
Can we think of any company which doesn’t suffer from losses or regretted making bad decisions? Certainly not. The same happened with TCS too.
The company was not living its good days in 1998 and faced challenges due to huge losses. It decided to sell Tata’s car business to Ford in 1999. However, an incident with Ford officials changed the course of history that eventually led to the cancellation of the deal.
Nonetheless, the industrialist Ratan Tata faced humiliated for not knowing much about the car business. However, he took revenge in 2008 and successfully bought Ford’s Jaguar and Land Rover. Ford chairman also thanked Ratan Tata for doing this big favour to the Ford Group.
3. World’s Largest AI-ready Workforce – CEO Krithivasan
The CEO of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) said that as employees are learning new skills and have a strong “culture of engineering. TCS now has one of the biggest workforces ready for artificial intelligence (AI) in the world. The company has trained 300,000 employees in basic AI skills. The CEO, K Krithivasan, praised employees for their efforts in learning and skilling up in AI.
In an email to employees at the end of FY24, the CEO wrote, “Your efforts in learning and skilling yourselves on this front have led to TCS building one of the largest and most AI-ready workforces in the world. This is another tribute to the culture of engineering we have at TCS, and I am eager to see it grow from strength to strength.”
4. Number of Employees
TCS has been ranked as the Number One Top Employer in Europe, MEA, and the Asia Pacific. But do you know the actual number of employees that TCS works with? As of September 2023, Tata Consultancy Services has over 608,985 employees all over the world. The total number includes employees of 156 nationalities across 46 countries.
Furthermore, as of 2023, TCS has over 350,000 women employees worldwide, accounting for nearly 35% of its total workforce.
5. Contribution in the Education Sector
TCS has become the leading provider of digital education content and professional development for K-12 classrooms. Its initiative – Ignite My Future in School (IMFIS) helps transform the way students learn. It is a transdisciplinary education program which came into effect in 2017.
This program aims to enable educators, administrators, and school districts to become ambassadors of a transdisciplinary approach. It also aims to introduce computer science within the content of subjects like English, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, and Arts.
6. Awards and Recognition
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has won three 2023 Google Cloud Partner of the Year Awards:
- Global Talent Development Partner of the Year
- Industry Solution Services Partner of the Year – Financial Services & Insurance
- Industry Solution Services Partner of the Year – Retail & Consumer Packaged Goods.
Meanwhile, it has won the 2023 Microsoft Partner of the Year Award in the category MVP Industry Solutions Global Systems Integrator (GSI).
TCS also won the 2023 Microsoft US Partner of the Year Award in the categories Global Systems Integrator, Industrials and Manufacturing, and Dynamics 365 Sales and Marketing, as well as the Malaysia Customer Success Partner of the Year.
It was honoured with #1 for customer satisfaction for the sixth consecutive year in Europe’s largest independent survey of IT service providers, carried out by Whitelane Research in 2018. TCS today has become one of the prominent companies to be admired for its leadership skills all over the world.
7. Discontinuation of Tata Nano
Have you heard about the hullabaloo that Nano cars made in 2008? The credit for it goes to TCS.
The company launched Tata Nano at the 2008 Delhi Auto Show with an initial price of Rs 1 lakh. Although Ratan Tata created a car that was cheap enough for Indian families to trade in their motorbikes, it became a loss-making model. The company also admitted that it made a huge mistake by launching this car.
Unfortunately, the company produced zero units of Nano in 2019. It recorded zero sales in January 2018 in the domestic market.
8. Research and Development Boom
Which is the first Research centre setup in Pune?
It’s the Tata Research Development and Design Center (TRDCC)
TCS takes the credit for becoming the first company to set up the first-ever software research centre in Pune. Subsequently, Tata Research Development and Design Center (TRDCC) researches software engineering, process engineering, and machine learning.
Today, TRDCC is the largest R & D facility among the innovation centres at TCS. The centre made a prolific innovation by inventing a low-cost water purifier. It can be manufactured using locally available resources. Subsequently, the project came to be known as Swach (formerly known as Sujal).
9. Hiring Freshers
According to the COO of TCS, N Ganapathy Subramaniam, the company plans to hire as many as 40,000 freshers for the financial year 2024. The hiring decision will be based on the company’s business performance every quarter. Hiring students from campus recruitment is important as well.
The company remains committed to campus recruitment, despite the number of freshers in FY2024 will be lower compared to last year’s count of 44,000. In addition, the company’s dedication towards employee growth and development can be seen when it rolled out the annual salary increase in its workforce from April 1, 2023. It also invested significantly in training 103,000 employees. The main priority of the company is campus recruitment and skill development to maintain the growth trajectory.
10. Donation to Harvard Business School
Have you heard about HBS and TCS’s biggest donation to it?
In 2013 Tata Group donated $50 million (Rs 220 crore) to Harvard Business School (Boston, USA) from the Dorabji Tata Trust and the Tata Education and Development Trust. The Group became the largest donor ever in the School’s 102-year history.
However, Tata Trusts faced accusations of favouring Harvard over underprivileged Indian Universities. It was alleged that trusts were committing blatant tax violations. It has denied allegations and misuse of any kind of exemptions.
The argument was backed by the fact that HBS has educated more than 400 MBAs and over 2200 executives and senior government leaders from India.
