Among the youngest chief operating officers of a global IT company, Francisco D?Souza (35) has played a key role in steering Cognizant Technology Solutions to more than a degree of success ? in less than 10 years.

The Nasdaq-listed company, which has a market capitalisation of $3 billion-plus, continues to set faster rates of growth than its Indian peers and has been rated by Forbes as the number one in the Forbes Top 200 Hot Shot list of companies in the world to watch out for.

A co-founding member of Cognizant and a Carnegie Mellon management graduate, D?Souza leads Cognizant?s global client management platform and delivery organisation, built on the fourth-generation offshore outsourcing model.

Business Standard caught up with D?Souza to understand what makes Cognizant different and the challenges that lie ahead of him to take the company to the next generation of global sourcing.
Excerpts:

Cognizant has been positioning itself as a pioneer in fourth-generation offshore outsourcing. What do you see as the next generation of outsourcing, and how is Cognizant preparing for it?

I see a convergence of global and offshore outsourcing. Historically, customers viewed both these differently. But today, they are seen as synonymous, and it?s hard to talk about outsourcing without talking about global sourcing.

In preparation for this convergence, we are seeing the offshore players trying to get global and the global players trying to get offshore. But we have the unique advantage of having the best of both worlds, and this foundation gives us a significant advantage to play an even more dominant role.

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