Reaching for the Stars

Despite having a large workforce, TCS has ensured that it retains its focus on ensuring their well-being 

- KRISHNA GOPALAN

With scale comes the ambition to grow further. Perhaps few companies better illustrate that trait than India’s largest IT firm, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).

To continue growing at such a scale, it is vital to keep an eye on the workforce and retain talent, especially in an industry that is known for high attrition rates. That is a skill TCS has mastered over time.

Milind Lakkad, the company’s Chief Human Resources Officer, points to TCS’s 56-year history as evidence of its success. “People have always been our key priority from inception. We spend a lot of time and effort creating the right systems and continuously building on the foundation,” he says. With a workforce of 601,546—35.6% of them are women—at the end of FY24, one might assume that that kind of attention is not possible. Lakkad makes it clear that the firm retains a “small company culture” that helps keep the focus.

“We see more leaders emerging, and that, along with stable leadership, works very well. It leads to like-minded people who are steeped in TCS culture,” says Lakkad. This helps communicate the company’s message to its diverse workforce, which includes people from 152 nationalities. “Once we get it right on the basic culture piece, it becomes easy for anyone joining us to grasp it, and, eventually, they become torchbearers of the organisation.”