When I think of where the experts in the field of technology and digital innovation live, I instantly think of Silicon Valley. There are plenty of incredibly talented alumni and tech leaders in those areas, but by focusing so much on the “common” places, I often forget that there are plenty of incredibly talented people right in our backyard.
That’s why it was a pleasant surprise when Deep Pandey (Head of Marketing and Communications in the Manufacturing, Energy, and Resources sector) from Tata Consultancy Services connected us to Subhash Sakorikar, Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer of Manufacturing, Energy, and Resources at Tata Consultancy Services. He lives right around the corner in Troy, Michigan. Thank you to Deep Pandey for opening his network and connecting us with incredible leaders like Subhash that exist at TCS. Business+Tech looks to demystify the world of tech and expand tech understanding. This article does just that!
INTRODUCTION TO TCS
Before we dive into the interview with Subhash, let’s learn a bit about Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). They are an IT services, consulting, and business solutions organization that has been partnering with many of the world’s largest businesses for the past 50 years (more in-depth bio can be found at the end of the article).
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- 614K workforce globally distributed highly localized
- 150 nationalities represented
- 35.7% women in workforce with an 85%+ increase in executive roles over 5 years
- 171k employees are deep-skilled. 121 hours of average learning hours per employee per year
- 14 industries serviced such as banking, manufacturing, life sciences, and healthcare
- 200+ U-M alumni represented in entry-level to executive roles
BIO ON SUBHASH SAKORIKAR
Subhash heads the strategy, growth, and transformation function and leads domain and technology capability groups for Manufacturing, Energy, and Resources segments for TCS.
In this role, Subhash oversees business and technology capabilities across the value chain of product design, supply chain, manufacturing operations, and customer experience transformation. Over the last decade, he has heavily focused on digital transformation and evolving new business models for its clients. With around 30 years with TATA group companies, prior to TCS he has played various leadership roles at Tata Motors and as National Product Manager for TATA-Hitachi Construction Machinery Co managing new product launches. He has been deeply involved in product management, marketing, dealer selection and development, Sales and Service force development.
At TCS, he has advised many leading clients in manufacturing companies in automotive, industrial and aerospace and has contributed to various thought leadership journals, published a number of white papers on Digital Customer Experience, Servitization, Service and Parts management in various international forums.
Subhash is a Graduate in Engineering, holds Post Graduate Diploma in Finance and Marketing Management from XLRI, Jamshedpur, and an advanced diploma Indo-German Production engineering. He’s part of the Leadership Development program at Harvard Business School and serves on advisory council of George Washington University. He lives in Troy, MI with his wife and two daughters.
With this background, let’s now dive into one global consulting leader’s views on customer experience management.
INTERVIEW WITH SUBHASH SAKORIKAR
- Can you tell us a little about who you are, the approach to your career, and the current focus of a lot of your work?
“I’m currently leading our growth and transformation practice, which essentially focuses on all services that enable businesses to grow and transform. I’ve been at Tata for all 30 years of my career; automotive sector for the first 7 years and then took a break to get my PG. After that, I joined Tata-Hitachi, which is a joint venture of the firm, as a product manager. I spent about 4 years setting up a backhoe loader product line in collaboration with John Deere, construction equipment company, of the US; bringing products to India. After 15 years, I pivoted to consulting, focusing on customer experience management. I focused on the sales, marketing, aftersales functions of our client organizations through TCS, focusing on overall customer experience. I grew through the ranks, and currently focusing on everything from manufacturing, to energy, and natural resources segments.” - You’ve focused your career around Customer Experience Management and Growth and Transformation, specifically in the manufacturing space. Can you briefly describe what customer experience management is, and how data is vital to maximizing this experience? “Customer Experience Management is a part of the full lifecycle of an engagement, but it differs depending on the sector and whether the focus of the work is a B2B (business to business) or B2C (business to customer) relationship. It involves pre-sales, interacting and designing the products, the actual use of products within the company and customers, and services throughout the lifetime of products. I currently focus on global B2B and B2B2C relationships. You might ask, what is TCS’s role in this? We consider every aspect of interaction with the customer and try to optimize it, with a focus on data throughout the journey. What devices are they using, apps, etc … and what processes exist to engage customers across those spaces. We have over 170 metrics to evaluate when developing a customer experience, and the opportunities are endless. The way to think about it is that consultancy doesn’t stop. We walk with the clients through every step of the process for years.”
- I’m sure your business was flipped on its head during the pandemic. What were some major concerns of clients at the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic? How were they able to weather the ways that their industries were upended by the new pandemic realities? “Business was highly dynamic. Technology is the driver of transformation. People started to consider what they want to do, and then ask what technology can do for them. We now have the technologies that enable full scale transformations, and there’s a convergence of technologies from one sector to the other. What comes next? I think businesses are going to be in a perpetual state of transformation and implementation with the rapid pace of core technology change. CX transformation is a Perpetual transformation. The beauty is you are never done with it. Data plays a very important role in this process. It’s used for real time responses to customers, who are now very comfortable with an Omnichannel experience. It used to be that the sales function was the only real customer-facing division in a company. Now, structurally, the entire organization is for the customer. There are still designated areas of the company that are charged with ensuring the experience. Not everyone is responsible for interacting with customers, but the customer is at the center of everything and ensuring customer experience is responsibility of everyone – design, manufacturing, supply chain, sales, after sales everyone.”
- What’s one piece of advice you’d give to business students entering our ever-changing economy? “I’m now in consulting, and have been for a very long time. The nature of our work at the core is that we go and advise clients. But nothing can replace the knowledge I learned in industry. You want to be advising and consulting? Spending time in industry first helps a lot. I’ve had a diverse career across various functions of organizations before coming to advisory. You know the dynamic of the market, the business and when you come to the advisory side you are familiar with the pain points you are going to have to solve for your clients. I also can’t place enough weight on people and relationships. You can’t substitute that. I’ve built trust with my clients, and whether I’m in an engagement with them or they’re simply calling for advice when investing in new equipment or technologies, I’m perceived as someone they can turn to for actionable advice. As for leading the teams, being transparent and caring is key to win their trust.”
ABOUT TATA CONSULTANCY SERVICES (TCS)
Tata Consultancy Services is an IT services, consulting and business solutions organization that has been partnering with many of the world’s largest businesses in their transformation journeys for over 50 years. TCS offers a consulting-led, cognitive powered, integrated portfolio of business, technology and engineering services and solutions. This is delivered through its unique Location Independent Agile™ delivery model, recognized as a benchmark of excellence in software development.
A part of the Tata group, India’s largest multinational business group, TCS has over 613,000 of the world’s best-trained consultants in 55 countries. The company generated consolidated revenues of over US $27.9 billion in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2023 and is listed on the BSE (formerly Bombay Stock Exchange) and the NSE (National Stock Exchange) in India. TCS’ proactive stance on climate change and award-winning work with communities across the world have earned it a place in leading sustainability indices such as the MSCI Global Sustainability Index and the FTSE4Good Emerging Index. For more information, visit www.tcs.com.