Okay, so you talked about 17 to 18% margin, you are on track to that, but there is also this aspiration of $10 billion right? Right now, what you are sub $5 billion? When do you see that happening 2030?
Well, I think it will be before that, but the aspiration holds, still the aspiration is very much there. And again, it is the aspiration of the group, our group chairman and Mr AM Naik, our group CEO, Mr S N Subrahmanyan. I think they have very clearly articulated this plan.And they have given you this target that DC, you have to achieve this target right?
Yes, I think, it is not me, it is me and my team who have to get it done and I think it is achievable. And if you look at the overall aspiration they have, they have been very supportive in terms of what we have done so far and what we want to do.
And I think this $10 billion mark has to be a combination of organic as well as inorganic. And I am very confident that given the credibility that we have in the marketplace and the credentials that we have, I am sure we can do it over a period of time.
That is all I am getting from you, right.
It depends on, as you can understand the industry has gone through a very tough year. So you do not have those controls, but you need to still have an aspiration, you need to set a goal. And that aspiration is pretty much there. In fact we are, right now as we speak, we are working on a strategy in terms of how to get there. Now, if you have a strategy, then you need to execute to that strategy as well. And now there could be ups and downs, there could be slowdowns, but overall we will be on target in terms of, I mean, we will definitely have an aspiration to get there.
That is good to hear because we started off this year hoping that there will be a double-digit growth this year that looks challenging right now, but at least in FY25, do you see that coming back or do you think that entire era of seeing that double-digit growth is not going to happen and the industry has become mature at, let us say 8 to 10% levels?
Well, it is difficult to call out like that but there are certain things that we aspire to. We want to remain agile and nimble. We want to definitely have a profitable growth story, and we want to have a growth which is in the industry-leading quadrant. So keeping all those things in mind, if the opportunities open up, there is no reason why we cannot again, go back to the double-digit growth but we definitely want to be in the industry-leading quadrant.
And you said that the growth will be both organic as well as inorganic. We recently have not heard much on the inorganic side, especially because you are going through this mega-merger. What next? Anything in the pipeline?
Well, I can only say that the integration was most critical for us. And if you look at, we announced the merger 14th of November last year, and in a record six months, seven months’ time, we have kind of completed the entire integration, bulk of the integration which was very important because we had to take the go-to-market strategy.
I can only say that there is a team which is working in the background all the time, looking at opportunities. And if there is a right opportunity which will help us in terms of getting into or fulfilling some of the white spaces in terms of capabilities or geographies, we will definitely make it happen.
But anything specific you have in mind North America, Europe, India, any specific vertical?
We are pretty much open. I mean, just to give you an example, you know, we are late starters in some of the industries, like healthcare, life sciences. So if there is an opportunity over there, why not? But it is not restricted to only those two industries.
We are talking about how the company will reach that vision of $10 billion. And I am sure for that you also need the fuel, right and the fuel is going to be the talent which has been a bit of a problem area for the industry over the last couple of years. But do you think that entire grand resignation and great resignation wave is over and attrition has slowed down?
Attrition has definitely slowed down, slowed down quite significantly but I have always believed that if you look at the next few years the winner will be those who will get the talent strategy right and we are spending a lot of time in terms of getting our talent strategy right and you talked about JNAI for example. So we have programs launched within the organization where we are going to train everybody on JNAI.
Everybody means the entire talent pool?
The entire population over time you need to because there are certain things which you have to do across the board unless you do that you do not get the benefits.
We have already started training in batches, so we have also got a centre of excellence formed, so all these things are part of your upskilling your workforce.
Now that is something which is going to be very critical as we go along. So attrition we are not too worried about at this point of time but the biggest focus is how do you retrain your workforce in the skills that are required for the future.
Yes, no sure. But that is one of the things which has been a problem area in terms of the industry as a whole and the reason is also said that the companies do not invest enough even at the starting you know salary package it continues to be very low at 3-3.5, 4-4.5 lakh levels and that stayed like that for the last 10-20 years for the industry and that is why the attrition is very high at lower level. Do you think there is something that the industry needs to change as a whole?
Well, I can tell you what we have been doing. We have rolled out a very clear role based organization structure which means that right from the day one when you join LTI Mindtree you have a carrier map which is available for you. How can you rise in your carrier and of course you have to start at a certain point that is entry level but if you have the right skill set, right capabilities then you can also rise faster. So that is something which we feel as being a role based organisation can help in terms of helping people to rise, helping people to flourish if they are the right people, if they have the right capabilities and if they can unlearn and relearn new things if I can say so.