From there to here

Infosys Consulting came into being when Infosys, currently a $9 billion a year enterprise, decided to reach beyond the realms of its successful outsourcing concern, and offer its clients consulting services as well. The theory behind the move seems simple enough in retrospect: If a consulting firm can conduct an operational review that identifies a need for a client to use Infosys' business process outsourcing services, why couldn't Infosys do the consulting as well? A tech services firm building a consulting presence, after all, is considerably less labor intensive than a consulting firm building a tech services and outsourcing capability.

It took Infosys a little over two decades to get to the point where it could branch out into the consulting world. Begun in 1981, the firm initially offered IT services to the domestic Indian market, but soon began scoring some lucrative international clients. The first major client was GE, although the likes of American Express, Apple, Boeing and J.C. Penney soon followed. That success drove Infosys beyond the $100 billion revenue barrier in 1999, the same year the firm became the first Indian company listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange. Within five years, that figure had multiplied to $1 billion, as the bursting of the tech bubble in the early 21st century drove more and more companies to outsourcing as a way to reduce costs.

A formula for success

While competitiveness is IC's watchword for both itself and its clients, there's apparently a lot more to it than just hiring the best and letting them get on with it. IC's formula is a two-part equation. The first part involves creating "strategic differentiation" for its clients, a process that showcases both to clients and their potential customers exactly how they differ from the competition. The other portion of the competitiveness equation is in figuring out how to do everything better than those same competitors, something IC calls "operational superiority." Add those two halves together, the company says, and you've got a formula that equals increased competitiveness.