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TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary Introduction Objective of study What is employee Attrition? How to calculate attrition rate? Reasons for Attrition Cost of Attrition Employees Retention Strategies Benefits of attrition Consequences of Attrition Introduction to Cognizant technology Solutions Company Profile Interview of an HR senior executive Findings Conclusions Bibliography

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY In the current scenario of high economic growth and rapid globalization, the fight for talent is becoming increasingly intense. Talent or human resource is a major asset for any company. Company Invest high amount of money for their recruitment, selection & training and what happens to company if these Talents or Employees leave the organization in short while seeking new opportunities. Plagued by erratic attrition trends and cutthroat global competition, organizations are now realizing the need to understand the supply-demand equation better in order to garner strong mechanisms to attract and retain top talent. Employee retention is critical to the long-term health and success of any organization; however it is becoming increasingly difficult for companies across the globe to attract, motivate and retain key talent. Attrition rates are still on the rise and as the war for talent becomes more intense each year it is becoming increasingly important for companies to ensure they have the right people in place to guide future business success. Overall attrition rates are continuing to rise in Asia. At 39 percent, overall employee turnover was highest at the professional /supervisor/ technical level. Unsurprisingly, attrition was lowest among senior/top management at just 0.5 percent. The Banking and Finance sector saw the greatest employee turnover at 25 percent, while the lowest turnover was recorded in the manufacturing industry at 11 percent. The facts revealed that external inequity of compensation was the main reason for employees leaving their organization; however other causes include limited growth opportunities and role stagnation. Retention also remains a key challenge in IT/BPO and pharmaceutical industry.

Managing attrition is not a very easy task to do in the BPO industry. It is the route to their survival.Turnover is of considerable concern for managers because it disrupts normal operations andnecessitates the costly selection and training of replacements, the costly hiring and training thenew employee to regain the lost customer and supplier contacts. The employee retention isobviously one of the most important challenges in organization and avoids unwanted turnover.Staff attrition represents significant costs to most organizations. It is odd, therefore, that manyorganizations neither measure such costs nor have targets or plans to reduce them.Employee turnover or

resign could disrupt normal operation necessities the costly selection andtraining of replacement. Reducing employee turnover required the management efforts of thecompaniesThe main objectives of the study are to understand the reasons leading to attrition , to identifythe major problems faced by employees in the organization which lead to attrition.

Introduction In an environment of rapid growth, globalization and expansion, the pressure to attract and retain outstanding employees has become a scary reality for most organizations. The new-age economies, with their attendant paradigm shifts in human capital management, have placed a heavy demand on todays organizations and Attrition is emerging as a key business concern for organizations. It is turning into a bigger issue than attracting talent. The annual attrition rate is 20-30 per cent(reduction in the number of employees through retirement, resignation or death) across industries in India. It is as high as 44 per cent in BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance) vertical and 35 per cent in BPO (business process outsourcing). Attracting and retaining key talent has become one of the key drivers of overall business performance in organizations and companies have been utilizing a diverse range of methods to draw in new hires and ensure they stay as Attrition is an expensive phenomenon, potentially impacting the bottom line of businesses. The cost of attrition is not just the loss of that employee but it includes an array of hidden costs such as recruitment costs, selection costs, training costs, cost of covering during the period and opportunity costs. The organizational costs associated with the turnover in terms of hiring, training and productivity loss costs can add up to more than five per cent of an organizations operating costs. As far as India is concerned, attrition is a serious trend, especially in todays knowledge-driven marketplace where people are the most important assets. While organizations cope with attrition by devising compelling retention strategies, it is imperative for organizations to predict attrition early in the recruitment process to curtail loss of time, cost and effort.

MEANING OF ATTRITION:

The wearing down of an Adversary, making him weaker by repeal attacking them or wearing down of resources i.e. the process of reducing the number of people who are employed by an organization by not replacing people who leave the job. What is Employee Attrition? A reduction in the number of employees through retirement, resignation or death is called Attrition. Attrition is also called total turnover or wastage rate.

How to Measure Employee Attrition Rate Employee attrition rate allows you to determine the percentage of employees that left your business over a specified period of time, usually one year. Attrition includes all employees who leave the company, whether the leaving was voluntarily and involuntarily. An employee who chooses to leave a company for another job is an example of voluntary employee attrition. On the other hand, an employee fired by the company is an example of involuntary attrition. Step 1 Calculate the average number of employees who worked at the company during the year. To calculate a simple average, add the number of employees who began the year with the company to the number of employees remaining at the end of the year and divide this sum by two. For example, assume a company had 1,000 employees at the beginning of the year and 1,100 employees at the end of the year; 1,000 plus 1,100 equals 2,100, divided by two equals 1,050. This figure represents the average number of employees employed by the company during the year. Step 2 Determine the number of employees who left the company during the year by examining the past year's employment records. If your company does not keep a running tally of employee attrition, physically count the number of employees who left the company over the year. As an example, assume that 300 employees left the company during the year. Step 3 Divide the number of employees who left the company during the year by the average number of employees employed by the company during the year to arrive at an employee attrition rate. Continuing the above example, 300 divided by 1,050 equals .286. Multiply this figure by 100 to arrive at .286, or 28.6 percent. This figure represents the company's employee attrition rate for the past year.

Reasons for attrition It is not easy to find out as to who contributes and who has the control o n t h e a t t r i t i o n o f e mp l o ye e s . Va r i o u s s t u d i e s / s u r v e y c o n d u c t e d i n d i c a t e s t h a t e v e r y o n e i s c o nt r i b u t i n g t o t h e p r e v a i l i n g a t t r i t i o n . Attrition does not happen for one or two reasons. The way the industry is projected and speed at which the companies are expanding has a major part in attrition. F o r a m o m e n t i f w e l o o k b a c k , d i d w e p l a n f o r t h e g r o w t h o f t h i s industry and answer will be no. The readiness in all aspects will ease the problems to some extent. In our country we start the industry and then develop the infrastructure. All the major IT companies have faced these realities. If you look within, the specific reasons for attrition are varied in nature and it is interesting to know why the people change jobs so quickly. Even today, the main reason for changing jobs is for higher salary and better benefits. But in call centers the reasons are many and it is also true that for funny reasons people change jobs. At the same time the attrition cannot be attributed to employees alone. External inequity of compensation External inequity arises when an employee realizes that some otheremployee from a different organization puts in much less efforts thanhe does, but receives a much higher compensation than him. Thiscould cause an employee to feel that maybe he is not gettingcompensated fairly and can cause him to quit the job WorkTimings The work timings in BPO are very odd. This affects the family life of the employee. Moreover, the male to female ratio in BPO is quiet low. The number of females in BPO can be as large as 35%. This means that working hour problem is quiet acute in their case especially after they get married, as after marriage comes social and family pressure to adjust work timings and take care of families. CareerGrowth

Only 2 out of 10 employees on an average go on to be at the seniorlevel. This means that other employees look forward to change their job at other places where they can get better opportunities toprogress. Also, another problem arises with the mis-match of expectations and qualifications of the employees. Along with that,some employees see no career growth in this sector, so they move onto other companies in search of changing the sector. 4)HigherEducation This is a problem as most of the employees in this sector are pretty young and aspiring. They join the firm because of lucrative salary. But with time, they try to move on to other sectors or top management and one of the ways to do this is higher education. 5)Rolestagnation Attrition rate is higher at knowledge level (middle level) in which the employee has to do the same work again and again, which makes his work monotonous and due to lack of responsibility and authority his growth is restricted to a particular role, so they move to other companies where they can play different roles and handle responsibility. Work life imbalance The scientific approach towards management and organization resulted in a rigid structural hierarchy, exhaustive specialization of jobs, deployment of unskilled employees and an unfavorable work environment. This led to high employee turnover, decline in productivity, absenteeism. 7)Lackof recognition When an employee feels that he is not getting due recognition for his achievement, a feeling of demotivation creeps into him, and this can cause him to consider leaving the organization. Employees have an expectation that when they work well, they will get some recognition from their managers in the form of a personal appreciation or an award etc. 8) Under-utilization of skills

Proper utilization of skills has a tremendous impact on the satisfactionof employees. If a work is given to an employee it must be supportedby adequate powers and responsibilities which enable them to move up the career ladder and when their skills and potential is being overlooked they end up with leaving the job. 9) Performance assessment An employee may feel disappointed by the performance appraisal report and feel that he has not been appraised in an unbiased manner. It may happen that he feels that the appraisal process itself is flawed and the appraisers are biased. This can cause the employee to put in his papers and leave the organization. 10) Internal inequity of compensation Internal inequity occurs when the employee feels that the amount of efforts he puts in to do his job are much more than what rewards he gets in return for them. This can cause him to feel de-motivated and nurture feelings of dissatisfaction and eventually resign from his post. 11)Businessinstability Many a times, when the organization faces some kind of instability or uncertainty with regards to operations, an employee might quit his job before he is asked to leave. Many a times when employees get a whim that the organization is going to down-size or is going to be taken over by another company, they tend to feel safer quitting the job than worrying about whether the organization will retain them.

TALENT POACHING Losing employees to competitors is common; but now partners are increasingly finding their employees poached by their own vendors and distributors The term employee poaching can be defined as an act of enticing key employees to move from one firm to a competitor. It has emerged as the biggest HR challenge for enterprises, both big and small, across all industry verticals. In the recent times, the aviation sector has been the worst hit, and state- owned airlines have lost several of their in-flight crew and ground staff to the new airlines. Retail is likely to emerge as the next hotspot for poaching, as large players enter the fray and roll out their stores. The IT industry has traditionally been a happy hunting ground for poachers, for obvious reasons. Attrition rates of engineering, software and BPO companies have always been steep compared to the rest of the industries. Employee attrition is part of every manpower-intensive business. There is a misconception among employers that emoluments matter most in attracting talent. An employee changes jobs for many reasons. Retaining human resource, especially on whom much has been spent to hone their skills, is a headache for firms. Job satisfaction is something that varies from individual to individual. Job satisfaction and employee loyalty are better in companies that allow their staff the freedom to unleash their creativity and never fail to appreciate a job well done. Too much of interference and bossing stifles growth and creativity, the motivation levels of employees plunges and they look for the exit. An atmosphere of distrust too could lead to employee attrition. It is in the institutions interest to provide a congenial atmosphere and take initiatives that would keep the workforce morale high. Contentment and job satisfaction certainly matter more than fat pay packets and perquisites though with the usual exceptions. There are many factors that contribute to the problem of employee turnover. Some of these factors cannot be directly controlled by organizations, such as area economic or labor market conditions. It appears that the high

unemployment rate of graduates looking for professional work experience is a major force responsible for excessive employee turnover in India. The level of turnover may exceed a companys capability to handle it and can force a strategic crisis schedule slips, quality degradation, business process breakdown, delivery delays, and the resulting potential of customer attrition. The kind of treatment meted out to the new recruit by the organization and co-workers during this crucial transition period can determine the candidates decision to either continue in the job or call it quits. Considering that it can cost a company between 50 and 150% of an employees salary to find a suitable replacement, it is simpler and far more economical to extend the red carpet treatment to new recruits, and go all out to ensure that they fit in comfortably with the office culture. Reports indicate that much of the voluntary turnover of companies takes place within the first one year of employment, corroborating the widely held belief that first impressions play a significant role in an organizations ability to find and retain talented employees. During this time, newcomers are often quietly sizing up the organization and testing waters to see if the job is an ideal fit. Not surprisingly, organizations that make them feel wanted and welcome are the ones they choose to build their careers with.

COST OF ATTRITION There are a number of costs which are incurred by a BPO when theyhire any new employee. These costs can be in terms of monetary orcan be in terms of time wasted or any other intangible things. Some of these costs can be as stated below: Costs Due to a Person Leaving 1)RecruitmentCosts 1.The cost of advertisements; agency costs; employee referral costs; internet posting costs 2.The cost of the internal recruiter's time to understand the position requirements, develop and implement a sourcing strategy, review candidates backgrounds, prepare for interviews, conduct interviews, prepare candidate assessments, conduct reference checks, make the employment offer and notify unsuccessful candidates. This can range from a minimum of 30hours to over 100 hours per position. 3.Calculate the cost of the various candidate pre-employment tests to help assess candidates' skills, abilities, aptitude, attitude, values and behaviors. 2)TrainingCosts 1) The cost of orientation in terms of the new person's salary and cost of the person who conducts the orientation. Also include the cost of orientation materials. 2)The cost of departmental training as the actual development anddelivery cost plus the cost of the salary of the new employee.Note that the cost will be significantly higher for some positionssuch as sales representatives and call center agents who require4 - 6 weeks or more of classroom training. 3) The cost of the person(s) who conduct the training.The cost of various training materials needed including companyor product manuals, computer or other technology equipmentused in the delivery of training.

4)Lost Productivity Costs

As the new employee is learning the new job, the company policies and practices, etc. they are not fully productive. Use the following guidelines to calculate the cost of this lost productivity: 1)Upon completion of whatever training is provided, the employee is contributing at a 25% productivity level for the first 2 - 4weeks. The cost therefore is 75% of the new employees full salary during that time period. 2)During weeks 5 - 12, the employee is contributing at a 50%productivity level. The cost is therefore 50% of full salary during that time period. 3)During weeks 13 - 20, the employee is contributing at a 75%productivity level. The cost is therefore 25% of full salary during that time period.4.Calculate the cost of mistakes the new employee makes during this elongated indoctrination period. 4)New Hire Cost 1) The cost of bring the new person on board including the cost toput the person on the payroll, establish computer and securitypasswords and identification cards, telephone hookups, cost of establishing email accounts, or leasing other equipment such ascell phones, automobiles. 2)The cost of a manager's time spent developing trust and buildingconfidence in the new employee's work. 5)LostCostsale Calculate the revenue per employee by dividing total companyrevenue by the average number of employees in a given year.Whether an employee contributes directly or indirectly to thegeneration of revenue, their purpose is to provide some definedset of responsibilities that are necessary to the generation of revenue. Calculate the lost revenue by multiplying the number of weeks the position is vacant by the average weekly revenue peremployee. Thus we can say that if a person leaves a job company has to sufferlosses as it involves many costs.

WHAT IS EMPLOYEE RETENTION? Employee retention refers to the various policies and practices which let the employees stick to an organization for a longer period of time. Every organization invests time and money to groom a new joined, make him a corporate ready material and bring him at par with the existing employees. The organization is completely at loss when the employees leave their job once they are fully trained. Employee retention takes into account the various measures taken so that an individual stays in an organization for the maximum period of time. It is a process in which the employees are encouraged to remain with the organization for the maximum period of time or until the completion of the project. Employee retention is beneficial for the organization as well as the employee.

WHAT IS RETENTION ALL ABOUT?

R- REMUNERATE COMPETITIVELY E-ENCOURAGEMENT AND EXPECTATION T-TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT A-ANNUAL REVIEW CYCLES I- INFORM AND INVOLVE N- NURTURE

Need and Important of Employee Retenion

Let us understand why retaining a valuable employee is essential for an organization. Hiring is not an easy process: An organization invests time and money in grooming an individual and makes him ready to work and understand the corporate culture: When an individual resigns from his present organization, it is more likely that he would join the competitors: The employees working for a longer period of time are more familiar with the companys policies, guidelines and thus they adjust better: It has been observed that individuals sticking to an organization for a longer span are more loyal towards the management and the organization It is essential for the organization to retain the valuable employees having high potential.

Role of HR In Employee Retension

The Human Resource team plays an important role in employee retention. Let us find out their role in the same: Whenever an employee resigns from his current assignments, it is the responsibility of the HR to intervene immediately to find out the reasons which prompted the employee to resign It is the duty of the HR to sit with the employee and discuss the various issues face to face. Understand his problems and listen to his side of the story as well.. The HR person must ensure that he is recruiting the right employee who actually fits into the role. A right person doing the wrong job would never find his job interesting and certainly look for a change. The human resource department must conduct motivational activities at the workplace. Organize various internal as well as external trainings which help the employees to learn something extra apart from their routine work. The HR must launch various incentive schemes for the top performers to motivate them. This way the employees feel important for the organization and strive hard to perform even better the next time. Performance reviews are a must. The HR along with the respective team leaders must monitor their team members performance to ensure whether they are enjoying the work or not.

The HR professional must try his level best to motivate the employees, make them feel special in the organization so that they do not look for a change.

Challenges in Employee Retension Monetary dissatisfaction is one of the major reasons for an employee to look for a change. Retention becomes a problem when an employee quotes an exceptionally high figure beyond the budget of the organization and is just not willing to compromise. In the current scenario, where there is no dearth of opportunities, stopping people to look for a change is a big challenge. Employees become greedy for money and position and thus look forward to changing the present job and join the competitors.. Individuals speak all kind of lies during interviews to get a job. It is only later do people realize that there has been a mismatch and thus look for a change. Problems arise whenever a right person is into a wrong profile. The human resource department should be very careful while recruiting new employees. Some individuals have a tendency to get bored in a short span of time. They might find a job really interesting in the beginning but soon find it monotonous and look for a change. The management finds it difficult to convince the employees in such cases. Unrealistic expectations from the job also lead to employees looking for a change. An individual must not look for a change due to small issues. One needs time to make his presence feel at the organization and must try his level best to stick to it for a good amount of time and ignore petty issues.

Handling attrition? Earlier the retention was the sole responsibility of HR Department andat the most the department heads will be accountable for the retentiono f talent. In companies the wheels have changed a n d m u l t i dimensional approach needs to be adopted. More of concerted effortsonly would help to retain the talent. Everyone has to contribute to holdthe employees little longer period. All the leading companies are tryingseveral methods to retain the talent and few of those innovative HRpractices are: Providing stimulating work environment: In terms of stated work pressure, only 17% have c l a i m e d l i g h t pressure. This may point to a reasonably high-pressure environment in conventional terms, not realized as most respondents have no other industry experience. The atmosphere at the workplace however, was generally positive. Almost half worked more than 45 hours per week. Free transport and free food: Majority of the breaks were for meals and there were no significant problems faced in taking the breaks. Almost 2/3rd employees travel more than 10 kms to work everyday. T h i s i s a h u g e s t r a i n o n q u a l i t y t i me a v a i l a b l e wi t h t h e f a mi l y a n d ostensibly results in stress in numerous ways compared with other industries. The root cause is that most BPOs are located outside the city as government lands have been allocated to the MNCs at better rates there. Although taxi / bus services are provided by most employers, as many a s 3 0 % wo r k e r s t r a v e l c r a m me d ( mo r e t h a n 5 p e r s o n s t o a t a x i ) . Whats more, 79% waste more than 30 minutes of their productive lives everyday waiting for commute. Interestingly, lower salary workers get no such benefits. Good rewards and recognition programmes:

A s ma n y a s 5 6 % a d mi t t e d t o b e i n g a s k e d t o wo r k o v e r t i me . 4 4 % refused the question implying that conditions are created such that all probably are coerced into working overtime. The oppressive part was further that as high as 41% claimed to not having been p a i d f o r overtime. R e c r e a t i o n c l u b s , Ca n t e e n s , E n t e r t a i n p r o g r a mme s f u n activities with in the work area: Many companies have canteens though the quality of food is not great. ,

Good pay and benefits: A huge 58% of starters are dissatisfied with their promised packages vis-vis delivered salary.

Other practices include: Promotions and salary increase on a regular basis.- Better learning opportunities, Encourage enroll for distance learning programmes.- Regular holiday packages, gifts, outings etc . All the above activities are being undertaken to a greater extent or little more in all large Companies. Surprisingly the attrition rate is not coming down in any of the companies, but it is going up and it may increase in the coming days. This is a time to introspect as to what is lacking in the approach. One thing is missing is attention to individual needs. Employees have varied expectations and it is becoming difficult t o understand them and by the time you make an a t t e m p t t o understand the expectation changes and it is still becoming difficult to meet the customized demands or expectations. To quote an example, if a friend leaves, another close friend will also leave and he will lure another 3-5 persons. Moving for higher education and marriage are the major reasons for attrition. To tackle these will be impossible with any type of strategies and approaches. The HR personnel have become silent spectators and start hunting for new personnel to replace. The broader approach is to bring sanctity in the recruitment process like demand the relieving letter from

the previous company, have non-hire agreements with the companies in the particular area. It is not e a s y t o b r i n g t h e e n t i r e c o m p a n y u n d e r a f o r u m . N a s s c o m h a s attempted to bring out certain guidelines on the matter and the impact is not felt yet. The MNC culture, high salary level and benefits offered by them are the only two major aspect of attrition and no one can halt them doing so.

Benefits Of Attrition If all employees stay in the same organization for a very long time, most of them will be at the top of their pay scale which will result in excessive manpower costs. When certain employees leave, whose continuation of service would have negatively impacted productivity and profitability of the company, the company is benefited. New employees bring new ideas, approaches, abilities & attitudes which can keep the organization from becoming stagnant. There are also some people in the organization who have a negative and demoralizing influence on the work culture and team spirit. This, in the long-term, is detrimental to organizational health. Desirable attrition also includes termination of employees with whom the organization does not want to continue a relationship. It benefits the organization in the following ways: It removes bottleneck in the progress of the company o It creates space for the entry of new talents . It assists in evolving high performance teams . There are people who are not able to balance their performance as per expectations, lack potential for future or need disciplinary action. Furthermore, as the rewards are limited, business pressures do not allow the management to over-reward the performers, but when undesirable employees leave the company, the good employees can be given the share that they deserve. Some companies believe attrition in any form is bad for an organization for it means that a wrong choice was made at the beginning while recruiting. Even good attrition indicates loss as recruitment is a time consuming and costly affair. The only positive point is that the realization has initiated action that will lead to cutting loss.

Introduction To Company Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation is an American multinational information technology, consulting and business process outsourcing company. It is headquartered in Teaneck, New Jersey, United States, North America. Cognizant is included in the NASDAQ-100 and the S&P 500 indices. Originally founded as an in-house technology unit of Dun & Bradstreet in 1994, with headquarters in Chennai, India, Cognizant started serving external clients in 1996. In 1997, the headquarters were moved from Chennai to Teaneck, New Jersey. Cognizant's IPO was launched in 1998, after a series of corporate splits and restructures of its parent companies, the first Indian software services firm to be listed on the Nasdaq During the dot com bust, it grew by accepting the application maintenance work that the bigger players were unwilling to perform. Gradually, it ventured into application development, complex systems integration and consulting work. Cognizant saw a period of fast growth during the 2000s, becoming a Fortune 500 company in 2011.In 2011, the Fortune magazine named it as the world's third most admired IT services company after Accenture and IBM. History The company that is now called Cognizant has its roots in The Dun & Bradstreet Corporation, a joint venture between Dun & Bradstreet (76%) and Satyam Computers (24%). Srini Raju was the CEO of this company established in 1994. Kumar Mahadeva played a major role in convincing D&B to invest $2 million in the joint venture. He was born in Sri Lanka, where his father led his nation's civil service. Mahadeva traveled to England for his studies, earning a master's degree in electrical engineering from Cambridge in 1973. Originally called DBSS, the unit was established as an in-house technology unit, and focused on implementing large-scale IT projects for D&B businesses. In 1996, the company started pursuing customers beyond the D&B fold. In 1996, Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) spun off several of its subsidiaries including Erisco, IMS International, Nielsen Media Research, Pilot Software, Strategic Technologies and DBSS, to form a new company called

Cognizant Corporation. Three months later, in 1997, DBSS was renamed as Cognizant Technology Solutions. In July 1997, D&B bought Satyam's 24% stake in DBSS for $3.4 million. Headquarters were moved to the United States, and in March 1998, Kumar Mahadeva was named CEO. Operating as a division of the Cognizant Corporation, the company mainly focused on Y2K-related projects and web development. In 1998, the parent company Cognizant Corporation was split into two companies: IMS Health and Nielsen Media Research. After this restructuring, Cognizant Technology Solutions became a public subsidiary of IMS Health. In June 1998, IMS Health partially spun off the company, conducting an initial public offering of the Cognizant stock. The company raised $34 million, less than what the IMS Health underwriters had hoped for. The money was earmarked for debt payments and upgrading of the company's offices.

Kumar Mahadeva decided to reduce the company's dependence on Y2K projects: by Q1 1999, 26% of company's revenues came from Y2K projects, compared with 49% in early 1998. Believing that the $16.6 billion ERP software market was saturated, Mahadeva decided to refrain from largescale ERP implementation projects. Instead, he focused on applications management, which accounted for 37% of Cognizant's revenue in Q1 1999. Cognizant's revenues in 2002 were $229 million, and the company had zero debt with $100 million in the bank. During the dotcom bust, the company grew by taking on the maintenance projects that larger IT services companies did not want. In 2003, IMS Health sold its entire 56% stake in Cognizant, which instituted a poison pill provision to prevent hostile takeover attempts. Kumar Mahadeva resigned as the CEO in 2003, and was replaced by Lakshmi Narayanan. Gradually, the company's services portfolio expanded across the IT services landscape and into business process outsourcing (BPO) and business consulting. Lakshmi Narayanan was succeeded by the Kenya-born Francisco D'Souza in 2006. Cognizant experienced a period of fast growth during the 2000s, as reflected by its appearance in Fortune magazine's "100

Fastest-Growing Companies" list for ten consecutive years from 2003 to 2012.

Today, the companys goals are nearly the same as when it was founded. Cognizant strives to be the leading provider of e-business and application development projects while taking full responsibility for its clients software systems. Cognizants business is organized and managed around four verticallyoriented business segments: Financial Service Banking Focuses on traditional retail and commercial banks, as well as diversified financial enterprises. The company assists its banking clients in many areas, such as consumer lending, risk management, investment management, and retail banking. o Insurance Assists the needs of casualty and property insurers, life insurers, and insurance brokers. The company assists its insurance customers in many areas, such as business acquisition, claims processing, management reporting, and regulatory compliance. Healthcare Healthcare Works with a variety of leading healthcare organizations. The company provides services to healthcare companies in many areas, such as sales & underwriting systems, plan administration, billing, claims processing, and pharmacy benefit management. o Life Sciences Works with many of the worlds leading pharmaceutical companies operating in the Life Sciences industry and provides solutions to the challenges of their evolving market. Some of this challenges include issues surrounding consolidation, data integration, safety, and regulations.

Manufacturing, Retail, and Logistics Manufacturing and Logistics Helps companies improve operational efficiencies, enhance responsiveness, and deal more directly with trade partners to ultimately provide greater value to their end customers. The company provides supply chain management solutions to these companies as well as optimization solutions. o Retail and Hospitality Serves a wide variety of retailers and distributors, including specialty premium retailers, supermarkets, and large discounters. The company also serves the entire travel and hospitality industries including airlines, hotels, and restaurants. Some of the serves provided to these companies by Cognizant include: supply chain management, warehouse management, and logistics management. Other Communications Serves leading communications services providers. The company provides many services to these companies, such as network management services, conformance testing, product lifecycle management, and product implementation. o Information, Media, and Entertainment Serves the worlds leading media and entertainment companies. The company provides many services to these companies, such as Digital Rights Management(DRM), content management, workflow automation, and advertising management. o High Technology Serves Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and Online Service Providers

PRODUCTS AND SERVICES OVERVIEW The companys solutions include IT Consulting, application development and integration, application management, and re-engineering services. IT Consulting Cognizants consulting division, Cognizant Business Consulting, helps clients to receive greater value and ensures that their IT requirements are met. The companys consulting offerings are based on tried and proven strategies. At CTSH, employees analyze the existing environment, indentify possible areas for optimization or improvement, and create complete roads maps that ultimately lead to productivity improvement and cost savings for clients. -engineering Cognizant uses various internet technologies to define customer requirements, create designs and specifications, and ultimately test and integrate software across multiple platforms. Applications development services are provided using what the company calls its full life-cycle application development approach. Essentially, this means that the company assumes total responsibility and accountability for the analysis, design, and implementation of clients systems from start to finish. Cognizants fastest growing areas. The company provides independent verification and validation services that are focused entirely on supporting clients software testing needs. There are four main offerings in this area: Independent Functional Testing, Test Automation, Test Process Consulting, and Performance Testing.

S.W.O.T. ANALYSIS Strengths international operations. These operations have accounted for

approximately 21% of total revenues. expanding across the globe.

The company plans to continue

which shows that it can grow effectively without outside influence. Cognizant seems rather conservative because it carries no long term debt but carries a high ROE that might justify leverage. an increase in demand for its services. This is supported by the companys explosive revenue growth in recent years. Weaknesses problem and is dedicated to expanding its international and domestic presence. Opportunities portunities internationally, especially in China, for providers of IT consulting and other services to expand. around the World. However, there are tons of smaller firms that serve small business and households. Mergers and Acquisitions offer an opportunity for firms in the IT Consulting and Other Services industry to gain access to these smaller market segments. government spending on this industrys services has been increasing. Typically, governments require IT Consultants to help protect against cyber attacks on government servers. Threats industry. Recent reports have indicated that the sector in which CTSH is

operating is likely to face increasing competition in offshore outsourcing. wages of Indian employees and also the gradual appreciation of the rupee. companies in all sectors and industries. Although the demand environment in the United States in recovering, it is still at historically low levels. This is most evident in the financial services sector. Because the financial services sector represents a large customer, it can greatly affect revenues for the IT Consulting and Services industry recent trend of decreasing profitability in the IT Services and Consulting industry that could worsen going into the future. PORTERS 5 FORCES ANALYSIS Supplier Power High The IT Consulting and Other Services industry is highly competitive. It requires various inputs including hardware, employees, software tools, and other devices. Moreover, it is necessary that employees have a high level of technical knowledge and expertise. Barriers to Entry Low Barriers to entry are low in the IT Consulting and Other Services industry. One main reason that IT consulting has low barriers to entry is because the industry is labor driven. As a result, with knowledge of IT systems, anybody is hypothetically able to establish a business. Buyer Power High Overall, buyer power is moderate in this industry. Contracts with customers, typically large companies, are secured after a formal bid process. Consequently, these customers exhibit greater buyer power. Threat of Substitutes Moderate Overall there is a moderate threat from substitutes in this industry. There are many companies offering a diverse range of consulting and other services that are comparable to that offered by Cognizant. Degree of Rivalry High There is a great deal of competition among firms operating in the IT Consulting and Other Services Industry. Some of

Cognizants competitors include companies with much greater resources, such as Computer Sciences Corporation.