Hello CEO: Shreerang Talekar, TCS

TCS was established in the Nordic region in 1991 and today has over 20,000 employees working for clients in Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark. For the past eleven years, TCS in Sweden has been ranked as the best provider of IT consulting services by its customers and has also been named "Top Employer" in Sweden for the same number of years by the independent organization Top Employers Institute. In our 'Hello CEO' series, Shreerang Talekar, Country Manager for TCS in Sweden and the Nordics, talks about the keys to this success.

TCS has had the highest customer satisfaction among IT companies in Sweden in recent years. How have you achieved this?

- First of all, I would like to say that we are very happy to receive this recognition from our customers in Sweden and the Nordics several years in a row. We are very grateful for their trust and confidence in us as a long-term partner," says Shreerang Talekar and continues:

Customer focus is at the heart of everything we do: understanding our customers' unique challenges, working closely with them and helping them with innovative solutions is crucial to our continued success. We make sure to set up teams with the right skills and integrate them into the customer's working environment. Creating a shared culture goes a long way in developing long and strong relationships. In addition to our technical expertise, our customers also appreciate our agile and proactive way of working and the fact that we are always solution-oriented.

How do you work on skills management?

- We invest heavily to stay at the forefront of skills and capabilities in an industry sector that is extremely dynamic and competitive. We continuously monitor and contribute to the development and implementation of new technologies, services, solutions and business models. In order to always be at the forefront and be able to meet the future needs of our customers, we run large-scale skills development programs within our company. Over the past year, we have conducted more than 50 million hours of training at TCS, including 350,000 consultants trained at basic and advanced levels in generative AI. Similar training is also conducted in other areas, such as cybersecurity, sustainability, quantum computing, and next-generation ERP, cloud and supply chains. We have a strong internal skills development organization working with Centers of Excellence, CTO functions, alliance partners and academia. Important to note that such programs also run on functional competencies, behavioral skills, leadership development and other skills.

- From a capacity perspective, we continue to hire at all levels - from young graduates from leading universities all the way to industry experienced professionals with deep expertise. We already work with a wide range of universities around the world to access the right skills, and we will also deepen partnerships with universities in Sweden and across the Nordic region to secure the right skills in our region.

How do you see the development and future of the Swedish tech industry?

- Sweden has always been at the forefront of technology and has a rich history of being a good breeding ground for new, innovative companies. This is something I personally believe will continue in the future. Sweden continues to invest in research and development infrastructure, has a strong support for the start-up environment and culture, enables funding from both the private and public sector, and has an excellent education system that fosters a culture of thinking big and different.

- At the same time, the demand for skilled labor far exceeds the current supply in Sweden, as in most economies today. The skills gap is growing almost daily. For sustainable growth and to remain competitive, businesses need a large number of technical engineers, digital analysts, data scientists, AI and next generation technology experts, among others. All of them need to contribute to raising interest in STEM subjects among future generations and provide them with opportunities to apply their knowledge in the business environment, regardless of their level of experience. It is a systematic process and requires deep engagement. Together, we can work to ensure access to skills for Swedish companies, both in the form of local and external talent. 

How does TCS work on sustainability issues?

- Sustainability themes, in a broad sense, permeate our entire business. We look at it from five different areas: Human Capital (employees, diversity, fairness, inclusion, health, safety and labor practices), Intellectual Capital (our IP, knowledge, hard and soft skills), Natural Capital (resources we use to run our business globally and locally, e.g. in Sweden), Manufactured Capital (infrastructure and assets needed to run our and our customers' business), Social & Relationship Capital (all stakeholders including customers, partners and others, goodwill and trust). For each of these capitals, we have clear targets of where we want to be, which are well above industry benchmarks. At company level, we have of course also set out our net zero ambitions and SBTi targets.

- On a more local level, over the years we have worked through a number of different initiatives to attract more women to work in engineering, made investments to make STEM subjects more interesting for school students, contributed with our researchers to develop digital twins to reduce food waste, and more. More recently, we have also partnered with Ecpat to help develop digital solutions. Another example is our long collaboration with Astrid Lindgren Children's Hospital.

- At the same time, we will implement relevant sustainability targets in our operations in Sweden to create a thriving work environment for our employees, have sustainable supply chains and reduce our own environmental impact. We are carbon neutral in our business operations in the region and encourage actions to be net zero and carbon negative where possible. 

What are the benefits of being a member of TechSverige?

- It is important for us to be part of one of the country's largest organizations promoting technology in business. TechSverige also offers a great platform for bringing together people from different companies in similar industries, providing opportunities to exchange experiences and ideas on issues that are important to Swedish business and society at large. We look forward to making a positive impact through our collaboration with TechSverige.