‘Cognizant determined to emerge stronger from Covid crisis’

In April 2019, Brian Humphries replaced Francisco D’Souza as CEO of the $17 billion Cognizant Technology Solutions at a time when the US-based software company was facing a series of challenges, including a court case on tax evasion, enquiry on illegal construction in India, and charges of bribery in the US. A year later, there are more challenges as the Covid-19 crisis has disrupted the entire world, and is likely to have a cascading effect across all industries. The IT industry will be hit badly as spending by clients would reduce dramatically. Humphries and his team of 2.90 lakh employees — a majority of them in India — are gearing up to face the challenges post Covid. In this interaction with BusinessLine, Humphries discusses the impact of the pandemic and the road ahead. Excerpts: