Not Just Tech, But Geek-Led Strategy
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In 2014, R. Srikrishna, fondly known as Keech, took the reins of a modest mid-sized IT firm following a tenure with HCL Technologies. Over the decade, he has seen several things shape up at Hexaware Technologies, including an acquisition by Carlyle, the acquisition of data consulting firm Softcrylic, onboarding Rahul Dravid as 'Cultural Ambassador, and re-listing on the Indian bourses earlier this year. On February 19, it made a comeback on Dalal Street with an INR 8,750 crore IPO, making it India's largest IT public offering to date.
"When I joined Hexaware in 2014, we were a much smaller company with strengths in ERP and enterprise applications. At the time, the broader IT industry had grown nearly sixfold, while Hexaware had grown less than threefold. The belief then was that midsize companies could not outpace industry leaders. We set out to challenge that, and we did," shares R. Srikrishna, CEO & Executive Director, Hexaware Technologies. The IT veteran, on being asked the boldest move, recalls one hiring- Vinod Chandran, "Appointing someone who had spent nearly three decades in sales, as our Chief Operating Officer...The board was sceptical...It turned out to be exactly the kind of bold bet we needed to scale the company responsibly while staying agile."
However, for Srikrishna, what made both moves bold was not the idea itself but the belief that change at that scale requires full commitment, across levels, and functions. The IT player is giving wings to talent from smaller cities such as Dehradun, Coimbatore and Ahmedabad. They began executing this strategy full throttle in late 2023. This approach has given it a significant advantage over its competitors. It boasts of being already among the largest IT employers in Dehradun. The IIM-Calcutta and IIM-Madras alumnus quips, "In traditional services firms, "geeks" rarely had a real seat at the table... That mindset—geeks leading from the front—is what produced our current edge, and it is exactly what will sustain it as the market gets noisier."
Citing the likes of Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Jack Ma, Keech shares, "The best CEOs are also their CTOs, that's the concept. And this will be true not just for tech companies. It will be true for every industry because every industry will be disrupted and rediscovered by a geek." On the way ahead, the Hexaware CEO notes, "Our most important priority now is profitable growth, with a clear ambition to reach $3 billion in revenue by calendar year 2029. That is faster than we have grown historically." The company closed 2024 with USD 1.4 billion in revenue, up 13.7 per cent YoY and plans to focus on product engineering and expanding into the India and Middle East markets.
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