Aruna Jayanthi was born in 1964 and is an alumnus of the Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai, where she did a graduate course in Management Studies in Finance in 1984. Currently she is the chief executive officer of Capgemini India, the French information technology services and consulting giant that employs 47,000 people in India and is one of the biggest business units of the Capgemini group.
She is responsible for operations across all business units – consulting, technology and outsourcing services in India. Prior to assuming the role of CEO in January 2011, Aruna was the global delivery officer for Capgemini outsourcing, where she improved quality, productivity and profitability of the company’s outsourcing operations worldwide. Aruna has over 2 decades of experience in the IT services industry and has worked in both multinationals and pure-play companies. Within a short time of being appointed CEO, Aruna made her mark in the world of Indian business. She was ranked 3rd in Fortune India’s list of 50 Most Powerful Women in Business 2012, and has also featured prominently in Business Today’s list of Most Powerful Women 2012 for two consecutive years. Aruna was named the India Today Woman in the Corporate World at the India Today Women Summit 2013.
Forthright and positive in her outlook, Aruna has been interviewed by various publications and she has shared her views on many business issues.
On leadership by women:
“There is no glass ceiling. It is a myth. If it exists, it is in your head. I have worked in the IT industry for the last 27 years, and I know it doesn’t exist.
On discrimination:
Our growth rates are so high, our industry is so hungry for talent, why would there be any discrimination? Get over this.”
On success:
Get the job done…manage your priorities …one has to have fire in the belly and a strong desire to succeed – without that you don’t get anywhere.
On re-skilling existing staff:
If an individual’s fundamentals are strong, you can shift him/her to anything in just couple of months.
On careers:
Take a much broader view of your career and focus on the big picture, be patient.
On IT services companies in India:
I think a lot of Indian players do high-value work.
On the status of the IT services industry:
The base is becoming larger. One can’t deliver the same percent of growth what he was delivering in a smaller base as he has grown 10X in size now. That’s the reality of numbers.
On India’s engineers being ready to handle new and emerging technologies:
Traditionally, the Indian IT industry has always supplemented the people who come out of educational institutes with anywhere from six weeks to three to four month of training. It has been a model. I mean, it would be great if we could take people and put them to work with just two weeks of orientation. But the reality is, I don’t see that happening. It is really hard because they are fully ready and corporate orientation is still a bit lacking.
On offshoring to India:
The pace of rightshoring (offshoring) to India is picking up. India alone handles the bulk of our delivery for Capgemini today. While we were earlier using offshore for delivering 60 percent of the projects works, now-a-days 80 percent is a reasonable standard.
Last updated: June 19th, 2015
