Cognizant’s Ambition to Engineer the Modern Enterprise

Cognizant has strong fundamentals as a business and technology services provider–good liquidity, a strong
balance sheet, breadth of digital solutions, a diverse client portfolio, robust client engagement model, and longstanding client relationships. But the last couple of years have not been easy.

2019 was a tough financial year for Cognizant; its Q1 2019 financial results missed the mark, posting revenue growth of only 5.1% and contracting profit margins. In 2020, it encountered twin shocks: the pandemic, experienced with the rest of the world; and, uniquely, a Maze ransomware attack. Clients’ expectations of third-party technology services providers like Cognizant are also changing dramatically in the post pandemic world and the pace of innovation has never been faster. Enter Brian Humphries, Cognizant’s fourth CEO and its first non-founder and non-Indian CEO. What is his vision and strategy for Cognizant to revitalize, to survive, and to thrive in this pandemic economy?

To find out, we conducted a series of in-depth interviews with Brian and spoke with several members of his executive team. We also surveyed 150 C-level executives across the Global 2000 enterprises to understand demand-side perspectives on the future of business and technical services in the pandemic economy and the market’s perception of Cognizant as a services partner.

Fundamentally, Cognizant’s purpose is to “engineer modern businesses to improve everyday life.” The company’s goal is to help clients become more software-driven, accelerating digital transformation through an organizational DNA of growth and a “massively client-centric” mindset. This means businesses can create what Cognizant calls “Continuous Modernization.”

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