Moving Tata Consultancy Services into the “ Global Top 10 ”

This case study examines three strategic questions that India’s largest software services firm, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), faced in 2003. TCS had pioneered the industry and remained the market leader; of late, its lead over domestic rivals had been slipping, even while much larger multinational rivals were establishing large Indian operations. TCS needed a strategy to move up the software value chain. Meanwhile, a new industry was emerging, namely business process outsourcing, growing at 50 percent per year. There seemed to be synergies between BPO and software services, but also differences. TCS’s Indian rivals had made major investments in BPO, while TCS had only a small presence. TCS had to quickly settle on its BPO strategy. The questions are: 1. How may TCS move up the software value chain? 2. Should TCS enter the BPO business? If so, 3. Should it make a major acquisition or grow organically?