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Tata Consultancy Services Limited

Q. How have you fostered a culture of corporate governance in TCS?

A. We have the unique advantage of being a part of the Tata group which has a long history of managing very ethically, with the highest standards of corporate governance. Hence, to begin, we have a set of best practices from the group that we have been able to adopt.

From then on, we have been continuously evaluating different best practices from the industry, other sectors, from India and abroad too. We periodically include them and integrate them with our best practices.

We also have one of the finest set of independent directors who have enormous experience, great credibility and subject matter expertise in their chosen field. So we have the benefit of their counsel, their advice and their support.

Our whole philosophy has been to get the right expertise, to have the right practices, and then follow it up with systems and processes which will help us to keep on driving excellence.

Finally, as a company, we try to be the best in our industry and also the best to our employees, shareholders and clients.

Q. How are these best practices translating into good business?

A. Good corporate governance is good business automatically. First, because there is a tremendous amount of trust that gets developed - as being a part of the Tata group and then as TCS. The trust trickles down not only to investors and employees but also to our customers.

Q. Do you have any formal evaluation for the effectiveness of these board members?

A. This is an area that is evolving and there are different practices. As of now, we have no formal evaluation method, though. The new Companies Bill is expected to reduce the tenure of independent directors while ushering in some more changes in the corporate governance space. As and when the Bill comes up, we will adopt it. From a group point of view, we get an opportunity to represent our views. But compliance with any government rule is important to us.

Q. Are Indian corporate standards on par with those of global companies?

A. I'm no expert to comment on this subject. All I can say that there are very good companies both in India and abroad that have excellent standards of corporate governance. Similarly, we have examples of companies that lack good practices both in India and abroad. If we want to figure among the best companies globally in terms of doing business, why should it stop us from being the best when it comes to treating our employees, shareholders and customers well? We at TCS take pride not only in running TCS as a global company but also as one that is amongst the best governed companies.

N. Chandrasekaran

Managing Director and CEO

TCS' board has guided the company to deliver strong shareholder returns while mitigating risks. The constitution of the board ensures significant diversity in the range of experiences and cultural backgrounds of its directors and enables the company to reflect on the priorities across the countries where it operates. It is also one of the few in the peer group to have gender diversity on the board.

The board members have made themselves subject to best-inclass governance practices and non-mandatory measures as a commitment towards attaining higher self-governance standards.