Anil Chanana let the cat out of the bag at an analyst call earlier this year. The chief financial officer of HCL Technologies said he expects half the growth for the current fiscal to come organically. “If I take 10.5% as being the middle of the range, I am cutting it exactly in half — 5.25% is organic and 5.25% is inorganic.”
Industry experts believe successful enterprises of the future will need to develop symbiotic relationships across the ecosystem to exploit market opportunities and accomplish goals.
But unlike most peers, HCL has used its balance sheet to win new business by buying assets, argues Peter Bender-Samuel, chief executive of consultancy firm Everest. In transactions with both CSC (now DXC) and IBM, HCL acquired the rights to support legacy software assets by offering CSC and IBM with large upfront payments. In exchange, it received a large ongoing contract to maintain the software. In some cases, HCL will provide upgrades, jointly market the software and receive a part of sales.
