'The Day My Heart Is Not 100% Committed': TCS's Gopinathan Explains Exit

Rajesh Gopinathan, who has resigned as CEO of IT services firm Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), said wanting to do something else had been playing on his mind for some time. He discussed this with N Chandrasekaran, his mentor and chairman of Tata Sons, but priortised running the company.

“There is nothing more challenging than doing the quarter after quarter performance update and making sure that performance keeps up. It’s been 10 years of doing that and I enjoyed it but sometimes when you reach a milestone you start thinking what next,” said Gopinathan at a press conference in Mumbai on Friday.

TCS on Thursday announced Gopinathan is resigning in an unexpected move to pursue other interests and named its president and head of global financial services business K Krithivasan as the CEO-designate, effective March 16.

“I was sure of one thing, the day my heart is not 100 per cent committed to do this work I will leave…and that was the trigger point. I owe it to TCS, all of us owe it to TCS. This seat was given in trust and I respect the seat and it is something that I do not take lightly. It is not a seat for me to sit and think of my future plans,” said Gopinathan.

Gopinathan said he has not decided what to do next, but the immediate task is the smooth transition of the company into Krithivasan’s hands.

“I owe it to all our customers, colleagues and employees to make sure I am there for whatever time that Krithi needs. I will be available to Krithi 100 per cent not only now but also whenever he needs me. After that I want to take some downtime with my family, sit back and think,” he said.

Gopinathan added that TCS is the leader in its space and has given industry-leading results. After the pandemic, the company grew 15 per cent and in the first nine months of FY23.

Asked about his resignation at a time of macroeconomic uncertainty, he said: “Last 10 years, this is perhaps the most stable time. This level of the volatility is par from the course and there will be ups and down. In times of crisis we have come together and worked as a team. It was important to do this before the start of the financial year, so that the incoming CEO has the full runway to play.”

On a lighter note he added that since his campus days he has never worked on his resume.

“I never wrote my resume after my campus, my batchmates will know about it. On campus, we used to have a repository, one great learning that you have, one failure that you have. But I don’t have any practice doing that in the last 28 years. I haven’t thought about it. TCS has been integral to who I am. I never had any second thoughts looking back at my journey. I won’t have done anything else differently,” he said.