Of this, at least three changes were on account of relative underperformance, according to four executives who spoke with Mint. Besides, two CEOs announced their desire to step down after leading the respective companies for over a decade.

The sixth change of guard was due to personal reasons, while the remaining two were on account of business restructuring and change in ownership.

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Incidentally, six out of the eight companies entrusted an external candidate, suggesting the companies’ boards opted for a shift in their current business approach. Three of the external appointments were at Infosys Ltd.

“The Indian IT industry is looking at external candidates, who have been successful in their previous assignments, as their CEO candidates. Some IT firms were stagnating, and were looking at growth,” said Navnit Singh, chairman and regional managing director of Korn Ferry India, an executive search firm. “They are getting CEOs who can overhaul and realign the company’s focus in areas, including digital and artificial intelligence (AI).”

Wednesday witnessed the recent change of guard with Genpact announcing N.V. “Tiger” Tyagarajan’s decision to step down as the New York Stock Exchange-listed company’s CEO. He will retire in February 2024, and company veteran B.K. Kalra will take over the reins as his successor. Tyagarajan steered the firm from a revenue of $1.2 billion at the end of December 2010 to $4.4 billion in December 2022. “We view Tiger’s decision to leave day-to-day leadership as a loss. In our more than a decade of covering Genpact, we have found Tiger to be an exceptional leader. This is not to diminish BK, or anyone else,” Keith Bachman, an analyst with BMO Capital Markets, wrote in a note on 8 November. In fact, the two biggest surprises were the changes at Tata Consultancy Services and Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp.

Cognizant appointed former Infosys executive S. Ravi Kumar as CEO following the dismissal of Brian Humphries in January. According to a Mint analysis, under Humphries’ leadership, Cognizant struggled, reporting just 0.9% compounded quarterly revenue growth between 1 January 2019 and 30 December 2022. During the period, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, Infosys Ltd, and HCL Technologies Ltd achieved growth rates of 2.4%, 2.8%, and 2.4%, respectively.

High attrition rates, persistent senior leadership turnover, coupled with a 25.7% decline in share prices, compelled the Cognizant board to take action, according to an earlier Mint story.

Mumbai-headquarter TCS witnessed a rare change of guard in March, when the incumbent, Rajesh Gopinathan, abruptly decided to step down, six months after the company announced his second five-year term in October 2021.

Differences in leadership style and certain strategic management decisions led to tensions between Tata Sons chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran and Gopinathan, prompting India’s largest IT services firm to name company veteran K. Krithivasan as a replacement.

Birlasoft, part of the $2 billion CK Birla Group, was the third company opting for an external candidate to revive the mid-tier IT services firm’s fortunes in December 2022. In May 2019, it elevated its chief operating officer Dharmender Kapoor as the CEO. But a compounded annual revenue growth of 5.8% over the last four years prompted the board to hire former Wipro executive Angan Guha to scale up growth.

“The most prominent reason explaining the wave of leadership changes is that the firms are seeking to diversify portfolios by appointing leaders with multifaceted industry exposure,” Ritu Sethi, partner, technology practice at ABC Consultants, said. “Another noteworthy aspect to consider is tapping into new markets and geographies, and becoming a partner of choice,” she added.

varun.sood@livemint.com