Tata Consultancy Services Enhances Partnerships with Clients
The Client
“We look forward to a long-standing relationship with Ms. Koss. Not only is she organized, concise and dedicated, working with her is a pleasure and every interaction with her was a learning experience for even the most experienced of managers.”
Pramod Chandrasekhar, Regional Manager – Human Resources
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is one of the largest information technology (IT) consulting firms in the world. A part of the Tata Group, India’s largest industrial conglomerate, TCS has over 116,000 of the world's best trained IT consultants in 50 countries delivering services to 1,000 clients. Its annual revenue hit $5.7 billion in the most recent fiscal year.
The Goals
To consult with its clients effectively, Tata’s regional sales managers have strong technical backgrounds. But Tata also wanted to enhance the communications skills of its American-based Indian sales reps especially given the cultural differences. Tata regional sales managers needed to understand where the obstacles were and become aware of how they could become more valued, integral partners in clients’ businesses.
The Solution
TCS engaged Lisa Koss of International Advantage for her expertise in leadership behaviors and communication – particularly in cross-cultural environments. Lisa gathered data and interviewed participants in order to prepare a customized learning event and to provide follow-up mentoring for TCS’ American sales reps based on their individual goals.
“Due to Lisa’s communication with everyone involved ahead of time, when she met personally with the team for the first time, it was as if she was already a part of our team,” said Pramod Chandrasekhar, Regional Manager – Human Resources
Lisa introduced new, interactive meeting facilitation methods and identified six primary areas of focus at TCS. She covered the different phases of the selling cycle, with an emphasis on reps’ consulting skills, specific communications challenges, and prospecting. After the workshop, Lisa continued to mentor reps and guided them in setting measurable, follow-through expectations on action items.
The Strategic Advantage
The engagement helped TCS more effectively communicate and partner with its clients, significantly contributing to the company’s business relationships and organizational goals. Relationships with a key U.S. based client improved and TCS was able to retain the account.
“International Advantage helped management and participants alike to embrace individual strategies for improved communication with colleagues and clients,” Chandrasekhar said. “Her ideas were the ideal springboard for our organization to discover more solutions. She delivered exactly what we needed.”