TCS: From Physical Offices to Borderless Work

By: Prithwiraj Choudhury and Malini Sen

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Synopsis: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a multinational IT services company headquartered in Mumbai, is a subsidiary of one of India's most reputed conglomerates, the Tata Group. In 2020, TCS was valued at $144.7 billion, the highest for any company in the IT sector, globally. In the immediate aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis, like many companies around the world, TCS moved to remote working. The leadership of the company saw the myriad benefits of remote work. As the company planned for the future roadmap in the post-COVID world, it decided on a blended model. By 2025, only 25% of TCS employees would need to work in company facilities and no employee would need to spend more than 25% of their work hours in a physical office for the company to be productive. For this work model to be successful, the TCS management team had to brainstorm four key areas: What should the norms be for 25% in-person and who should determine them-senior managers, associates, clients, government regulators? How should the company convince veterans that virtual mentoring was as effective-if not more so-in preserving and further enriching the culture of mentorship? How should TCS deal with labor regulations around the world, if 'Talent on the Cloud' led to workers relocating and living in different geographies? Finally, how should TCS pitch this new model of work to clients once the pandemic eased?