Cognizant learns an HR lesson as people shortage impacts business momentum

A challenging strategy to accelerate growth has ironically dragged the former IT racehorse into bigger troubles over people management

On May 11, Wipro overtook Cognizant in terms of market cap on the New York Stock Exchange. This was an event to note because Cognizant’s revenues are almost double Wipro’s. In fact, the New Jersey, US-headquartered tech company had overtaken the Bengaluru-based Wipro a decade ago.

To be sure, the gap wasn’t huge initially. On May 11, the market cap of Wipro’s American Depositary Receipt — the instrument that represents the securit­ies of a foreign company — stood at $39.3 billion, just a tad ahead of Cognizant at $39 billion.

By May 28, Wipro’s ADR rose almost 4 per cent