05-Feb-2009

Sumeet Nadkar,
Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Head– Logistics SBU, - Kale Consultants Limited

Excerpts from the interview:

What is your outlook for the IT industry in India? How serious is the slowdown in Indian IT?

Like any other industry, the software industry is evolving to face the current recessionary challenges. Customers are choosing not to invest heavily in capital expenditure, but still have a pressing need to stay competitive with the use of IT. They are looking at various means to convert these capital and fixed expenses to variable expenses. IT companies will thus have to strive harder to move up the value chain to address the issue of diminishing cost arbitrage to achieve desirable growth figures.

Most companies have realized the importance of innovation and incorporating further value to their offerings. Companies who can offer best practice technology in an array of delivery models accompanied by industry domain knowledge will surely see greater traction in business.

What will be the company’s future growth strategy? What new verticals do you see as opportunities?

Over the last few years we have built our domain expertise and market leadership in the Airline, Logistics and Travel industry and we will continue our strong focus in this industry. The IT market in terms of the Airline industry alone, is in excess of USD 10 billion. In terms of human resources, Travel and transportation is the third largest industry behind BFSI and government sectors. The market size potentially is very large. At Kale, we have strategically focused on a few areas and will aim at getting significant market share in those areas globally.

Despite slowdown, Kale Consultants delivered good results in the third quarter. The company’s quarterly net profit jumped 79%. Could you elaborate on this further?

Our growth in difficult conditions highlights the merits of our unique business model. Our domain-led and IPR-driven solutions provide clients with transformational value. At the same time our pay-as-you-use models are seen an ideal alternative for clients with tighter technology budgets. We are positive of steady growth in the next few quarters.

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