Krithivasan will be the chief executive of TCS for a term of 5 years.

“At TCS, the retirement age for executive directors is 65 years. So it will be easily six years for him (Kritivasan). And appointments are always for five years. Old. These types of questions will keep coming, but our Board and NRC (Nomination and Remuneration Committee) have looked at a whole set of candidates and in the present situation, (depending on) what is required and what is most suitable, a unanimous choice It was that Kriti is the best person for the job.”

On Friday morning, the outgoing boss and new CEO took questions from the press on the changes at the top, which many former employees and analysts called involuntary, that were announced the day before.

In a surprise development on Thursday, TCS said that Gopinathan, who succeeded Natarajan Chandrasekaran as CEO in February 2017 and was given a second five-year term in October 2021, had decided to step down. Krithivasan, who joined TCS as a trainee in 1989, will take over as CEO from September 15, the company said.

Investors appeared relatively unfazed after the sudden change of guard: TCS shares were little changed, closing 0.18% lower 3,178.95 per share, even as the broader Sensex closed 0.6% higher at 57,989.9 points.

One possible answer is the consensus view among analysts is that the company’s business will not be affected.

“TCS is a well-oiled machine. When it comes to execution, TCS has almost got it right,” said a Singapore-based analyst at a foreign brokerage on condition of anonymity. “The way it is designed organizationally, we believe that there will be no immediate commercial impact.”

The CEO-designate ruled out any immediate changes. “I don’t expect to see a great strategy change or organizational change in the immediate future,” Krithivasan said.

Krithivasan’s appointment as the fifth boss in TCS’s 54-year history is surprising for two reasons.

First, only in October 2021, Gopinathan was awarded a second five-year term.

Second, the CEO change was announced less than four weeks before the company was scheduled to announce its fourth-quarter financial earnings on April 12.

“Companies typically don’t announce leadership changes like this when they are so close to their earnings. That’s because it’s not easy to arrange the dates of all board members. For this reason, companies can announce leadership changes at earnings time.” Will announce, if it is planned. Besides, an executive like Rajesh could have been accommodated in any business of the Tata group if indeed he was tired of running an IT services business,” said a former employee.

Gopinathan reiterated that he had been in talks with Tata Sons chairman Chandrasekaran about stepping down for some time.

“I have always been telling him (Chandra) that at some point, I want to do it. So it’s been an ongoing dialogue. So one day, you wake up, and you say, well, we’ve talked about this long enough, so better pull the trigger. So it happened a week ago,” Gopinathan said.