On Wednesday, Cognizant, a leading provider of IT services, celebrated 25 years as a NASDAQ-listed firm. On this occasion, the company's Chief Executive Officer of Indian descent, Ravi Kumar S, rang the NASDAQ Opening Bell alongside a few other colleagues.
Kumar also addressed his company from NASDAQ. He said, “I'm excited to join my colleagues in celebrating the 25th anniversary of Cognizant's initial listing on the global exchange.”
The CEO also talked about how far the business has progressed since it was first listed as a public company in 1998.
“25 years ago, our first year as a public company, Cognizant had 1600 associates providing software development and maintenance technology services to just 40 clients. That year we reported annual revenues of 59 million dollars. Today Cognizant is a global name, billions of dollars of tech and digital services firm. Now, with more than 3,50,000 associates, we help the world's largest enterprises modernise the technology and transform their customer experiences to stay ahead in a fast-changing world,” he noted.
Kumar, who was named the company's CEO in January of this year, identified characteristics that have made the business resilient for a quarter-century.
“I'm super energised to be leading Cognizant into the next era of growth. Core to our company's boundless potential are three traits. First Cognizant has a growth mindset. A belief in our collective potential to keep learning, innovating and advancing. Second, we have a founder's mentality and an entrepreneurial spirit, meaning we are agile, adaptable, and ambitious. Thirdly, we have a heritage of client centricity and flexibility that enables us to co-create business outcomes for our clients at the confluence of industry and technology,” Kumar said.
He added how the workforce of the company has been instrumental in the last two and a half decades.
