Time to walk Mike’s way… Salvino to run DXC

Just as the industry was running out of steam, just as we’re writing the obituary of the outsourcing model… suddenly we have sal-vation.  We’re an industry desperate for leadership, for new ideas, for personalities we want to work with, for a new culture that inspires us to get out of bed in the morning.

So how about one provider many of us were giving up on recruiting one of the most charismatic, energetic and determined leaders who grew Accenture Operations from $1.5bn to more than $7bn.  How about the guy who jump-started one of the most impressive machine learning businesses in the industry? How about the guy who pioneered whole new approaches to service delivery with the Six Generations of BPO and the As-a-Service Economy?  How about the guy who drove an acquisition so smart it locked up an entire market vertical? 

Just as we thought DXC was caught in a perennial treadmill of mere survival, they have made one of the most ambitious, creative – and smart – CEO appointments the services business has witnessed in Mike “Sal” Salvino – someone I have known as a friend and industry peer for two decades.  Sal is proven to take legacy business, mine the gold, bring in the talent and make strategic moves, which is exactly what DXC needs at a time this industry is in transition. We’ll have Mike at our HFS Summit on 2nd October to have a more candid discussion with industry leaders if you want to try and grab a last-minute spot.

So what are Mike’s challenges and opportunities according to the HFS analyst team?

Developing market position and messaging. The new combined entity still trying to find its unique market positioning. DXC needs to hit the ground quickly to consolidate and clarify its combined offerings and transform internally to cater to the changing market needs.

Double-down on tech where it can win.  DXC has oodles of capability and talent in automation, digital enablement and AI, in addition, to a $2bn business process services business.  There is gold here if it can bring it to the surface and take it to market in the right way.

Expanding its base. DXC has a significant existing client base of nearly 6,000 customers especially in healthcare, public sector, and CPG. Large deal heritage from CSC and HP.
they have capabilities across OneOffice but have been reduced to a me-too player. No one knows what they stand for… Mike needs to change that, and fast.

Find a way to highlight some of the hidden gems in their incredibly complex patchwork of assets and capabilities from past acquisitions. The “blanket DXC” is drowning out some of their areas of differentiation because they’re not talking about them anymore.

Verticalizing their offerings effectively. DXC spent a bunch of time slinging what HP + CSC can do and came up with 8 master offering buckets. But it was all horizontal. They are struggling to build relevance by industry. If they could fill the white space with their gigantic customer base alone would ensure success. 

Finding a thumb for the dyke. Stemming the flow of long term infrastructure customers getting poached by aggressive ITO competitors and AWS.

Build a true brand association and a mission. DXC doesn’t have a clear story for anyone outside of very specific groups, and that’s really dependent on who you speak to. It’s the same for clients – as part of a major branding project where we interviewed some industry luminaries who all struggled to understand what DXC is up to, what differentiates them, or why they should even think of working with them.

Target (and execute) on acquisitions that provide true differentiation. As Mike looks at strengthening vertical offerings and service delivery areas, there will me boundless firms on the block to evaluate. Time is not on DXC’s side and the right targets need to be integrated effectively, alongside the current firms in the organization.

Posted in : Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), intelligent-automation, IT Outsourcing / IT Services