{"id":5197,"date":"2022-08-18T22:02:15","date_gmt":"2022-08-18T22:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.horsesforsources.com\/?p=5197"},"modified":"2022-08-18T22:08:08","modified_gmt":"2022-08-18T22:08:08","slug":"aiman-ezzat-interview_081822","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsesforsources.com\/aiman-ezzat-interview_081822\/","title":{"rendered":"Is it Aiman Ezzat? It most certainly is!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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One IT services provider delivering superlative performance in recent years is Capgemini, recording over 20% revenue growth in the first half of this year while also enjoying growth in operating margins, despite all the inflationary pressures and high attrition across the industry.<\/p>\n
As it approaches its $20bn revenue milestone, it’s high time we caught up with Group CEO Aiman Ezzat to understand what’s driving this growth since he took the helm over two years ago…<\/p>\n
Phil Fersht, CEO HFS Research: So I\u2019ll dive straight into this, Aiman. Did you always want to be a CEO of a \u20ac20 billion services giant? Was this what you always wanted to do when you started out? <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n
Aiman Ezzat, CEO Capgemini Group:<\/strong><\/span> I\u2019ve been with Capgemini almost 27 years now, Phil. I am a chemical engineer, but I started my career with IBM in the mid-80s, IBM Europe, actually. I stayed there for a few years and then went to do an MBA at UCLA. After that, I was curious about consulting, so I joined what was called the Mac Group, at the time, which was a strategy consulting boutique which was created by Harvard professors, and as I joined, this company got acquired by Capgemini to create what was, at the time, called Gemini Consulting, which was a transformation consulting arm of Capgemini. I stayed there for nine years, half of the time in Europe, and half of the time in the US, I was based on the West Coast. I left in 2000 to join a smaller firm that was supposed to go public, it never happened. I stayed there for four years. At the end I was running the non-US business; I was based in D.C., but running Europe and Asia. I left in 2004 to come back to Capgemini.<\/p>\n
My career restarted in Capgemini, after that four years\u2019 divergence, I was first in group strategy, I was Deputy Director of Strategy, I did a lot of the transformation programmes, I did a lot of the acquisitions. And I moved to help one of the acquisitions, which was Kanbay, to help create our global financial services P&L. I joined as COO, and after one year, I became the CEO of that business, to make it a global business for Capgemini. That was 2007, and I became CEO of our financial services entity on the 1st<\/sup> of January 2009, perfect timing to see the financial market crash. This was an interesting experience, of course. At the end of 2012, I became the CFO of the group, I stayed CFO until mid-2018. In the meantime, I was chosen as being one of the two people to potentially become the successor for Paul Hermelin, so I also became COO. And then you know the rest. In September 2019, I was confirmed as being the next CEO, and I became CEO on 20th<\/sup> of May 2020. So that\u2019s kind of my career, very, very Capgemini, but very diverse in Capgemini, as well, because I touch a lot of things, strategy, operations, finance.<\/p>\n
Have I always dreamed of becoming a CEO? No. There are some people who, when they are 18, they want to become a CEO. Me, I wanted to do interesting things in life. \u00a0So I followed my career, from one thing to the other, always trying to find a way to be able to add value and learn something. \u00a0I was quite successful in the CFO role, I was chosen to be one of the two potential people to succeed Paul, and it was only then that I realized that I could potentially become the CEO of Capgemini. That\u2019s kind of how my career went. So I\u2019m not a big power guy; I was interested in taking the CEO job because I had ideas about what I could bring to the group. This is it. When you take the CEO job, it\u2019s for that. It\u2019s not for power; it\u2019s because you have a vision, and you see that you can add value, and see what you can bring.<\/p>\n
Phil:<\/strong> So who have been your influences along the way that you can share, maybe some personal and professional ones, Aiman?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n
Aiman:<\/strong> There are a few things that marked (ph 05.28) me through my career. When I was younger, I was interested in strategy and did a lot of reading, one the persons that influenced me was\u00a0 C.K. Prahalad with Strategic Intent and Core Competencies, that was early 90\u2019s.\u00a0 In the late 90s, one guy that influenced in terms of thinking was Chan Kim, who is a professor at INSEAD, who with Ren\u00e9e Mauborgne wrote a piece called Value Innovation and Fair Process, and then went on later to write Blue Ocean Strategy. That influenced me in terms of how you need to focus on the client, and how to create value for the client; moving away a bit from the notion of competitive advantage, and much more around value creation being focused on the client. This influenced me, in terms of thinking.<\/p>\n
In terms of people, you look at a lot of people, you learn from a lot of people, I cannot say I have one role model. But someone that impressed me, in terms of what he did, is Steve Jobs. He was passionate, he had a vision, and people could tell him whatever they want, they didn\u2019t necessarily agree with him, but he was convinced about what he wanted to achieve. He created a lot of value. That\u2019s someone I like, in terms of personality, in terms of his commitment to achieving something, his vision., He drove it all the way to the end.<\/p>\n
Phil:<\/strong> Yeah. I love watching some of his old videos, including when he launched <\/strong>the iPhone, he could accurately see 15 years into the future.\u00a0 It\u2019s incredible if you watch that 2007 launch<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n