Amit Kapur, Head Of UK & Ireland – Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), talks to us about Jaguar TCS Racing, the electrification of vehicles and how sport sponsorships can enrich a business.
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a leading global IT services, consulting and business solutions organisation, has joined the iconic British racing team Jaguar Racing as title partner ahead of the 2021/22 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship. The team will be known as Jaguar TCS Racing
During this multi-year partnership, TCS and Jaguar will create a dynamic platform that will drive research and innovation while steering towards advanced concepts and electric vehicle (EV) technologies. TCS will leverage its leadership in technology transformation and experience working with premier players in the EV value chain, to help Jaguar TCS Racing become a catalyst for electrification, pushing towards low carbon emissions and sustainable mobility. The partnership will see the creative use of data and insights from the racetrack to shape the wider growth, development and transformation of the entire electric vehicle ecosystem.
Amit Kapur, Head of UK & Ireland – Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), talks to us about this partnership, Formula E, sustainability in motorsport and the future of electric vehicles…
What has your career journey been like so far? What has been the most memorable achievement in your career?
I started with TCS in 1999 – I joined straight after college. I’ve been with TCS for 23 years and it’s been a journey of change and growth. There are many like me in the organisation who have built their career within the enterprise. When I joined the organisation, we had roughly 20,000 employees globally, and today we are a little over 600,000.
For the first six years, I did a multitude of roles around growth and governance, edging towards consulting in 2005. After a six-year stint, I relocated to Amsterdam, leading partnerships that specialised in technology. And then, before I relocated to London in 2019, I was heading the Benelux business for TCS in mainland Europe.
When we relocated to London, I picked up the UK&I leadership role for TCS, and a few months in lockdown happened, so it was perfect timing!
The last 23 years have been very fulfilling. The organisation has constantly been changing and growing, leading to many role opportunities and many moments to cherish and look back upon. For example, we have had many firsts within the organisation, such as a lot of outsourcing in 2005 during my time in the Netherlands. This set the pace for an outsourcing offshoring model for the rest of mainland Europe.
Can you tell us more about the partnership between Jaguar and TCS?
Our relationship with Jaguar (JLR) is almost a decade old. We’re a strategic partner, more focused on the technology side of things, but that journey with JLR has definitely progressed from driving technology efficiencies to effectiveness, driving elements of technology to reimagine the passenger experience, utilising data and analytics towards more engendering profiling and the ability to rethink and say what’s next.
JLR themselves have a big reimagine agenda and we are helping them with that. Our partnership has gone from strength to strength and we are assisting the company with its reimagine journey, looking at the possibilities of technology.
We further expanded this relationship with JLR a year ago, partnering with the Jaguar TCS Racing team. This has become a multi-dimensional relationship wherein we not only help JLR as an organisation work more effectively but also take the concept of electric vehicles and Formula E to different parts of the globe as well.
What was the strategy behind TCS supporting JTCSR as the title sponsor?
There are a few themes that are very close to TCS’ heart: innovation, sustainability and wellness. Formula E and Jaguar TCS Racing fitted very well into the first two themes of innovation and sustainability. Then when we looked back and saw what was happening according to social demographics, that everyone was talking about the future of mobility; urban transport; the entire ecosystem of electric vehicles; electrification as a larger concept, we saw it ticking boxes on multiple fronts and we felt it was the right timing to support JLR. Formula E and Jaguar TCS Racing fitted multiple elements of innovation and sustainability, which worked well for our values and ethos, making it the right partnership to strike.
Can you elaborate on how this collaboration will pave the way for the adoption of advanced technologies and the utilisation of cleaner energy?
There are two very pivotal things. One is the entire role of technology and the other is the passenger experience. The underpinning element of both is the ability to drive insights and data-led decisions. When you start looking at the data and insights, data analytics as a whole, you will see that the electric vehicle industry has had its own evolution.
We believe that there is a very beautiful ecosystem emerging on the back of electric vehicles, improving both their performance and experience. For example, JLR has many electric vehicles, which feeds into Formula E and that entire journey of performance. You could also look at the concept of vehicle leasing and how companies should start re-evaluating their fleets regarding climate change. Whether you look at it through an insurance lens, the passenger journey or the evolution of electric vehicles, the wider ecosystem will start coming together and will make a big impact on climate change.
TCS has an expansive portfolio of sports partnerships. How does TCS enrich the racing experience, especially when it comes to Jaguar TCS Racing?
Formula E is an evolving sport. While motorsport has existed for a long time, Formula E is only a recent offshoot and is definitely picking up in popularity. What draws the attention of any audience towards motorsport is essentially the strategy and speed, how strategy and speed come together to drive the end result – whether it is the life of the battery, the consumption pattern, when to overtake, whom to overtake, how to overtake, those impulsive decisions happen on the back of analysis.
We will together – along with JLR – lift the entire experience for the audience, whether it is their ability to drive a simulation, whether it is the ability to experience strategy and speed first-hand, a lot of upliftment will happen. As more innovation comes to the forefront, we believe this experience will only be multiplied.
What advice can you give to other businesses hoping to adapt their sustainability strategy?
Enterprises have recognised the importance of having a larger agenda on the back of climate change and most have underpinned that with a commitment toward sustainability and ESG reporting. We are seeing that the world is coming together, not only through the voices of citizens but also the voices or actions of enterprises. I think any action goes a long way if it is measurable. Sustainability is a challenge but the ability to adopt measurable actions goes a long way.
No enterprise should shy away from addressing these challenges. A lot of solutions may come from your own supply chains but also from horizontal collaboration, so look outside your industry. There may be a possibility for you to be an anchor or participant in active sustainability efforts.