Surprising the markets and analysts, HCL Technologies, the fourth-largest software exporter in the country, has posted a 33 per cent rise in net profit on the back of improved margins and broad-base growth. Vineet Nayar, CEO, HCL Technologies, explains the secret sauce.

At a time when Infosys has reported less than expected numbers, you have registered a 31 per cent growth in revenues. What worked out for you in this quarter ?

We had said we would be in the upper quota of the growth band. We sharply focused on market share. We believed there were a lot of new customers coming to the market who want new things, and HCL has to be in the front of the pack winning new business, new customers and new business from existing customers. That is what we were doing, and it reflected on the results. Therefore, you see all service lines, geographies and verticals growing, an indication that it was broad based growth. And, not growth based on one strategy.

Besides this, what according to you were the drivers for this growth?

Our investments in Europe and rest of the world. Anticipating these markets would grow, we invested in them. We also invested in areas such as healthcare and manufacturing as we expected those to be growth drivers in the future. With the acquisition of Axon, we were able to bag more transformation deals. We anticipated that after recession, the market for that business will be very big.