Indian IT companies may want to grow but critics say they have very little risk appetite and will never be able to make the big acquisitions that seem to be the global norm.
However, the IT majors have an innovative answer in the mergers and acquisitions space.
"We want to acquire more partners on all fronts compared to becoming a product company ourselves. We want to be technology agnostic," said Suresh Senapaty, CFO of Wipro.
So joint ventures and partnerships is the mantra as against an outright M&A based growth strategy.
But how is it better. Well, it saves cash in an uncertain environment and brings in flexibility to sever ties as against committing to a merger or an acquisition which can go wrong. It also allows a company to serve the clients with a different mix of vendors.
Stack this against what global peers can offer. There could be downsides as serious pricing power comes only with size. The complete control on end to end delivery is not possible in an age of vendor consolidation clients are looking for one-stop shops.
But IT companies insist this is the way forward.
"It is a good idea to have got to market strategy with different product and software vendors. The clients also want to monetize their assets and this is now becoming more legitimate way of doing business," said Sudip Banerjee, CEO of L&T Infotech.
With outcome based payments becoming a norm world over, IT companies are not at liberty to make mistakes. For now Indian IT firms are resorting to tactical partnerships to win deals.
In the long run though short-term tactics will have to give way to long term strategies and big ticket acquisitions will play a key role.