CIO: Earlier this year, you said you wanted to make Infosys one of the world's top five IT companies. How do you plan to do that?

S. Gopalakrishnan: Clearly we want to be a leader in this industry. To classify someone as a leader, you have to study each of its stakeholders and ensure that they see you as one of its best partners or providers or employers or even as the best opportunity for investment.

Starting with customers, our solutions and services have to be world-class and rated as one of the best and that's what we are striving to do. We want to be more proactive with coming out with solutions and services that address trends in the technology and business. For instance we measure repeat business; typically it's been between 90 and 95 percent and we compete on value -- not on price. This proves that there is value in working with us; our customers aren't with us because we are the cheapest, they want to work with us because they see value in our partnership.

We also monitor how analysts rate our services and we want to be perceived as a leader. With our employees, we want to be seen as the best employers. With our investors, we want to be seen giving the best returns. What we focus on is growth margins, being an investor-friendly company and one that addresses corporate governance and risk.

How has the downturn changed your plans?