Technology is changing at a pace faster than a lightning bolt, and only the most innovative and scaled organizations can be considered successful in the world. However, the most successful individuals are those who possess a vision, integrity, and inspire others. Great leaders have a clear sense when interacting in an uncertain environment, enable employees to perform better than expected, and strike a balance between ambition and accountability. They view disruption as an opportunity rather than a threat that can bring long-term impact. Such a quality of leadership is seldom and precious in the highly dynamic world of global technology service, where fashions change overnight and the stakes are high.
When discussing technology leaders, people can refer to innovation, scale, and disturbance. Leadership, however, is something different for Dr. (h.c) Sivakumar Deivacikamani, Vice President and Consumer Business Unit Head – Delivery, Cognizant, who is an individual who has always viewed leadership as a discipline, empathy, and the ability to take on challenges to shape not only careers but also industries.
Dr. (h.c) Sivakumar has experienced the trends of change in technology services since the beginning of outsourcing 25 years ago, and the groundbreaking potential of artificial intelligence. His path is full of achievements: he has headed one of the most massive systems of policy administration in the early 2000s, developed thousands of people across geographical levels, and appeared around the world as one of the most multifunctional leaders in the area of technologies. But what is even more interesting about his story, in addition to the awards, is that he could incorporate the values of his upbringing in Tamil Nadu and cut across the world into a worldwide leadership philosophy.
Early Lessons: Discipline as the Bedrock
Born and raised in Tamil Nadu, Dr. (h.c) Sivakumar was shaped by his father’s unwavering principles of discipline and ethics. His father believed that discipline was the foundation of both professional integrity and personal wellbeing. He often reminded Dr. (h.c) Sivakumar that discipline was not punishment; it was freedom: the freedom to focus, achieve, and live with clarity.
Dr. (h.c) Sivakumar’s formative years as a district-level hockey player further reinforced this mindset. Early mornings on the field demanded stamina and sacrifice, while balancing academics required resilience and prioritization. Losing a game taught humility, while winning reminded him of the value of preparation and teamwork. These lessons, earned in the dust and sweat of hockey grounds, became lifelong metaphors for leadership.
For him, success is not measured only by outcomes but also by how sustainably those outcomes are achieved.
Building Blocks at TCS: A Taste of Excellence
Dr. (h.c) Sivakumar’s professional career began at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), where he absorbed the rigor of one of the world’s most respected IT services firms. Working with industry-leading financial clients, he quickly realized that technology was never just about coding; it was about solving real business problems.
A defining moment came when he volunteered to lead a mainframe project despite his inexperience. The decision was risky, but it instilled in him two lifelong lessons: courage attracts opportunity, and accountability earns trust.
From that point onward, Dr. (h.c) Sivakumar charted his career with deliberate reinvention. Every three to four years, he took on a new role: developer, technology architect, delivery manager, solution designer, and eventually sales leader. He states, “Each transition provided valuable lessons and contributed significantly to my professional development.” Over time, this diversity gave him a 360-degree understanding of technology services, from the granular detail of systems to the strategic concerns of global clients.
Mentorship and Lifelong Learning
Throughout his career, Dr. (h.c) Sivakumar has been shaped by mentors who emphasized the power of curiosity. His first mentor, Narendra, taught him small but impactful habits, like mastering keyboard shortcuts to maximize efficiency or welcoming new tools like Visual Studio to deepen technical expertise. “These insights have played a critical role in shaping my approach to work and lifelong learning, “mentions Dr. (h.c) Sivakumar.
Later, Dr. (h.c) Sivakumar pursued global learning opportunities, completing programs like ‘Innovation of Products and Services, Design Thinking’ at MIT and ‘Executive Presence and Influence’ at the Wharton School, USA. These experiences broadened his horizon, sharpening both his strategic vision and his presence as a leader.
A Career of Expanding Horizons
Dr. (h.c) Sivakumar’s journey took him across industries, insurance, banking, investment, consumer goods, travel, and hospitality, and across continents: North America, Mexico, Europe, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. Each assignment enlarged his professional stock and cultural fluency.
In Mexico, he recognized potential in bilingual skills and technical foundations. By pairing native leaders with local talent, he built one of TCS’s most significant delivery centers, eventually scaling it into a multi-thousand-member workforce.
In Europe, where technical expertise was already advanced, his challenge was different: scaling niche engineering capabilities and preparing leadership pipelines that could unlock greater strategic value.
Dr. (h.c) Sivakumar points out, “By cultivating an environment in which each culture complements the others, organizations can create mutually beneficial opportunities, driving sustained success and fostering collaborative excellence worldwide.”
Achievements that Define His Journey
Among his milestones, Dr. (h.c) Sivakumar is especially proud of leading the development of the largest and most robust policy administration system in the early 2000s. The solution not only delivered efficiency but also powered a tenfold growth for the insurer, and remarkably, continues to thrive today.
Equally meaningful for him is his track record of developing future leaders. Many of his colleagues have risen to significant positions, and their growth represents, for Dr. (h.c) Sivakumar, the most enduring profit of leadership.
Recognition and Responsibility
Dr. (h.c) Sivakumar’s contributions have earned him global recognition, including titles such as Most Versatile and Well-Rounded Technology Leader to Look Up To in 2025(Asia Excellence Awards), Top 5 Outstanding Personalities to Follow in 2024 (The CIO Today), Most Admired Global Indians 2024 (PassionVista), Top 25 Insurance Consultants and Leaders of 2024 (The Consulting Report), Man of Excellence Award 2022–23 (Indian Achievers Forum), and the ET Inspiring Leaders Award 2023 in IT (Insurance).
Siva reminds himself of his wife Dr.Praba, daughter Chandini and mother Chandra’s deep support. For Dr. (h.c) Sivakumar, accolades are responsibility, serving as a reminder that true leadership is a collective journey, measured by client trust, team growth, and peer respect.
Leadership at Cognizant: Certainty as a Promise
As the Consumer Goods, Travel & Hospitality Business Unit – Delivery Head at Cognizant, Dr. (h.c) Sivakumar realizes a leadership philosophy centered on delivering certainty to clients. In today’s fast changing and often unpredictable business environment, certainty is not about avoiding disarrangement but about guiding organizations through it with balance, foresight, and resilience. He believes that clients seek more than solutions; they seek confidence that their partners understand the challenges they face and can help navigate them successfully.
Dr. (h.c) Sivakumar’s leadership model is built on four key pillars.
First, understanding regional and cultural nuances enables the design of solutions tailored to local market dynamics, ensuring relevance and impact.
Second, he emphasizes creating empathetic solutions that address the true needs of customers.
Third, he instills continuous improvement as an organizational habit, promoting a culture where learning, adaptability, and efficiency are constant priorities. Finally, he champions thought leadership, anticipating industry shifts and guiding clients proactively rather than reactively.
By combining these principles, Dr. (h.c) Sivakumar ensures that Cognizant transcends the role of a service provider to become a trusted partner in transformation. Under his leadership, the organization delivers measurable value, inspires confidence, and helps clients navigate change with clarity, making certainty not just a promise, but a tangible outcome.
Balancing Strategy & Anticipating Industry Shifts
Managing global operations demands a delicate balance between strategy and execution. Dr. (h.c) Sivakumar asserts, “Employing both pragmatism and ambition in the formulation of strategy is instrumental to effective execution.”
He fosters collaboration and inclusiveness within teams, while maintaining rigor and results-focused with clients. For him, empathy and accountability are not contradictions but complementary features of strong leadership.
Over 25 years, Dr. (h.c) Sivakumar has navigated multiple waves of outsourcing transformation. Today, he sees AI and Global Capability Centres (GCCs) as defining the next chapter.
To prepare, he focuses on early capability building in AI and developing whitespace strengths that thrive business outcomes. He sees the future of outsourcing as high-value innovation partnerships.
Balancing Growth with Profitability & Personal Wellness
Dr. (h.c) Sivakumar has consistently driven profitable growth by combining automation, process reengineering, and innovation. Efficiency gains are sometimes reinvested into clients, strengthening trust, and at other times redirected into productivity tools to ensure sustainability.
For him, profitability is not about short-term wins but about building long-term strength and reinvestment capacity.
Irrespective of global responsibilities, Dr. (h.c) Sivakumar remains disciplined. His daily routine of yoga and walking not only sustains his health but also provides mental clarity. He believes leaders must include balance: if you neglect yourself, you cannot sustainably serve others.
Advice to Aspiring Leaders
The advice provided by Dr. (h.c) Sivakumar is insightful and pragmatic to the future generation of leaders in the consulting and technology sector. He starts with the fundamentals: learn the fundamentals. To him, having a good understanding of the basic knowledge generates more than credibility, but the capacity to make an instant impression. In the absence of this foundation, he warns, ambition is apt to be only temporary.
After gaining some ground, Dr. (h.c) Sivakumar stresses the importance of being regular and intentional. In his view, improvement exists not so much in spurts of genius but in persistence, hard drill, and purposefulness. He encourages professionals, together with consistency, to identify and use their strengths. Each person, he says, possesses gifts that make them special, and the ability to become a real leader is to accept and enhance such gifts with self-confidence.
It is also vital to dedicate oneself to constant self-education and improvement. Dr. (h.c) Sivakumar advises young professionals to be proactive and to always take initiative even before an opportunity presents itself. Lastly, he also brings out the money of technology as curiosity. Only people who will always be curious will be relevant, flexible and creative in an industry that is always reinventing itself.
To Dr. (h.c) Sivakumar, leadership is not about positions but attitude, and it is based on fundamentals, reinforced by persistence, and driven by curiosity.
Looking Ahead – AI and Beyond
Dr. (h.c) Sivakumar views AI as the game-changer of the present, a technology that is transforming whole sectors of the economy and the way we experience the world. He does not want to apply AI to everything; he wants to consider those cases when the presence of people can be harmful, inefficient, or has not been tried previously. This method is the safest and most effective.
At Cognizant, he is assisting clients in navigating to an AI-enabled future that does not compromise ethics in the name of innovation. He believes we must be responsible in how we use this technology, ensuring it benefits society rather than creating new issues.
He does not view his vision as replacing human creativity with AI, but rather as enhancing it to a level we have never experienced before. AI helps him open possibilities to innovations that he could previously not even imagine. By implementing AI in a considered way when businesses operate, Dr. (h.c) Sivakumar Deivacikamani is sure that companies can entirely reconsider how they operate, make smarter choices, and generate actual value to customers and their staff.
To him, AI is not about being able to do things faster and at a cheaper price. It is about going to extremes to find out what is actually possible, changing whole industries, and creating sustainable businesses. He views AI as unlocking the potential that had been waiting for the right technology.
A Legacy in Motion
It is a discipline, reinvention, and influence that have made Dr. (h.c) Sivakumar a Tamil Nadu state hockey star in a world boardroom. He has established more than systems and businesses in over 25 years; he has created people and cultures.
The universal truth that his story upholds is the fact that real leadership is not about titles and accolades but about change and inspiration as well as developing other people and making industries visionary and humane.
As the industrial world adapts AI and sets in place to change more than ever before, Dr. (h.c) Sivakumar is an example of one leader who incorporates strategy and action, vision and compassion, ambition and discipline.