Brian Humphries digs Cognizant into a deeper hole

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Editor's note: “It saddens me to say this, but if things continue the way they are going, Cognizant will die by a thousand cuts.” This is the sentiment of an executive who left the $16.6-billion Teaneck, New Jersey-based IT services company this year after serving it for over 16 years. His words are echoed by many who think Brian Humphries, brought in as CEO from Vodafone Business, an arm of telecom operator Vodafone Group Plc, to steady the ship in April last year, has only rocked it further. On 31 July, Humphries presented his fifth quarterly results. They were disappointing, to say the least. Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. reported a 5.21% sequential decline in revenue in the quarter ended 30 June. Its full-year revenue is also set to decline this year and its operating margin of 11.7% is now less than half of Mumbai-headquartered Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, India’s largest IT services provider. Cognizant's profitability is 11 percentage points lower than Bengaluru-based Infosys Ltd, the No. 2 Indian IT company, a company it proudly raced past eight years ago. In the latest …