KC McClure: Yes. So, I — we haven’t seen any real change. What you’re talking about is what’s happening with the work that we’ve already sold, we’re not seeing any real change in anything that’s already in our book of business in terms of what’s happening with the macro. And Julie, I don’t know if there’s anything else you want to add?
Julie Sweet: Yes — no. And really I think what’s important is that regardless of industry or country, the focus still is on transformation, right? There is nobody saying, “I’m going to change less,” right? Unfortunately, the companies are having — sometimes are having a harder time, right, doing what they’d like to do because they’re under pressure. And again, that’s where our relationships really matter because we’re the trusted partner, right? And if you got to know that whatever you are going to spend money on, it’s going to have to deliver value, it’s a flight to quality, right? And so, we’ve seen that since the early days of the pandemic, and it continues in this environment. And remember, that the idea of total enterprise reinvention is things are connected.
Like I gave the example of the European grocer, right? One company that can transform IT, do an ad strategy, provide personalized customer experience and lower overall cost, right, that is not easy to do, and it requires industry expertise and expertise in many parts of the enterprise. And that’s really where our resilience comes from. And by the way, also our ability to pivot, right, to pivot, and that particular one started as a cost play, and we were able to show the client how not only could they reduce cost, but they could actually drive more growth by connecting these things and understanding the intersections. And that’s what we’re focused on, right? We always start with what do our clients need. And right now, they need to be more efficient, they need to do more with less, they need to optimize what they have and we’re investing.
And I will tell you that one of the things that’s so critical are assets and solutions. Because I was just doing or earlier this week, and I always ask the client what do you think about what you’ve seen, and they’re like, it’s amazing like you have this myWizard platform, it’s got data, it’s got AI, it’s stuff that we can even begin to build, and you not only have it built but it’s been used in thousands of clients. So that’s the kind of place where our ability to invest, not just now, but over the last decade, really matters to clients. And compared to anybody out there, right, the amount of money that we’re putting in acquisitions and solutions is really tremendous in driving value for our clients.
Bryan Bergin: Okay. That’s good to hear. Follow-up, just geographic and vertical growth performance was quite broad-based here. Did you expect that to continue through the balance of the year? And I was particularly surprised on Europe and Growth Markets actually outperforming North America, is that going to persist or do you see that changing?
Julie Sweet: By the way, my CEO of Europe and my CEO of Growth Markets like that out to their friends in North America as well. So, a little good-natured competition there, but KC, why don’t you…
KC McClure: Yes. And so in terms of what we expect to see for the year, we do expect to see Europe and Growth Markets for the full year be in the double-digit range. And we do expect that North America, which is — as the CEO of North America says, “I have a much, much bigger business,” will grow at a mid- to high single-digit range for the year. And Julie, I don’t know if there’s anything else that you want to add on…
Julie Sweet: Yes, on North America, I mean, they had unbelievable growth last year on a huge book of business. So growing anywhere in the high single digit to double digit again this year is quite impressive. I mean their growth was 26% last year. So, we are very pleased with kind of the growth we see ahead.
Katie O’Conor: Operator, we have time for one more question, and then Julie will wrap up the call. Please go ahead.
Operator: Okay. That question comes from the line of Ashwin Shirvaikar from Citi. Please go ahead.
Ashwin Shirvaikar: Let me say a good quarter in a tough environment and also Happy Holidays. Let me — I’ll ask both the questions together. The first one is I see the sequential hiring growth, and obviously, many other tech companies cutting back. And I’m wondering if your positive hiring is partly a function of the rapid decline in attrition, so you might not have put the brakes on hiring yet? So, what should we expect for hiring? And could you comment on wage inflation?
KC McClure: Yes, sure. Hi, Ashwin, nice to speak with you. So just in terms of what we expect for hiring, first of all, as you know, our ability to manage supply and demand is a core competency of ours, and we’re always focused on it. And so, we did hire about — we added about 17,000 people this quarter, as you mentioned. And we will continue to hire for the specific skills that we need. I think I made reference to that earlier, which means we may not need to hire as many people as we go throughout the year, but we’ll balance that as we go through. And on wage inflation, I’ll just go back to what we said when we set guidance, we did see wage inflation continuing. We do have comp increases that are kicking in that we’ve planned for, of course, and included in our pricing. But they are higher than they’ve been, and that’s a statement across all industries, all geographies. And of course, that we’re no different in that regard.
