L&T Has Allowed Us To Run Mindtree Independently... There Has Been Stability And Continuity: Debashis Chatterjee

Mindtree is perhaps the first domestic IT services company that went through a hostile takeover recently by L&T forcing the entire founder-led leadership team to quit the company, 20 years after it was set up.

- K Giriprakash

In an interview with BusinessLine, the company’s new MD & CEO Debashis Chatterjee shares how the transition has panned out since he took over three months ago and what the future holds for Mindtree.

What were the challenges that the company faced after it was taken over by L&T?

My job was to stabilise the organisation and in the process, I must admit we lost some top leaders to other companies. But if you look at the leadership minus twolevel, we haven’t lost any. They have been key to the overall transition.

Our parent, L&T has allowed us to run Mindtree independently without any interference and left it to me to drive growth and take it to the next level. There are areas which need to be fixed but there has been stability and continuity. Our recent quarter results show that we have not been offtrack.

90 days later what do you feel are the areas that need to be focused upon? Has there been any feedback from the clients so far?

I have more or less met all the strategic clients. We want to grow that relationship further. We have formed a strategic deals team.