No leadership change for now, says Mindtree CEO Debashis Chatterjee

No significant change has happened to the middle management, said Debashis Chatterjee

Mindtree Chief Executive Officer Debashis Chatterjee (CEO) on Friday said the IT services firm's top clients were positive about the takeover by L&T and their anxiety due to the transition was over. 

In its first interaction with market analysts after taking over the leadership mantle at the Bengaluru-headquartered firm, Chatterjee said the leadership at the IT firm remained intact without any disruption. “We have met with the top 20 clients and I am happy to say that those anxieties (relating to L&T's takeover of the firm) are over. I will not worry over those things anymore,” he said. “The feedback from our clients has been fairly positive.” 

After L&T acquired controlling stake of more than 60 per cent in Mindtree, the founders of the IT firm had stepped down from the board and executive roles in the company. Such abrupt exits had fuelled concerns of likely disruption to Mindtree’s operations.  

“No significant change has happened to the middle management and there are only a couple of senior-level exits, which happened quite some time back. So, the leadership team is intact,” Chatterjee said. “We have also conducted townhalls to give our employees the confidence that we are here to take the company to the next level.”

On the continuance of Mindtree as an independent entity, the CEO said: “For all purposes, Mindtree will continue to operate as an independent company for now and we don’t know what will happen in the future.”

"There are certain capabilities available with Mindtree and there are certain capabilities with L&T Infotech. So, we can always go with a 'A plus B' model and ensure that we can go after significantly larger (IT outsourcing) deals," the CEO said.

Mindtree management also asserted that the IT firm's revenue and margins would improve in the rest three quarters of this financial year. During the first quarter ended June, the IT firm had reported a 41 per cent dip in its net profit year on year to Rs 92.7 crore, while its revenues had grew 12 per cent to Rs 1,834.2 crore. Its operating margin fell 520 basis points sequentially to 10 per cent during this period.