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Mindtree, an Larsen & Toubro company, announced the new CEO of Mindtree - Debashis Chatterjee, former Cognizant executive. Company’s new Chief Executive Officer has served as the executive vice president and president, global delivery, in Cognizant for 23 years and he quit in May.
L&T Group acquires Mindtree in June, it was a first hostile takeover in the IT sector. Mindtree CEO Rostow Ravanan had resigned after L&T took 60 per cent stake in the company, along with other Mindtree promoters executive chairman Krishnakumar Natarajan and chief operating officer NS Parthasarthy, who also resigned from the board, from executive roles, and as employees.
L&T acquires 51.8% of shares in Mindtree. It invested strategically to take control over the company, first, it bought 20.32% stake held by Café Coffee Day (CCD) founder V.G. Siddhartha and two of his firms in March. Subsequently, L&T bought 8.58% stake from other shareholders, and this resulted in total ownership to 28.90% before the company’s open offer started on 17 June, ending on 28 June.
L&T was looking for a new CEO for the company, and there were rumours about the appointment - Rajeev Mehta or Debashis Chatterjee, both former Cognizant executives.
Challenges for Debashis
Mindtree Minds – The company refer its employees as “Mindtree Minds”, at present the company employs about 20,000 minds. They also have expectations from the new management.
Revenue growth –
Investors – Again, the hostile acquisition impacted the business a lot, shares have plunged from INR 950 to INR 700, so the investors looking for a clear business strategy to gain the trust in the market.
Mindtree’s clients – The acquisition and then resignation of the founding members, the company clients must be in a big dilemma about the future. But with new appointment, they would be expecting continuity on the ongoing projects from the company.
Work Culture – Mindtree has its unique work culture, while L&T has its own. The new management could face the challenge to maintain a balance between the two to keep employees motivated and improve margins.