Mindtree says completed 70% of planned restructuring

Company unlikely to make any more top-level hires in near-future

Mid-size information technology (IT) services company Mindtree, which had embarked on an organisational overhaul about two years ago, has completed around 70% of the restructuring process it had laid out.

 

Amid shifting market dynamics, the Bangalore-based company had started making a conscious effort towards becoming an expertise-driven partner for its clients rather than just a generic service provider. Among other things, Mindtree narrowed its focus, restructured its business, and identified potential leaders who will steer it to the next level.

 

“The structure is put in place, which means we have identified our focus-verticals and we won’t be revisiting that for a few years,” Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer Ravi Shankar told Business Standard. “Now we are in the phase of process enhancement. All that we have done will take about two quarters to settle down. We are looking at the best processes and mapping them to our needs and implementing them.”

 

In this process, Mindtree has trained employees and hired requisite talent from outside to gain deep expertise into its chosen business verticals—banking, financial services and insurance; retail; travel and high-technology. The company is now working to scale up the new processes it has adopted.

 

“When we did the re-strategising at the company there were some roles that were identified we needed to create,” Shankar said. “We looked at around seven-eight positions, of which 50% were fulfilled internally and for certain roles we brought people from outside.”

 

Over the past few months, Mindtree added several top-level executives from competitors. Mindtree brought in Paul Gottsegen as its senior vice president and chief marketing and strategy officer from Infosys, and Ramesh Pillai as head of high-technology vertical from HCL Technologies. The company also brought in Mark Wildson as Head of European sales from Cognizant, where he was leading the sales and strategic engagement for the UK and Ireland.

 

Shankar said, Mindtree is unlike to do in any further senior-level hiring in the near future.

 

“We are not looking at any CXO-level positions in the next six months,” Shankar said. “However, the regular mid-level hiring will continue. We have been working to expand our sales team, and we will continue to do that. Most of the positions will be fulfilled internally but sometimes the customer insists on a person who is a domain specialist, so we may bring in some people accordingly.”

 

With expectations of rise in demand in 2014, Mindtree may look at expanding its sales team to meet any increase in business, he said, without sharing any hiring targets for the year. “It all depends on the sales and growth target that the company wants to aim for... When we sit and plan for the next year, sometime in December-January, then we will see what kind of demand we have and plan accordingly,” he added.

 

As per its stated policy, the company will look to hire more locals in overseas geographies where it operates, he added.