Program & Batch:

PGDM 2nd year, Section- A

Term:

Course Name:

Business and IT Consulting

Name of the faculty:

Dr. Surinder Batra

Topic/ Title :

Consulting Watch Mind Tree

Original

Original

or Revised Write-up:
Group Name:

Team Vintage

Contact No. and email of Group 9869435644, ft15kritibhatia@imt.ac.in

Coordinator:
Group Members:

Sl.

Roll No.

Name

150101062

Kriti Bhatia

150101059

Kartik Parekh

150102002

Abhina Panda

150102058

Nilotpal Mahanty

150102028

Ashish Kumar Dhankar

150101131

V Sunny Rohit Reddy

Table of Contents
1. Introduction............................................................................... 3
2. Origin and Evolution.....................................................................3
3. Mission, Vision and Core Values.............................................4

3.1 Mission.....................................................................................4
3.2 Vision........................................................................................4
3.3 Six Core Values..........................................................................4
3. 4 The Logo..................................................................................4

4. Nature of Consulting......................................................................5
5. Services currently provided..............................................................6
5.1
5.2
5.3
5.4
5.5
5.6
5.7
5.8
5.9

Application Development and Maintenance.................................6

Data Analytics...........................................................................6
Digital Services.........................................................................6
EAI BPM....................................................................................7
Engineering R&D.......................................................................7
Enterprise Application Services..................................................8
Independent Testing..................................................................8
Infrastructure Management Services..........................................9
IT Strategy and Consulting.........................................................9

6. Organizational Structure.................................................................9
7. Human Resources................................................................10
7.1
7.2
7.3
7.4

Staffing...................................................................................11
Training and Development........................................................11
Performance Appraisal and Monitoring......................................11
Retention, Compensation and Benefits......................................12

8. USP...................................................................................... 13
9. Challenges Faced........................................................................14
10. Future Outlook.........................................................................15
10.1 Macro-economic environment.................................................15
10.2 Digital and Automation...........................................................16
10.3 Investing in people.................................................................16

1. Introduction
Mindtree Limited is an Indian MNC headquartered in Bangalore, India and New Jersey. It
provides services in the domains of information technology, consulting and outsourcing. The
company was formed on 18 August, 1999 by ten IT professionals from Cambridge
Technology Partners, Lucent Technologies and Wipro, three of which invested through an
entity incorporated in Mauritius.
Mindtree delivers digital transformation and technology services from ideation to execution,
thereby enabling Global 2000 clients to outperform the competition. Born digital, Mindtree
takes an agile, collaborative approach to creating customized solutions across the digital
value chain. At the same time, their deep expertise in infrastructure and applications
management helps optimize IT into a strategic asset.
The company currently deals in agile methodology, big data, e-commerce applications,
mobile applications, cloud based services, digital transformation, data analytics, EAI and
ERP, with more than 290 clients and 28 offices in 14 countries (as of 2012). The company has
established a large operating base in India to serve its major markets in US and Europe.

2. Origin and Evolution

The founder of Mindtree, Subroto Bagchi worked for a decade with Wipro technologies. In
1998, he moved to Lucent Technologies and got an opportunity to work on a strategic study
of future of Indian software industry. During the course of this study, he realised the trend
towards knowledge-enabled software in the emerging future and an opportunity existed to
create a next generation software solutions company. He collaborated with Krishna Kumar in
June 1998, the then Chief executive of Wipros Electronic Commerce division having 18
years of experience with Wipro, with whom he had worked on various issues earlier during
his stint at Wipro and had shared a special bonding.
Having conceived the idea, both Subroto and Krishna had a thousand questions in front of
them - from how much funding to look for - to how to locate the ideal venture capitalist
partner, and whether it makes more sense to invest money in land and building or to rent
space. As guided by N. Balasubramanian (faculty at IIM), they were further advised to carve
out a business plan and a financial strategy.
Later on his trip to East Coast, Subroto met Anjan Lahiri who was working in consulting
domain at Cambridge Technology Partners after finishing his MBA from Florida. After
hearing out Subroto, he was excited to be a part of the new venture. They also absorbed
Namakal Parthasarthy, who was the General Manager at Wipros Technology Solutions, as
their Technical Leader. Meanwhile, they were also looking out for venture capitalists who
could fund their dream.
During their intense deliberations, the team decided that they would focus on two areas of
business, namely Net-enabled Solutions and Application Maintenance Services. Netenabled solutions fundamentally meant three things: Web based applications, ERP
Wraparounds and what are called "Front Office Applications".
The final thought for the founding team was how to differentiate itself from companies like
Cambridge Technology Partners, Sapient, etc. as well as challenge the monopoly of IBM.
They zeroed in on six things. These are Domain, Tools, Methodology, Quality, Innovation
and Branding.
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The company received seed funding by the venture capital firms Walden International and
Sivan Securities, and later in 2001 from the Capital Group and Franklin Templeton.

3. Mission, Vision and Core Values

3.1 Mission
During the ideation phase, the founders had this mission in mind We will deliver business
enabling software solutions, by creating partnership with our customers, in a joyous
environment for our people.
The mission in 16 years of Mindtree journey has remained the same, now it has been
reworded as We engineer meaningful technology solutions to help businesses and societies
flourish.
For Mindtree, Welcome to possible is not merely a slogan - it reflects the companys
approach to its every engagement.

3.2 Vision
The founders decided on the following to be accomplished by 2005:
Achieve $100 Million in revenues
Establish development centers in four international locations
Create ownership through stock options at all levels in the organization
Commit a significant portion of our PAT to support enhancement of primary education in
the societies we work in

3.3 Six Core Values

Reduce Total Cost of Ownership for our customers

Partnership is the cornerstone of our existence
Respect individual contribution but place higher importance on the value of team work
Create an Organization based on learning, innovation and quality
Enable employees attain their full potential and reward with wealth creation
Conduct ourselves with the highest sense of integrity

3. 4 The Logo
On 26th July, 13 months after the birth of the idea, the founding team asked the disabled
children at the Spastic Society of Karnataka to design their logo. From the all the possible
options, the design by K.S. Chetan was finalized as the visual identity for Mindtree.
This logo was retained for 14 years which depicted the values of the company and the picture
that the company had humble, down to earth and introspective people. As businesses and
critical information systems transform, we realize that we need a company that is expertise
led, which meant that we needed to redefine our existing brand." said chairman, Subtotal
Bauchi. Designed by US based Siegel + Gale, the new logo and brand identity were
announced in 2012 as part of its journey towards 2020. The new logo conveys that the firm
sees a possibility when others see no way.
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In December 2006, it became a public company and was listed on BSE and NSE.
In 2010, one of the key founders, Ashok Soota exited from the company. The company also
exited its investments in smartphone business that it had acquired from Kyrocera after
incurring huge losses.
In January 2016, Mindtree underwent significant management changes.
Rostow Ravanan was appointed as the CEO and Managing Director. He is among the ten
founding members and earlier served as CFO. Subroto Bagchi stepped down as the Executive
Chairman but continues to be on the Board of Directors as a non-executive director. His
position was taken over by Krishna Kumar Natarajan.
Mindtree acquired Magnet 360 to strengthen its offerings in digitizing the value chain and
building sense-and-response systems around the same time.

4. Nature of Consulting
Mindtree is a digital driven company which delivers the digital transformation, IT services
and technology services to around 2000 clients. The nature of consulting is the collaborative
consulting approach it takes for providing the customised solutions for the various clients. It
provides the various kinds of services across various domains.
The various domains in which Mindtree provides the solutions are as mentioned below:
Banking

Capital Markets

Consumer Devices & Electronics

Consumer Packaged Foods

Enterprise Software

Manufacturing

Insurance

Media & Entertainment

Retail

Semiconductors

Travel, Transportation and Hospitality

5. Services currently provided

The various kind of services which are provided by Mindtree are as mentioned below:

5.1 Application Development and Maintenance

Mindtree develops various mission-critical applications for some of the worlds most reputed
companies. They work with the clients to understand their business and requirements which
help them in devising customized solutions to maximize application availability, agility and
predictability. This helps the clients to involve in lower costs, lesser risk, greater return on
investment and a faster response to opportunities. It also provides the support clients need to
achieve their objectives both short term and long term.

5.2 Data Analytics

Mindtree uses the current technology and turns it into business outcomes by delivering
various services like information management, business intelligence and analytic solutions. It
provides various services in analytics like
Next-Gen Analytics

Business Intelligence

Enterprise Data Management

Data Visualization

Big Data

Informed Intelligence

Frameworks

COE

5.3 Digital Services

Mindtree works with clients to transform their business by using the digital technologies that
are currently present. They guide the clients through the rapid increase in the number of
devices and show them how to leverage data for a better and rich customer experience.

5.4 EAI BPM

Mindtree mainly works to optimize the productivity, improve the performance of the system.
Their end-to-end business process management services are spun across process discovery,
documentation, integration and automation to accelerate product development and encourage
innovation.
The main offerings it provides are by beating the inefficiencies with integrated services and
drive the improvement continuously to accelerate the growth.

5.5 Engineering R&D

Mindtree s engineering research and development services help to transform the product
vision into various successful real-world designs through their expertise in engineering. They
help in the cost-optimization of the most important products and enable the clients to focus
more on the core business of the development of new products.
To strengthen its expertise, Mindtree s continues to invest in a variety of engineering services
including Bluetooth, and the Internet of Things
Mindtree s engineering research and development offerings help organizations convert
visions into successful products:

Short-range Wireless: They have licensable Bluetooth Intellectual Property (IP)

products including EtherMind and BlueLite through which they provide high-end
consulting, platform integration, porting, system and interoperability testing services
Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and semiconductor companies
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Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI): They offer resource-based design services to
semiconductor companies in the areas of analog and digital systems on Chip
development.

Embedded Intelligence: They help OEMs to make the best use of hardware to enable
features, provide best-in-class usability and continuous improvement. They also
deliver specialized services for post-silicon validation, multimedia, infotainment and
automation.

5.6 Enterprise Application Services

Mindtree helps some of the worlds most successful organizations to effectively manage the
mission-critical applications to ensure around-the-clock availability with our EAS consulting
solutions. They can help clients proactively to solve issues before users are affected and react
faster to the market opportunities.
Mindtree s enterprise application maintenance services are configured to fit the IT
environment and business needs and on-demand services of clients to provide a holistic view
of their applications, including a scalability assessment, portfolio analysis and sourcing
strategies.

5.7 Independent Testing

Mindtree is a preferred testing partner for many Fortune 500 companies and they have been
in the testing business for past 16 years. They do this by employing a dedicated testing
workforce and orchestrate nearshore and right-sourcing testing options. They think beyond
the conventional functional testing by mapping the testing requirements to the business needs
of clients.

5.8 Infrastructure Management Services

Mindtree services had saved a leading service provider 40% in their annual support and
maintenance costs and they have increased a hotel management firms business transactions
by 30%. It combines infrastructure management with SaaS applications to optimize the
performance and availability and quickly remediate issues.
Their infrastructure management services include:

Data Center Infrastructure Management

End-User Computing

Application Support

Technical Support
5.9 IT Strategy and Consulting
Mindtree consultants define, design and execute strategies that drive your business growth,
they reduce costs and will create new revenue streams for the clients. They take a big
picture approach and work with clients to learn their business vision and goals, IT
environment, skill requirements and policies. The Mindtree approach reduces the risk of midcourse corrections and delivers more predictable outcomes.

6. Organizational Structure
Simply stated, organizational structure defines a particular hierarchy in the organization
where in implicit and explicit polices and rules are made clearly specifying the roles and
responsibilities of each level in the hierarchy. By knowing the organizational structure of the
company it can tell how the company is shaped and how will it move forward in achieving its
goals.
At the highest level an organizational structure is categorized as centralized or decentralized.
Usually in all the organizations follow a centralized leadership. Mindtree also has a
centralized structure where they have specific hierarchy or superiors and subordinates. But
now a days with increase in technology startups, companies are following decentralized
structure too. This let the companies to be adaptable, fast and agile.
There are four types of organizational structures that are implemented:
1. Functional structure
This structure breaks up the company into specialization of its workforce. It divides
the firm into various departments such as operations, marketing and sales.
2. Divisional structure
This is used by companies having various business units. So the structure is such that
each unit operates as its own company with its own president.
3. Flat-archy

This new structure is used by startups. As the name suggests it flattens the hierarchy.
It gives the employees a lot of autonomy which helps to speed up the implementation.
4. Matrix
This structure matrixes employees across different superiors, divisions or
departments. It gives a combination of both functional and divisional structure.
Matrix is the structure used by Mindtree. Wherein for every project there is a team formed
consisting of a manager, technology leader and several developers and a business analyst.
This is broadly the structure followed by Mindtree.
It can be depicted in the form of a diagram as:

The quality of services provided in any organization is basically dependent on the inherent
way of management and retention of the minds in the organization. Thus, the organization
structure, its workforce, retention techniques are also equally important drivers of the success
of Mindtree as a consulting firm.

7. Human Resources
The days when HR department of an organization was only another unimportant and
neglected department working in silos with the other departments are history. Nowadays, HR
plays an integral role in the organization. The basic components which define the HR
practices are
1. Staffing
2. Training
3. Performance Monitoring and Appraisal
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4. Retention-Compensation and Benefits

Mindtree believes that as long as people are given the right amount of training and as long as
they are a part of the right kind of development program any employee can become an
integral Mindtree Mind.

7.1 Staffing
The companys recruitment process has the following screening rounds:
1. Written Exam(AMCAT)
2. Coding Test
3. Technical Interview
4. HR interview
The candidate would be eligible to sit for the processes if he/she fulfils the following criteria
1. Candidate must be B.Tech, BCA, BE, MCA
2. Education gap of not more than one year
The first aptitude round is the basic elimination round.
The people who clear one round would proceed to the other round.

7.2 Training and Development

Mindtrees training and induction program is the best example of how to incorporate better
skills in the employees just after recruitment. They focus on imparting knowledge of
communication skills, leadership and decision making skills in their induction programs. Also
to bridge the gap between senior level managers and the junior level trainees, Mindtree has
built a Global Learning Center (GLC) where in campus graduates come in and participate in
a 90- day program called Orchard. Here the employees are trained regarding their
proficiency in languages and also web designing and shopping portals. They also get to work
on live projects which give them practical hands-on experience on various practical issues in
hand.
According to one of the senior Mindtree executive, We are not just creating a programmer or
a tester but someone who will engineer meaningful technology solutions to help businesses
and societies flourish.
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7.3 Performance Appraisal and Monitoring

Mindtree puts special emphasis on performance management and appraisal so that the
employees dont run low on efficiency. And to implement this effectively, Mindtree has come
up with Performance Execution Network. This whole network is targeted at improving the
efficiency of all the various teams. It is an extension of the various features of JMeter in
reporting, distributed remote systems and monitoring execution of employees.

The PEF, as it is popularly known, has many key features like:

1. Enables large scale generation of loads using array of systems
2. Highly scalable
3. Can use both private and public cloud and can generate load from Windows Azure
and Amazon EC2
4. Monitoring the systems and incorporating those metrics in a comprehensive data
report
5. Analysis provided by analytics module: Threshold Breach, Patterns, Co-relation, etc.
6. Details of business transaction, charts, graphs
7. Flexible licensing in terms of # of Users

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7.4 Retention, Compensation and Benefits

The entire HR process ladder is incomplete if the organization is not able to reduce the
attrition rate of the employees. Mindtree has come up with a five-fold strategy for retaining
its employees1. Offer a remuneration and compensation (Attractive, Competitive and Fair) so that the
employees remain motivated
2.

Train the employees so that they feel a sense of pride that they can add something
valuable to themselves as well as their own company.

3. Offer retention bonus to the employees who stay in the company for more than a fixed
number of years
4. Teams are made by combining cross functional people so that each problem has
different perspectives for solving. Even team members get to a varied perspective and
gain from peer experience
5. Time is also provided for fun activities since All work, no play, makes Jack a dull
boy.

8. USP
Welcome to possible is not just a mere slogan for Mind tree, they believe in it. Its in the
DNA of its employee. They bring expertise to the table. Although all companies project
themselves as better than others in terms of the way they approach the problem. Everyone
claim that they are the best in what they do.
But Mind tree has created its niche in this ever so competing sector. But what differentiate
Mind tree is the way they approach a problem and provide the solution to the client.

KM system
The knowledge management system is one thing which is very crucial for any IT consulting
company. And Mind tree is one of the top companies which has been pioneering the KM
system.
They perceive KM system as socio-Technical in nature. It is powered by knowledge culture.
They try to innovate, collaborate and share to increase the intellectual capital. For this they
have develop different systems like Konnect, Neuron, ProjectSpace, open mind etc.

Project space features

The way the people at mind tree approach a project is unique in its own way. It has been
described below:

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The collaborative project work is then shared with the client. All the inputs of client are taken
into consideration. Even when they are experts in their field of work but even then they work
with total sync of the clients without even diminishing the clients ideas and suggestion.

Power of People

Mind tree believe in the power of people. They dont say that they are the most
technologically advanced company in the world. Neither they claim to be the one with the
highest number of employee. What they believe is that the people they have is competent
enough to be the best in the world. They put people first. They believe that there is a lot of
information in the world and it not just take the technology to spearhead the company.
Neither it would be the number of people. It would be the quality of the people. People who
have the potential to decipher this information to give meaningful solution.

Collaborative spirit

Mind Tree believes in forging a long term relationship. They form a kind of environment
where one is free to provide his/her opinion on any topic and that would not be ridiculed by
anyone. And all ideas are worked upon on its merit. They work with full dedication and when
it combines with their skills and perseverance then they provide best possible guidance to
their clients. They dont treat clients only as a way of making money. They perceive clients
as a chance to foster new relationships.

9. Challenges Faced
Mind tree traditionally has been known as a company which is innovative and client friendly.
But starting from last quarter they are facing problems on all front. The profit of the company
decreased in this quarter along with the net revenue from the operation. Also there has been
3.4% decrease in the profit on YOY basis. The challenges can be further segregated as below:
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 Services
Mind tree since its inception has been doing pretty good in terms of revenues from operation.
But now its on a decreasing trend. Due to this its operating profit is also decreasing. The
decrease in net profit from operation is 16.69% YOY and 11.56% on quarterly basis.

BFSI sector
Banking, Financial services and Insurance is the major sector of worry for the company. It
has been one of the major sector which affected the top line of the company but it started
decreasing in the recent times which is affecting the financials of the company.

Cloud services
Increasing usage of cloud services is one of the major challenge for the Mind tree. As more
and more companies are moving towards cloud services, they are going away from the big
data centers. Due to this the companies are also decreasing their budget for IT solutions.

Big companies
The giants of the arena of IT services are hand picking small companies. Due to this their
array of services are expanding. And in todays time, normally companies try to go to one
company which can provide them with total solutions. Since this is not the case with Mind
tree, they might lag behind in the race to generate new clients.

Brexit
After the exit of Britain from Europe i.e. Brexit; the situation for the IT industry has become
gloomy. And Mind tree is not spared from it. As per their MD and CEO Mr. Rostov Ravanan,
We foresee significant uncertainty and reprioritization of business and IT priorities across
companies in the UK and the EU. The finances of Mind Tree is impacted by this event
because it is the second largest market for Mind tree after USA by constituting about 30% to
the companys revenue with UK contributing about 18% and rest of the continent about 12%.
Now after the removal of free trade agreement, the company has to set up headquarters both
in UK and rest of Europe which would demand new investments.

10. Future Outlook

10.1 Macro-economic environment
Business environment in the US is showing improvement. Large corporations are increasing
their IT spend towards digital transformation of their existing business. Mindtree can
capitalize on that and gain more market share.
Revenue by vertical: Among the verticals, BFSI grew by 8.9%; Retail, CPG grew by
8.6%; Travel and Hospitality grew by 3.9%; Technology, Media and Services showed a
growth of 11.5%.

15

 Revenue by geography:
For Mindtree US revenue grew by 10% but European market did not experience growth. But
recent acquisition of Bluefin consulting solution will help consolidate European market and
gain market share. Company should focus on new contracts and focus on stronger markets
such as Germany, Belgium, Sweden & UK.

10.2 Digital and Automation

Digital is disrupting the way business is conducted across every industry. Digital business is
estimated to touch $225 billion by 2020 with $48 billion predicted for Indian IT Services
firms. Digital continues to be great market opportunity for Mindtree for next several years.
Mindtree can gain greater market share. Currently, a third of its revenue is driven by
providing digital services and has 296 active customers which include 54 customers from
Bluefin and 24 customers from RSI Solutions. There is potential to increase it to about 50 per
cent in 3-5 years.
To strengthen its lead in the digital space even further, Mindtree has made three strategic
acquisitions: UK-based Bluefin Solutions, a market-leading consultancy in SAP HANA
US-based Relational Solutions, a specialized provider of supply chain optimization and trade
promotions analytics for consumer goods and retail execution US-based Magnet 360, a
Salesforce Platinum consulting partner with strong expertise across the full suite of
Salesforce solutions Succession planning
Succession planning in any company is a difficult process. In January 2016, Mindtree
announced important leadership transitions. They are the result of a year-long succession
planning process. Subroto Bagchi stepped down as Executive Chairman of Mindtree.
Krishnakumar Natarajan has been elevated to Executive Chairman and Rostow Ravanan has
been named CEO & Managing Director. These changes can lead to medium-term and longterm change in strategies and bring positive change for the company.
16

Mobility, Cloud computing and Big data.

They have radically changed the business landscape. IT consulting partner with innovative
solutions, well-defined strategies and deep domain expertise can turn these advances into
competitive advantages.
The Mindtree approach reduces the risk of mid-course corrections and delivers more
predictable outcomes. Key differentiators for Mindtree include:

Decision facilitators for IT investments

Expertise in complex technologies, tools and processes

Advice based on knowledge and laboratory results from our global Centers of
Excellence

Insight from in-depth field experience with customers across a wide range of
industries

10.3 Investing in people

Mindtree launched Mindtree Kalinga, a new state-of-the-art corporate learning and
development center in Bhubaneswar, Orissa, in India. Each year, this 20-acre center will train
roughly 2,500. In the coming year it will work as a global learning and delivery center for the
company

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