Mindtree: A community of communities case study by Harvard business School

1. APARNA DAS
ROHIT CV
SUMEDHA
RIYA ASEEF
KUMAR ANKIT
PRATEEK SABHARWAL

2. MINDTREE
Founded 20 years ago in the year 1999.
10 founding members, Ashok Soota, N. Krishnakumar (KK) and Subroto
Bagchi
Headquarters: Bangalore, India and New Jersey, USA
Debashis Chatterjee: Current MD and CEO
Currently owned by Larsen & Toubro
Revenue as on 2019: Rs. 70,219 million
No. of employees: 21000 employees (31% women); 65 nationalities.

3. INDUSTRY AND COMPANY BACKGROUND
Announcement of
“5*50” initiative as a
part of its larger strategy
for achieving $1 billion in
revenues by 2014.
Mindtree Minds-
Employees of Mindtree.
Expectation of elevating
KM infra in Mindtree to
actually co- create
strategy; re-invent itself.

4. Indian IT- BPO Industry:
$71.7 billion in 2009,
5.8% of India’s GDP and
employing about 2.2
million people.
LOW END: Voice- Based
Services, Knowledge
Processing Outsourcing
and “Body- Shopping”
HIGH END: Analytical,
Value added services
such as Consulting and
R&D. (IBM, Accenture
and Cap Gemini)
SWITCH Companies- 6
players: Tech Mahindra,
Wipro, Infosys Tech.,
TCS, Cognizant Tech. and
HCL.

5. MINDTREE’S EARLY YEARS
AIM of 2 focus areas: E- business Consulting and Implementation on the Enterprise Side and
Product Realization Services in the Networking domain on the tech side.
Value Proposition: “OneShore” model, blending high-caliber “local feel” consulting with the
discipline and low cost of offshore software development.
Consultants and Software Developers: Combination of both set of skills.
In 2010, Seven diff. Businesses: IT Services, Knowledge Services, R&D Services, Testing,
Infrastructure Mgt. and Tech. Support, Software Product Engineering and Wireless Products.

6. THE BIG
THREE
Culture
ValuesLeadership

7. BUILDING A
VALUE SYSTEM
• Reached out to scholars to better understand how to
manage their multicultural makeup.
• "You do not manage culture, focus on building values"
• CLASS – A new statement of values
• "Values drive behavior, and behavior drives result." -
Puneet Jetli, People Function Head
• CLASS values internalized by integrating
into recruitment, recognition and rewards system.
• The Goal – Be a "high caring, high achieving
organization", "emotionally bonded organization"
• These efforts helped lower turnover, with its attrition
rate 3% - 5% lesser than industry average.

8. COMMUNICATION AND DECISION MAKING
Transparency and rich,
frequent
communication
were cornerstones of
the culture.
The 95-95-
95 principle.
A consensus based,
participative decision
making process.
Collective leadership
Emotional Security was
critical
System to be built for
simultaneous
communication
Information to be
presented in interesting
manner

9. THE GARDENER –
NURTURING NEW
PLANTS AT MINDTREE • Critical to develop non-founders as the
leaders of the future.
• The "Gardener" is born.
• The goal was to heighten self-
awareness and expand leadership
capacity.
• Questioning/Listening/Gentle
Guidance/Assignments/Field
Experiences.

10. KM @ MINDTREE
Trust
Face to
face
Environme
nt

11. COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE
Same domain
interest
Joint activities
and discussions.
Shared
repertoire of
resources
Change and shift in
mindsets
Process
Environment
Knowledge Creation

12. SUPPORT FOR KM @
MINDTREE
• Self organise and collaborate
• Supportive environment
• PMS
• Knowledge system- Ba ( Social
space, Mind space, Virtual space,
Collaborative and physical space)
• MAKE Award

13. EVOLUTION
OF KM @
MINDTREE
• Study groups were formed.
• Datta as CKO
• Building intellectual capital-
Human, structural and relational.
KM @ Pune, Chennai and
Hyderabad
25
KM system
manager
10 5
Senior

14. COMMUNITIES
Social interactions for
knowledge sharing
Brainstorming, solving
problems
Forming communities Champions

15. ROLE OF COMMUNITY CHAMPION
Start-up Phase Sustenance
Phase
Sunset Phase

16. Capability
building
Competency Building
Community of Interest
THE COMMUNITY MATURITY MODEL

17. KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
Current systems
Hierarchy depicted as a pyramid.
•Knowledge Net
Centralized knowledge repository
•Connected Minds(2004)
Supported the community movement in virtual space and face to face community meetings
facilitated virtual collaboration through question answer sessions, blog entries and bookmarking.
•Open Mind
Allowed people to collaborate on software development
•Neuron
Idea nurturing system

18. TOWARDS A $1
BILLION COMPANY
• Announced in April 2009.
• Use of a Three-Pronged Approach.
• The CEO – “Trojan Horse” strategy.
• Acquisitions.
• “5*50” Initiative.

19. “5*50”
INITIATIVE
• Program Announced in April 2010.
• Think of areas that could build up to $50 Million business.
• Review & Evaluate.
• Inviting the shortlisted candidates.
• Mini-MBA Program, led by Mindtree’s founders.
• Focusing on – Strategy, Finance & Innovation.
• Granting the 5 Best plans the resources needed to develop
their businesses.

20. CONCLUSION
• How (if at all) does the 5*50 initiative alter the roles
and responsibilities of the Knowledge Management
function?
• What Changes (if any) would you propose?

21. THANK Y U