An Indian soccer team has yet to make it to the World Cup finals, but a contingent of IT experts, nonetheless, could make a winning streak at the latest edition of 80-year-old FIFA World Cup in South Africa.
The team from India’s embattled IT giant Mahindra Satyam ensured that the month-long soccer festival present the breathtaking spectacle with clockwork precision.
For C P Gurnani, chief executive officer of Mahindra Satyam, who was given the seemingly insurmountable task of rebuilding the company after one of the most bizarre accounting scandals in Indian corporate history wrecked it a year ago, the FIFA feat was indeed, a litmus test.
And for the scandal-marred corporate giant, which was on the path of a slow but steady a recovery barely a fe months ago, winning the FIFA contract for ICT services was a defining moment.
Thanks to the worldwide appeal of the World Cup, Mahindra Satyam was catapulted to the global limelight overnight. It did not have to do anything further to prove itself.
Even as the whole world watched on television the smooth and hassle-free conduct of the month-long event, which ran without even a slight glitch in information or communications services, one US bank which was weighing a bid by Mahindra Satyam, felt it needed to look no further.
The IT major won the bank’s contract the very next day after the World Cup finale.
Speaking to Khaleej Times on Sunday, Gurnani, on a brief visit to Dubai, believes the new US bank contract signals the beginning of a new chapter for Mahindra Satyam, and the first of many prestigious partnerships it hopes to make worldwide in the coming months.
In an interview held at Mahindra Satyam’s office in Dubai Internet city, Gurnani speaks about his expansion plans in the Middle East, “a region with high growth potentials,” as well as his aspirations and dreams about the company that is now “ready to gallop after several months recuperating in intensive care unit.”
Following are excerpts from the interview.
What were the major challenges faced by you as the CEO of an embattled organisation mired in one of the worst accounting scandals in Indian corporate history? How did you tackle the fallout? What are your plans to rebuild the credibility of the company and win back customers?
The journey to re-building the company has certainly been a challenging but exciting professional experience for all of us at Mahindra Satyam. Our key challenges included convincing customers and associates that we were a growing organisation; integrating the two different cultural styles; and developing joint go-to-market strategies for enhanced customer and investor value.
With the intent towards increasing customer connect, we had organized multiple road shows across geographies for our customers and the leadership team at Mahindra Satyam. Customers were quite understanding of our situation, and accepted that the fundamentals of our organisation continue to be strong. They have been very supportive, and understand the dynamic situation that we are in. Yes, there have been occasional concerns regarding the lack of audited and declared revised financial statements, however, I believe, we have responded quickly and in a transparent and effective manner, and that is appreciated by all our customers.
Today, we continue to win new customers and many of our existing customers like GE and GSK have announced the extension of their relationship with Mahindra Satyam for periods ranging from 3 to 5 years. The momentum is positive and we are focusing on emerging markets and verticals in a big way to drive our revenues.
For our associates, we launched forums for open, transparent communication. These included a daily associate newsletter – “News Today,” ‘floor walks’ by leaders with extensive Q&A sessions to address associate queries etc. On the delivery front, our associates were the heroes. In several situations, we had posted significant SLA improvements in the months following January 2009. Clearly, our associates delivering services have been cognizant of their responsibilities and have stood up for the organization when they needed to.
With regard to cultural integration, an initial meeting held in May 2009 helped Mahindra Satyam’s leaders understand values and culture of the Mahindra Group. The key aspects of the new organisation design included integrating sales and delivery into a ‘two-in-a-box’ collaborative model, strengthening the value that we deliver to our customers. For our joint go-to-market strategy, a new structure had been created that is more suitable to cross selling and collaboration between different units.
Post the acquisition by Tech Mahindra, we have now repositioned Mahindra Satyam to a complete Information, Communications and Technology (ICT) firm. We believe this will help us offer solutions across the board. Our vision is to be the world’s most valued ICT Company, and combined with the strengths of Tech Mahindra and M&M organisations, we are uniquely positioned to provide IT, Communication and Engineering and BPO services to our clients. We believe that all the steps being taken at an organisation level will ultimately lend itself to greater investor value.
How do you think that your company’s association with the 2010 FIFA World Cup could help reposition the brand and improve its image globally and within India? Do you plan to repeat the feat in FIFA 2014?
Our association with FIFA for the World Cup 2010 gave us enormous pride because we were the first Indian IT services provider for the World Cup. The 2010 FIFA World Cup offered us the opportunity to show the world that despite our problems we have been able to successfully deliver cutting-edge solutions at the highest, and most visible, level. We continue to be a very strong option for customers looking for technology. For the people, who have continued to work with us, it was a great time for them to see that the company that they have stood by is still at the world’s peak in terms of delivering solutions. For us, the World Cup was an important platform to demonstrate that we are not someone who has collapsed or imploded, but that we are a genuine choice in terms of a world-leading technology services provider. This has also enabled us to build our abilities and expertise in this segment, which has helped open other opportunities.
Mahindra Satyam would continue to work for the next FIFA World Cup and we may propose some advanced mobile communication solutions for next the FIFA World Cup given our strength coming from Tech Mahindra on the Communications bit of ICT (Integrated Communications Technology).
How far could you deliver on the promises, including greater transparency and corporate governance, made when you took over as CEO of Mahindra Satyam?
Mahindra Satyam’s governance model has since been reorganized to allow greater responsibility and accountability. The company draws from the core values of the Mahindra Group and the inherent strength of the Satyam brand. Customer centricity, high standards of corporate governance, unimpeachable ethics form the cornerstones of the Mahindra Group. This amalgamation has been well received by all our stakeholders.
Mahindra Satyam has restructured and formed a new Board, which includes two independent directors. We have appointed Deloitte as our Statutory Auditor and the Internal Audit function is closely and regularly reviewed. The closure of the restatement of accounts is also underway.
Associates within the organisation understand the need and importance of corporate governance now with the introduction of the Whistleblower policy and are encouraged by the management bring forward corporate governance issues. Additionally, all our associates have been certified on our new code of ethical business conduct. Mahindra Satyam has also appointed an Ethics Counselor and also identifies opportunities for process improvement to enable faster & transparent turnaround for both internal and external customers.
How do you plan to take Mahindra Satyam to new growth trajectory in the coming months? What is your expansion plan globally? Looking back, are you happy with Mahindra Satyam’s performance since its creation a year ago?
Currently, we will not be able to make any forward-looking statements in terms of an accurate financial articulation as we are in a “silent period”.
However, just to give a sense, we have won over 35 new customers and many of our existing customers like GE and GSK have announced the extension of their relationship with Mahindra Satyam for periods ranging from three to five years. This is a clear indication of the capabilities of the organisation. The momentum is positive and we are focusing on emerging markets and verticals in a big way to drive our revenues.
We have now also repositioned Mahindra Satyam as a complete Information, Communications and Technology (ICT) firm from just an IT outsourcing player and this will help us offer across the board solutions. Mahindra Satyam has a strong delivery mechanism, which helped the organization convey the much needed confidence and retained our customers. The improvement in the economy will help us work towards regaining our leadership position in the industry.
Our hiring from top-B schools (IIMs, XLRI, ISB etc.) and Engineering Colleges coupled with an aggressive pitch to acquire fresh and lateral talent in the Organisation bears testimony to the fact that we are indeed bullish about the future.
How do you assess your current operation in the MENA region and main growth areas? What are your plans to expand in the region with Dubai as the regional hub?
Mahindra Satyam has targeted focused regional/country initiatives and continues to venture into new markets of Iran and Iraq for large SI deals and North Africa namely Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia and Western Sahara. We have also entered into alliances with local technology & business partners. Mahindra Satyam MENA is focusing on bundled services and large SI deals and to take vertical based technology solutions to market while leveraging leadership position in the Consulting & Enterprise Business Solutions space.
How important is the Middle East for Mahindra Satyam?
The level of IT outsourcing activity in UAE has been steadily increasing over last five years and growing maturity of the sector has been useful for us. For example, Mahindra Satyam, Middle East (ME) decided to invest into Egypt recognizing the tremendous opportunity amidst the country’s growing IT services market in collaboration with their government for a Global Solution Centre (GSC) in Egypt’s Smart Village. The GSC, a 300-seater office located in Smart Village, Giza, leverages Egypt’s skilled and abundant labor, highly advanced infrastructure facilities with multi-lingual advantage to serve as a major technological development and software support. With over a decade of ME operations, GSC is aimed at seamlessly catering to over 50 current Middle East & North Africa (MENA) customers seamlessly due to the proximity, bi-lingual requirement and contributing to the growth of the outsourcing industry in the region
In order to succeed in the UAE, we are focused on meeting end-user demand and, looking to work at building relationships in both the public and private sectors. A strategy of this kind may take longer to bear fruit, but the rewards will make the time spent more than worthwhile.
What are your services mostly in demand in the UAE and Middle East?
Large Fixed Bid ERP Contracts (SAP, Oracle): Data Warehousing & Business Intelligence, Quality Consulting, Application Development and Outsourcing Fixed Bid Contracts.
Source:http://www.khaleejtimes.com/biz/inside.asp?xfile=/data/business/2010/August/business_August135.xml§ion=business
