MindTree was founded in 1999 by ten industry professionals from Cambridge Technology Partners, Lucent Technologies and Wipro. One of the founders and current COO, Subroto Bagchi notes that even before the company was formed, he realised that the “21st century [was] to the services industry what the 20th century has been to the manufacturing industries.”
Bagchi also realised that simply providing software skills would not be enough, but rather the industry’s need was “knowledge enabled software,” now a hallmark of MindTree’s culture and philosophy. Surviving the dotcom collapse, MindTree used the opportunity to build lasting methodology and relationships.
The founders of MindTree are highly respected veterans in their fields and the company garnered the trust of important clients such as Franklin Templeton Investments, Hindustan Unilever and Avis.
MindTree provides a vast range of IT services to CIOs across a variety of industry segments including manufacturing, travel and transportation, banking, financial services, insurance and hi-tech. The R&D services business provides product realisation services across industries such as automotive, avionics, healthcare, consumer appliances and computer peripherals, communications, storage and computing systems group.
The company was named among the Top 30 Offshore Service Providers by the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals and Fortune magazine in 2007. The organisation also received the EMPI – Indian Express Indian Innovation Award in 2006 and NASSCOM Innovation Awards in 2007. It was selected as one of the Top 25 companies for Good Corporate Governance practices in 2007. MindTree was adjudged the overall winner of the Most Admired Knowledge Enterprises (MAKE) award in 2007.Although it is driven to provide quality services, the company also differentiates itself by its very approach to the work it does.
When the company offered its initial public offering, each of the 4000 plus ‘MindTree Minds,’ as the employees are called, already owned a stake in the company. An example of MindTree’s culture is seen through the company’s DNA of Imagination, Action and Joy, which was visually rendered for the logo by a child belonging to the Spastics Society of Karnataka. This DNA is not just a goal for MindTree, but is rather the mechanism behind the office culture. There is a general excitement about the creation and sharing of knowledge bridging departments and employees.
Another key feature of MindTree’s strategy is OneShore. This method consists of an integrated team of software engineers and business consultants who work together from beginning to end on all projects all over the world. As the culture of knowledge is a tenet of the company, MindTree has taken a less traditional route by recognising that knowledge deals with not only physical solutions but a socio-technical approach. To create this culture, it has set up Knowledge Communities, encourages self-expression and holds regular training sessions in creative thinking.
With an ethos that places high priority caring for its customers, human capital and the community, MindTree takes a less-traditional, albeit no less successful approach to business.