Krishnakumar Natarajan is MindTree?s backroom mover and shaker. At the front-end, we always saw chairman Ashok Soota and vice-chairman Subroto Bagchi, steering the ship. Krishnakumar, known more popularly as KK, always preferred to be in the back-end, essaying his role as CEO & MD with customary ease.
It?s a strategy that MindTree has followed for years?Soota and Bagchi playing the figure heads, with KK dropping anchor. But of late, one does not see much of MindTree in the news. Their leaders seem to have withdrawn into a shell. So is this some kind of a new strategy, we quiz KK? ?Not really,? says Krishnakumar. ?I don?t think we are deliberately staying away from the limelight. It?s a new observation, and we will try to discuss this.?
KK is responsible for both the IT services and R&D services businesses of the organisation, but somehow he always looks relaxed. It is kind of difficult to find him tense and pre-occupied. KK?s objective is to take the company?s IT services to a global leadership position, but he wears that kind of responsibility very lightly. ?I have this smile on my face always,? he says.
In his early years at MindTree, after co-founding the firm along with Soota and Bagchi, he moved to the US to launch its operations in the region. He played a key role in acquiring some of the early customers for MindTree. KK?s negotiation powers are well known in industry circles. He helped expand the company?s operations into Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Australia.
His ability to think big and execute came to the fore in Wipro itself, where he was the chief executive of the electronic commerce and financial solutions division. He was at Wipro from 1982 to 1999, a 17-year stint where he laid foundation for a great career.
During the growth phase of Wipro?s software business, KK started and grew the ecommerce division of Wipro, developing a team of 300 people and generating $30 million in revenues annually. Earlier , while serving as Group vice-president of human resources, KK increased the number of employees in Wipro?s software services business from 800 to over 4,000 people. ?Wipro was then known for its vanaspati business and people there used to wonder what we were doing in the software business. No one understood what we were doing at that time, except us.?
?I met Soota and later Bagchi at Wipro. It was a great learning experience. At that time we never knew that we will come around together and set up a company. But then it happened.? KK was the first guy to get a call from Bagchi, once the latter was able to get a handle on his dreams. In the month of June, 1998, Bagchi called KK over for lunch at Bangalore?s Karavalli restaurant and explained to him his plans. Bagchi and KK agreed that they were not going to rise very much from where they already were, in their careers. They also realised that there was an opportunity to create a solutions driven company that would help create wealth for all.
That was how the MindTree story began. Anjan Lahiri joined in and then came Ashok Soota and the picture was complete, and the ball started to roll. KK has a bachelor?s degree in mechanical engineering from the College of Engineering, Madras, and a Master?s in Business Administration majoring in marketing and systems from the Xavier Institute, Jamshedpur, India. Like most people born in Chennai, he was good in Maths. ?But life is the greatest teacher,? says the man who is an avid golfer these days.
KK has also been on the Executive Council of Nasscom and has played a role in strengthening India?s position in IT through key strategic global initiatives. At Nasscom, he also chaired the ?Emerging Companies? Forum, helping the Indian IT Industry build a globally competitive ecosystem comprising of both large and emerging companies.
At Mindtree, he believes that the story has just begun. In 2008, it acquired Aztecsoft another mid-sized IT services firm. This acquisition helped MindTree add services such as outsourced product development (OPD) and testing. ?Our attempt has always been to enter select areas and establish our presence. Like for example in automotives, we are one of the leaders. For us, the game has never been to be present across all verticals. It was always about doing well, once we decide to enter a certain market. Even our inorganic strategies are in line with that.?
The company had started off with IT services and R&D services, and later added five more verticals like infrastructure management and technical support, knowledge services, independent testing services, software product engineering services and wireless.
MindTree being a mid-size company, could offer customers a single point of contact for all their IT needs, and has been able to win business on account of that. He says that the company takes a consultative approach while working with its customers, instead of being just a care-taker for projects. MindTree has been talking about becoming a $1 billion company by 2014, and KK feels it?s on track. Its annual revenues are under $300 million at this point.
Last quarter, the company added 31 customers, taking the total number of active clients to 261, including 39 Global Fortune 500 firms. During the quarter, the company also bagged a contract from the Indian government to provide application development, maintenance and support services to the Unique Identification project ?Aadhar?. ?MindTree will achieve its goals. We have the management bandwidth do it. There?s nothing to worry, as we are continuing to win deals on a consistent basis,? adds KK.