What was the problem you were grappling with?
Being a leader is about envisioning and realising continuous change while motivating and empowering others to actively participate in it. When I took over as CEO at Mindtree, the company had just emerged from a keenly watched management change. It had not been playing to its full potential. There had been no formal handover and transition from my predecessor, and most of the second line of leadership had disappeared overnight. Both employees and cus tomers were concerned about what lay ahead.
Whom did you approach for advice?
I met my long-time mentor Lakshmi Narayanan, a highly regarded IT industry veteran and visionary. What was the advice you received? One significant piece of advice was to surround myself with smart leaders. According to him, the most effective way for a leader to succeed was by building and empowering a team of people who were always after something new, who approached every situation with a creative mind, and who challenged the status quo.
How effective was it in resolving the problem?
Thanks to his advice, I focussed my energy on not just reassuring our customers that they were in committed and capable hands, but also in putting together and empowering a team of leaders with proven mettle in scaling a business by turning relationships into a competitive asset. Our spectacular industry-leading growth within a short span of the new leadership taking over bears out how effective that advice has been. Surrounding myself with smart leaders has also helped me push my own limits and learn new things.