According to an executive privy to the development, the company’s regulatory filings and management statements, the Pune-based software services firm saw at least nine changes at leadership levels, including service lines and geography heads, in April, May and June.
Add 11 leadership changes in the past 15 months, and the movement count at the company’s senior management swells to at least 20 since March 2024.
Within a year of joining as CEO, Joshi sought to fill critical organizational gaps by giving additional responsibilities to leaders, before moving them to entirely new roles soon after.
This flip-flop regarding the company’s leadership signals that Joshi, who took over as CEO in December 2023, is not able to form a stable leadership boat, according to one analyst. This raises questions about the company’s turnaround efforts after Joshi launched a three-year plan to drive the company to growth.
Sample this.
Joshi named Abid Mirza as the chief transformation officer in January 2024, followed by expanding Ram Ramachandran’s portfolio by giving him additional responsibility of India business in April last year, apart from his then-portfolio of overseeing the company’s business from the Middle East and Africa.
Late last month, Tech Mahindra announced Amol Phadke as the company’s new chief transformation officer. Phadke joined Tech Mahindra from Telenor, the Norwegian telecommunications firm. Phadke’s predecessor, Mirza, moved to a new “sales role” in the company’s India, Middle East and Africa (IMEA) region.
According to a Tech Mahindra filing to the exchanges dated 13 May, Ram Ramachandran, formerly the head of the IMEA region, is now the head of specialist sales.
At least one analyst attributed the changes to CEO Joshi’s struggle to bring about a transformational change in the company.
“It’s certainly been difficult for Mohit (Joshi) to revamp the firm to increase its focus on broader industries such as financial services, healthcare and manufacturing while maintaining its telecom legacy, and clearly, it’s a huge challenge to not only appoint the right leaders but also restructure the firm’s divisions to change its culture and business focus,” said Phil Fersht, chief executive of HFS research.
Musical chairs and gaps to fill
Fersht said many IT service firms are shifting to selling software embedded with AI tools, which has led to plenty of IT outsourcers reassessing their leadership bench.
“This is causing many service firms, not just Tech M, to reevaluate their current leaders to ensure they have the right skills that are changing with the times and can compete in this emerging market landscape. This is why we’re seeing a lot of musical chairs across all the leading IT service providers,” said Fersht.
Earlier this month, Seshan Ramachandran, who headed the company’s life sciences division, announced his departure on social media. A week later, he took over as the chief operating officer of California-based Saama, a software development firm.
Ram Ramachandran was replaced by Sahil Dhawan, who was previously head of enterprise applications.
The same day, Manish Mangal was announced as Tech Mahindra’s head of its communications business in the Americas region, replacing Abhishek Shankar, who took over as CEO of Tennessee-based Emids in March 2025.
Around the same time, on 9 June, Lakshmanan Chidambaram, president of the company’s Americas business, retired from Tech Mahindra. He spent 15 years in the company and joined as CEO of Bristlecone, a California-based IT service provider.
In response to Mint’s email for comment, a Tech Mahindra spokesperson said: “We are continuously launching new services, innovative solutions, and strengthening market presence. To enable this, we have expanded our leadership team with key hires — including head of consulting and chief technology officer. There has not been unusual attrition at the senior level. Some transitions have occurred due to retirement or planned internal movement supported by a robust succession planning process.”
Joshi also announced fresh faces during the company’s fourth-quarter conference call on 24 April. Arjun Saxena joined as the head of TechM Consulting, whereas Scott Sorokin joined to head its Digital Transformation and Experience Design initiatives.
Project Fortius
A second analyst attributed the changes to organizational gaps in the company.
“This could be a part of Project Fortius as Joshi is still finding gaps in the organization and trying to fill people wherever he finds them,” said a Mumbai-based analyst on the condition of anonymity.
Joshi outlined an ambitious three-year roadmap in April last year called Project Fortius. By March 2027, Joshi aims to increase the company’s operating margins to 15% and achieve higher revenue growth than the country’s top seven IT outsourcing companies. Under this program, the company will not consider acquisitions but instead focus on organic growth.
Still, not all analysts are sceptical about Joshi’s stint, and at least one brokerage believes Tech Mahindra could still turn around after having lagged its larger peers.
“Recent company performance, conversations with management and channel checks provide reasonable comfort around the success of the turnaround journey,” said Kotak Institutional Equities analysts Kawaljeet Saluja, Sathishkumar S. and Vamshi Krishna, in a note dated 12 June.
The Kotak analysts said “(1) measures are in place to ensure a disciplined approach to new deals, (2) rationalization of non-strategic/low-margin programs is underway, (3) pricing will be a margin lever and (4) internal systems and processes will continue to improve.”
Source:https://www.livemint.com/companies/people/tech-mahindra-ceo-mohit-joshi-leadership-change-turnaround-push-11750859098253.html