MindTree A Community of Communities

-By
M.Venkataram 1527217
Sashank Krishnan 1527228
MindTree is a mid-sized 278 million Indian Information Technology firm known for
its knowledge management practices, strong culture and values, and collaborative
communities. Its strategy is to become a company that is consulting-led in the IT services
business and intellectual property led in the R&D-services business. Currently the CEO of the
firm has set an ambitious goal of becoming a $1 billion company by 2014. This requires that
employees innovate and create new businesses.
To enable the company to reach the set targets, the top management first decided to
establish the values and culture of the organization. They first started off by building a value
system, to differentiate themselves,
1. People-Centric: MindTree knew that, in order to succeed, it had to differentiate itself
from its competitors. The company realized that culture and values were key elements
that could be used as "Soft Differentiators.". The company has always strived to
become an 'emotionally bonded organization.' In this regard, the culture of MindTree
can be characterized as a people-centric culture.
2. Value-Driven: According to the MindTree senior management, "Every MindTree
mind is driven by CLASS - Caring, Learning, Achieving, Sharing, and Social
Responsibility."
3. Transparent and Participative: Transparency and rich, frequent communication
were cornerstones of the culture. This resulted in the company's 95-95-95 principle,
which stated that 95% of the people should have 95% of the information 95% of the
time.
At MindTree, the management's belief that 'values drive behaviour and behaviour drives
results' was at the heart of all decision-making processes.
1. Internalizing CLASS Values: Mindtree sought to internalize the CLASS values by
integrating them into its recruitment, recognition, and reward systems. The process
started right from hiring of a new employee, whereby the candidates were assessed on
whether they would be a good fit in the organization's culture The success of
MindTree's endeavours to internalize the CLASS values can be seen from the fact that
90% of the senior leaders voluntarily asked for 360o feedback on how well they were
complying with the company values. Other initiatives like rechristening the HR dept.
as the 'people function' and giving stock options to its employees.
2. Building Knowledge Communities: Knowledge management was another activity
that supported and contributed to MindTree's culture and values. MindTree adopted a
holistic, encompassing approach to KM, as it believed that KM could play an integral
role in helping people perform their jobs better and develop themselves, which again
reflected on its goal to be a High Achievement oriented and High Caring organization.
To implement KM at work, MindTree encouraged its employees to self-organize and
collaborate through communities of practice.
MindTree has always believed that its values are one of its core competencies and a key
factor which differentiates it from its competitors. At MindTree, its values define its culture
and are a cornerstone of decisions concerning future strategy.
1. Competitive Advantage: Core values such as "Learning" and "Sharing" have
allowed MindTree to develop an extensive intellectual property base, which gives it a

clear advantage over its competitors. MindTree's focus on building a people centric,
emotionally bonded organization has allowed it to retain its employees, and has also
led to higher job satisfaction levels among the employees.
2. Strategic Initiatives
a.
95-95-95 Principle - To ensure transparency and rich, frequent
communication, two key elements of culture at MindTree, the management
realized that it needed to make information available to its employees.
b. 'The Gardener' Program - As a part of this program, the leaders at MindTree
actively engage with employees to develop them into future leaders of the
company. The program stems directly from the company's goal to
institutionalize its culture and ensure that the core values are carried forward
by the next generation of leaders.
c. The '5*50' Program - MindTree's participative culture and its integration
with the company's strategy is best highlighted by this program. This initiative
called on all MindTree Minds to offer innovative ideas for building new $50
million businesses from scratch. Knowledge Management (KM) would help in
the ideation process and would provide critical IT systems support. The fact
that MindTree entrusts its employees with resources and encourages them to
build businesses, demonstrates the importance of culture in the company's
growth strategy.
Knowledge Communities:
MindTree's communities of practice reflect the company's socio-technical approach to
KM, which emphasize social interactions as a means of enabling knowledge sharing and
collaboration. A community could have members working in different departments.
Community Maturity Levels:
The first level is a community of interest which is a collection of individuals who
share an interest and enjoy talking about it. The main purpose here is sharing.
The next level is competency building in which individuals learn from one another in face-toface meetings.
At the third level is capability building which enabled achieving better results in the company
by improving existing processes, software and building relationships between communities
and other organizational activities.
At the highest level was capacity building in which communities would absorb knowledge
from external experts and the focus would be on innovation.
Thus, the ability of the top management to intertwine the organizations core values
and beliefs throughout the organization, the motivation of employees to share their
knowledge in the KM portals and connecting the communities to everyday functions of the
organizations has helped MindTree to come up with a few big business ideas, but it still
remains to be seen if the steep targets set by the CEO can be achieved through these
initiatives. No matter the outcome the initiatives have setup a strong platform for the
organizations future businesses and leaders.