Founded in 1986, Tech Mahindra has been in the telecommunications and information technology business for almost three decades. The company has its headquarters in the city of Pune, India, but has a worldwide reach with operations in more than 51 countries. With more than US$4.6 billion in revenue annually, Tech Mahindra is one of India’s largest IT ventures and has developed a reputation for expertise in business consulting and outsourcing as well as standard IT services.
Rajesh Chandiramani is Tech Mahindra’s Senior Vice President of Continental Europe, which accounts for almost 20 per cent of the company’s business. “The way Tech Mahindra is structured now, we do almost about 30 per cent of our business in Europe,” Rajesh explains. “That’s close to about US$1.1–1.2 billion in Europe, and I am responsible for continental Europe, which is anything outside of UK and Ireland. That’s close to 50 per cent of what we do in all of Europe.” Rajesh came to his role two years ago, after a brief stint at management consulting company Capgemini. He had previously worked at Tech Mahindra for six years, which he says meant he was able to hit the ground running.
“Before joining [Tech Mahindra], I was the group sales officer of Capgemini. I knew Tech Mahindra from the past and I had been working with Tech Mahindra in various management roles from 2005 until 2011. Primarily, my responsibility across those six years was running the European sales; then I was responsible for Asia–Pacific regions, and I was also the chief marketing officer of Tech Mahindra for six years. That gave me a good visibility and connection with the management team, so coming back, it was very easy to establish myself. And also from a Tech Mahindra perspective, Europe was targeted as a high-growth market, and we needed more energy and more trusted people who can build that. Since I came back, we have really built a stronger local team, and arguably one of the best performing regions within our company has been Europe.
The choice was very clear—I knew the management team; they are a very entrepreneurial organisation and I was looking for that kind of an environment to succeed together.”