Tech Mahindra chairman highlights three areas where firm's prospects lie

Tech Mahindra’s prospects lie in three areas - connectivity, digital experience enhanced by design, and Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG), chairman Anand Mahindra said on Friday.

Mahindra, who was addressing shareholders at the 34th annual general meeting of the company, added that deep knowledge of communication was in the company’s DNA.

“As the world adopts digitalization at a blinding speed, Tech Mahindra’s heritage has given it significant and differentiated competencies that will help shape the future of communications. Connectivity is the backbone that enables and supports digitalization. 5G is the most exciting development, and it's undoubtedly shaping the telecom networks of the future,” he said.


On ESG principles, Mahindra said the company plans to set up an ESG Centre of Excellence to leverage its sustainability expertise to help other organisations become more sustainable and offer sustainability as a service.

“Apart from walking the talk, Tech Mahindra is pursuing the business opportunity that lies in providing sustainability as a service….and this idea of sustainability as a service, in my opinion, is a pathbreaking one,” he said.

On the other ESG metrics, Mahindra said that women account for 33% of the workforce and 8.5% of senior leadership.

“We are intentionally diverse and naturally inclusive; women employees are accorded strategic priority because we firmly believe that increased diversity can lead to increased innovation and better business performance,” Mahindra said.

Tech Mahindra’s newly launched netops.ai platform will directly address the biggest challenge for the telecom industry, the cost of building and maintaining networks, and the platform could bring down the cost of operating a network by 30-40%, he said.

The IT services provider is working with an ecosystem of companies including Microsoft, Intel and Google.

“We will enable telecom operators to transform networks, as a software platform. But apart from our understanding of communications infrastructure we've also utilized our skills to create digital platforms, which connect people with services that improve the quality of their lives,” he said.

The Covid-19 pandemic has drastically changed how people conduct their everyday activities, with the physical space being replaced by digital space. For brands, this means bringing a bit of magic to the normal ecommerce platform.

“Providing outstanding digital experiences will become a cutting-edge business capability, and we have developed this capability steadily,” said Mahindra.

Acquisitions like Italian car design house Pininfarina have helped strengthen this capability.

“I cannot overstate the competitive advantage that a focus on design and digital experience brings to us. I believe that in the coming years, customers will recognize and clamour for this value that we can add to them,” he said.