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Subroto Bagchi, COO, MindTree Consulting.

Anjali Prayag

Last year, one of the highest-paid employees of MindTree Consulting was given the marching orders after he was found guilty of rigging his mobile phone bills. At about the same time, the IT services firm had shown the door to 80 lateral hires (out of 1,000 people hired in 2005-06) because they had presented incorrect personal information before and during employment at MindTree. “The company will punish anyone involved in any kind of falsification, irrespective of role and seniority,” Subroto Bagchi, COO, MindTree Consulting, had said at the time.

In fact, MindTree has laid down guidelines on ethics for its employees in a book titled All About Integrity. In an interview to The New Manager on ethics in the workplace, Bagchi is categorical that integrity is a black and white issue and there are no shades of grey. Excerpts from the interview:

MindTree is one of the first companies to have initiated a formal integrity policy within the company. Can you tell us what prompted this initiative and how you went about it?

One of the key challenges we had as a rapidly growing company was how to build a shared understanding of values. This was difficult for two reasons: one, we were hiring more laterals than comparable companies — these people sometimes came from organisations that did not spend a lot of time on value clarification. So, we were inheriting competence but not professionalism. The second problem was that the fresh graduates being inducted had no idea about concepts such as ethics, values and governance. The educational system is just not cognizant of or equipped to handle it.

So, we published a comprehensive set of guidelines and evangelised them right from the top. Yet, it did not have the desired impact, as assessed by the few breaches.

So we felt that the best way to engage the system was to openly talk about three things: what values mean to us, how far we would go to protect them and, finally, anecdotal learnings from each breach that could be discussed openly so that the decisional rules are understood. We became a unique organisation by publishing the value breaches in book form. We have made it publicly available so that others can use it as a benchmark to create their own unique practices, so that we succeed as an ecosystem.

What impact has this policy had on the employees and other stakeholders in the last one year of its implementation?

The impact has been overwhelming. The middle management understands what we mean by ethics, values and governance and they know what their role is. It has significantly increased ‘badge value’ among the rank and file; people are proud that they work for a company that protects values irrespective of who is involved and what the business consequences are. And finally, it has prevented people with questionable practices from either working for us or becoming business associates. These, in turn, have resulted in winning us customer confidence — the word is out that you are dealing with a value-centric organisation where your IP and interests would not be compromised. When we keep the Integrity Book on the table, prospects ask us just one question: “Can we have a copy?” The overwhelming success of MindTree’s recent IPO in a difficult market is largely related to the perception of the investors about the integrity of the management. So, clean business is good business.

Do you think the current war for talent is one of the factors encouraging unethical practices? In other words, there are companies that are willing to forgive minor lapses in an employee’s code of conduct if he/she is a performer.

Yes, absolutely. If companies do not build a long-term view of themselves and the industry, they would overlook lapses to justify their actions. Companies are the beacon holders. When they fail in their duty, they send the wrong signals and contribute to, rather create, a negative spiral. Organisations have far greater power and responsibility to set the trend and by overlooking a disease, they are encouraging its contagion.

Academic institutions in the country are ignoring the ethical aspect of education, especially in professional colleges. Should there be some initiative to bring in awareness at this level too?

If someone hides land grab by creating a school or a college and then runs it by accepting black money, it will be difficult to teach values from such a platform.

If a boy or a girl knows that the parent paid for his or her education with black money or by working a corrupt system, that child is already born infected into the working world.

So, not only do we need to bring the educational system into our sphere of influence, we have to get society at large to recognise that corruption, value transgression and poor ethical conduct are not OK. They will eventually kill us as a civilisation.

What is the feedback from your employees on the integrity policy?

Our people are proud that we have an articulated policy. As top management, we have responded to each breach with speed and transparency; we have shared the outcomes and the decisional rules. Sometimes, we have been perceived as harsh, but in the overall scheme of things, people — including those who have been separated — have respect for us.

What about other stakeholders such as vendors and partners? How are you implementing the policy among them?

We regularly communicate our position to them. We share the policy with them and our leaders run sessions on how to engage with us as a supplier or a partner. We also audit our engagements so that we are worthy of the high ground we take.

Your comment on the integrity levels in Indian industry today, especially among top leadership.

We have a long way to go. Recently, I received this Internet trivia. Do note the common perception about our country. I wish we could trade places with Africa; I would rather be known as poor and hungry than be known as dishonest.

Reproduced here is the hurtful trivia: A worldwide survey was conducted by the UN. The only question asked was: Would you please give your honest opinion about solutions for the shortage of food in the rest of the world?

In Africa, they didn’t know what ‘food’ meant.

In India, they didn’t know what ‘honest’ meant.

In Europe, they didn’t know what ‘shortage’ meant.

In China, they didn’t know what ‘opinion’ meant.

In West Asia, they didn’t know what ‘solution’ meant.

In South America, they didn’t know what ‘please’ meant.

And in the US, they didn’t know what ‘the rest of the world’ meant.

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