It is an alliance of friends, says iGate Patni Global HR head

When iGate announced its decision to acquire Patni Computers last year, investors and analysts raised several doubts. A smaller suave company acquiring a bigger one with a traditional mould attracted wide attention and criticism. Some felt it would not work. The acquisition did happen early this year.

Among the iGate leadership that is driving the integration process is Mr Srinivas Kandula, who is Global Head (Human Resources) of the combined entity iGate-Patni. He describes the merger as an alliance of friends. In an interview, he is candid on the pains involved in merger, severances, challenges and recruitment plans.

How has been the merger process so far?

We consider it successful so far. We have divided the merger into two phases – the phase of stability and phase of transformation. We need to create a sense of stability in the minds of customers, employees and vendors to create organisational stability. We have achieved this on the day the shares were transferred. The phase of transformation would involve offering value addition to our staff, investors and customers. We have created six tracks of work to take care of services delivery, people and customers. We have identified one leader each from iGate and Patni to achieve this.

There were apprehensions that marriage between companies of different sizes could pose problems in integration. How do you react?

We have studied this and (industry) experience showed that most mergers and acquisitions failed because of tapering off energy levels of the acquirer after the deal. A sense of achievement leads to slow action when it comes to integration. But we have acted differently. The CFO, who had led in the acquisition part, has taken a backseat after the deal is concluded. A different team, which includes me, is taking forward the integration part. So, the energy level has been kept in tact.

What are the key challenges you faced in the integration process and how did you address them?

In a nutshell, the main challenges are people, culture and processes and practices. To begin with, we identified nine people in the top management, which included CFO, Chief Delivery Officer and Chief Executive Officer, and offered them severance packages and released seven by May 12. This was required because of commonalities existed at the top level. We any way need people at other layers.

There were doubts in the minds of employees of both sides. It is what-is-in-it-for-me question that lingered among them, in customers and in vendors. We have opened up all means of communications and reached out to them. For employees, we have done away with different grades in the two companies and created a common grade, a common appraisal system and same compensation package. We have told our customers they have bigger human resource pool, delivery and technological exposure to meet their needs.

Don't you think that departure of those who are in the know of things would hurt?

We have articulated a new direction and target for the combined entity. Even if they were to stay, they would have to follow that. They have no relevance in the new scheme of things.

What kind of culture you are proposing – iGate or Patni's?

iGate is intuitive, aggressive and brims with zeal to grow. It comes with a killer instinct. On the other hand, Patni believes in slow-and-steady approach. It fells delivery is centre of excellence. It would decide only after evaluating it a number of times. This leads to lengthy processes, making decision making exhaustive.

While Patni strongly feels that delivery will satisfy customers, iGate thinks that we should deliver what customer wants. Approaches are different. On the day of transfer of shares in April, we held a top leadership meeting in Boston, where we launched a vision for the combined entity.

It is not that we are promoting iGate culture. It is an alliance of friends. In the present nine-member executive team, we have leaders from both firms. There are takeaways from Patni in outsourcing and delivery models as well.

What is the brand vision for the combined entity? Will you absorb Patni or retain it in the company name?

For now, it will be called iGate Patni. But over a period of time we would like to knock off Patni from the name. Not because we want to remove its identity but it represents a family name. Being a professionally run firm, we would like to reflect that in the name as well. If it were something different, our thinking would have been different.

COMMENT NOW