‘I Haven’t Gone Anywhere, Here To Stay’: LTIMindtree CEO Debashis Chatterjee

LTIMindtree CEO and MD Debashis Chatterjee on Thursday addressed the company’s stance and future plans during an exclusive interview with BW Businessworld in a response to recent media reports and industry speculation about leadership succession.

“I have not gone anywhere. I’m still here and continuing to be here,” said Chatterjee.

He added that succession planning is a critical aspect of risk management and governance for a company of LTIMindtree’s scale, which reported revenues of USD 4.3 billion for the fiscal year ending 31 March 2024 (FY24). This planning, according to Chatterjee, is part of ensuring a stable and effective organisational structure.

Chatterjee, also known as “DC,” assumed leadership of LTIMindtree in November 2022 following the merger of Larsen & Toubro’s L&T Infotech and Mindtree during that same month.

“If you talk about succession planning for an organisation of our size (over USD 4 billion dollars), it’s basic risk management and governance issue if you don’t have a plan laid out or if you don’t think about it,” he asserted.

The comment comes amid rumours that Nachiket Deshpande, the current Chief Operating Officer, is the frontrunner to succeed Chatterjee as CEO.

The speculation about Deshpande, who has been with L&T Infotech (LTI) since 2018 and previously worked alongside Chatterjee at Cognizant, suggests he might take over the CEO role before Chatterjee’s term officially ends in 2025. With over 28 years of experience in the IT industry, Deshpande is seen as a strong candidate to lead LTIMindtree into its next phase of growth.

Top-level Churn

In recent times, the mid-tier IT company has seen top-level exits, including that of CFO Vinit Teredesai. Some analysts believe this is due to integration related issues. However, addressing these concerns about high-level attrition and its potential impact on the company’s financial performance, Chatterjee said such attrition is a normal part of business operations.

“We should not link attrition to the merger anymore. It’s business as usual for us,” he said.

He stressed the importance of proactive management in retaining key talent and ensuring smooth transitions when necessary. “If there’s attrition, I need to backfill. If there's attrition which I can avoid, then I need to proactively avoid that before it happens,” he explained.

Despite challenging market conditions, LTIMindtree mostly outperformed tier-one IT players, with a revenue growth of 4.4 per cent year-over-year (YoY), reaching USD 4.3 billion, and a net profit increase of 1.4 per cent to USD 553.4 million.

The company also reported an order inflow of USD 5.6 billion for the full year, a 15.7 per cent growth over FY23. Chatterjee expressed confidence in the company’s solid foundation and capable leadership team, which he believes are well-positioned to achieve LTIMindtree’s goal of reaching USD 10 billion in revenue.

“Our foundation is rock solid right now. We have the right leaders in the right places and a good second line in most areas,” Chatterjee concluded.