MBT gets top level team

PUNE: In what is being considered a major coup, Mahindra British Telecom (MBT), software services provider in the telecom space, has brought in a brand new management team, drawn largely from HCL.
The new team comprises Vinit Nayyar as CEO, Sanjay Kalra as president, strategic intitiatives and CP Gurnani as president, international operations for MBT.
"We wanted a world class team who have worked together. And that is what they have done: hit the ground running because they have already begun to make headway in the business," Anand Mahindra, vice chairman and managing director, Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd, told the ''ET'' telephonically from Mumbai. He added, "This is not the conventional replacing a CEO with another individual: we have brought in a team."
All three of them have been connected with HCL: Mr Nayyar was vice chairman, HCL and founder,CEO Perot Systems India; Mr Kalra headed Deutsche Software Ltd, a joint venture with HCL and Mr Gurnani was COO, HPS (HCL Perot Systems).
"All three of us have our roots in HCL," Mr Gurnani admitted. While Messrs Kalra and Gurnani joined in September-October 04, Mr Nayyar has assumed charge from February 8,05.
"This is a very interesting team since they complement each other. They have all worked together earlier. The equivalent for this would be to say a crack team has been parachuted into the company," Mr Mahindra added.
MBT has been without a CEO since the superannuation of John Helleur, in October. He succeeded Kiran Deshpande, who was the software services company''s first CEO and had left abruptly.
Seeking to put to rest market speculation over top level changes, Mr Gurnani said a senior expatriate consultant''s contract was not renewed since they have now a new management team in place. The senior official was brought in for the managed services business, an area MBT is looking to grow. Since there is now a new team, "it made no sense to have an expatriate on contract as well," Mr Gurnani said.
Mr Mahindra concurred, referring to it as a "cost cutting after they had built the business."
"We began the managed services practice about 18 months ago and we are looking to grow it. This is strictly speaking, not a call centre or a BPO because it does a lot of technology. Managed services is the new trend in the industry and we, at MBT, are building on relationships with our customers," he said.