Happiest Minds Technologies Limited (HMTL) provides services across industry groups. The IT company has announced apex-level changes in its organisational structure.
Joseph Anantharaju, who was Executive Vice Chairman, President & CEO of the PDES Division, will now become Co-Chairman & CEO, HMTL. “The last 14 years have been an immensely satisfying and enriching experience. I am delighted with this recognition and look forward to leading HMTL through its transformation journey and taking it to greater heights,” said Anantharaju on his new role. Venkatraman Narayanan is now MD & CFO. Narayanan has been the pillar and mind behind HMTL’s financial strategies. “I look forward to continue working closely and collaboratively with Joseph to make HMTL a great success story,” said Narayanan.
Ashok Soota, Chairman & Chief Mentor, said: “Happiest Minds is currently finalising FY26 plans, and the organic growth outlook is encouraging. I would like to thank our dedicated teams for their contributions to this success. Finally, I would like to thank the Happiest Minds Board, which has provided guidance through this period of planned succession planning and organisation transformation.”
Delivering Transformation with Innovation, Integration & Industry Expertise was the theme of the new structure. “After a few years of delay, we finally completed two acquisitions – PureSoftware and Aureus – whose results were integrated in Q1 of FY25. The wait had been worthwhile because both organisations were aligned with our culture, brought in excellent talent and the acquisitions were cash-accretive,” explains Soota.
Healthy numbers
Talking about the current status of the industry, Soota says: “I want to step back and take a look at the IT industry. FY25 is witnessing flat growth for some of the majors and negative growth for a few others. We have delivered a healthy double-digit growth, albeit most of it is inorganic. The market is predicting a US slowdown or recession. This has clouded the prospects for the Indian IT industry. We want to state emphatically that at Happiest Minds, we see no recession-driven slowdown. Thanks to our 10 transformational changes and to our dedicated teams, including those from PureSoftware and Aureus, we see a good view ahead for the next 2 years. I can say that we expect to deliver healthy double-digit organic growth, not just in FY26 but also FY27 due to the momentum we are building up through our internal changes.”
We are starting the new year with a good pipeline of potential M&A prospects
Anantharaju on his business plans: “The change announced in the apex organisational structure is the first step in building a strong organisation for the future. The Executive Board (EB) will continue in its current form and provide continuity while we use this year to transition to a new-look EB consisting of next-generation leaders to help us meet our goal of long-term profitable growth for the next decade. We would also need to integrate the organisations of the two companies that we acquired earlier this year. Over the last few days, I have been talking to leaders from Happiest Minds, PureSoftware and Aureus to understand their aspirations and forge an integrated organisation structure that I plan to announce in the next 6-8 weeks.” “Over the last 13-14 years, we have acquired many logos of consequence and effectively deployed our ‘land and expand’ strategy. This has resulted in the average revenue per customer consistently increasing, resulting in many accounts that are $2-3 million in size, in addition to a few customers that are $5 million and $10 million. We would like to take this strategy to the next level and move some of these customers into the $20 million range and create many more $5 million and $10 million accounts.”
HMTL is also looking to expand its international market presence beyond Southeast Asia and Africa into Europe and North America by investing in features and functionalities for these markets, developing alliances and partnerships to enhance the value proposition and tapping into the necessity for these banks to offer a customer experience that is more digital and personalised than current banking products are able to offer.
“We are starting the new year with a good pipeline of potential M&A prospects. The plan for the next year, which is currently under preparation, assumes good growth on an organic basis. We must remain agile and adapt quickly to make the best use of these changing dynamics,” concludes Narayanan.