With a sharp focus on disruptive technologies, deep domain expertise, people centricity, and non-linear growth: Happiest Minds Technologies driving Digital Transformation for its customers

“Happiest Minds Technologies is the only company in India and amongst a few in the world which has made happiness its stated mission and has given a new meaning and purpose to both corporate and personal existence, since its inception in August 2011.”

Executive Chairman of Happiest Minds, Ashok Soota, often quotes Aristotle – “Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.”

While the company was founded with the mission to create happiest people and happiest customers, a shifting technology landscape also provided an opportunity and entry strategy for this emerging player in the services industry. Happiest Minds was then the first company which took the positioning of a services and solutions provider around disruptive technologies such as cloud computing, social media, mobility, analytics and security in 2011. Today it offers high degree of skills, IPs and domain expertise across set of focused areas including Product Engineering, Infrastructure Management & Security and Digital Transformation solutions.

The company headquartered in Bangalore India, has become a global player in a short span of time, with 95 customers present globally, a run rate of US$ 50mn and 1450 employees. It was initiated through securing a $52.5 million Series-A funding led by Canaan Partners, Intel Capital and Ashok Soota.

The Digital Transformation Wave
Happiest Minds is focusing on enabling Digital Transformation for its customers by delivering a Smart, Secure and Connected experience through ‘disruptive technologies: Mobility, Big Data Analytics, Security, Cloud Computing, Social Computing, Unified Communications, M2M/IoT, etc. Happiest Minds has a strong focus in a cluster of industries labeled as TIMER (Travel, Media, Entertainment, Retail), BFSI, Hi-Tech and Manufacturing/CPG. At Happiest Minds, the strong customer base is a result of enterprises embracing disruptive technologies to implement omni-channel strategies, managing structured & unstructured data and making real time decisions based on actionable insights, while ensuring security for data and infrastructure.
Having recently repositioned its IT Services business unit as ‘Digital Transformation & Enterprise Solutions’, the newly transformed division will ensure enterprises achieve a differentiated customer experience, business model innovation and operational excellence through a combined strength of SMAC+ Technologies, Business Process and Integration technologies. This new positioning will allow the company to strengthen its offerings and proposition spanning across Advisory, Architecture, Implementation, Support and Modernization Services around Digital Transformation.

“The core for digital transformation is the SMAC+ disruptive technologies. Developing revenue-enhancing models for our customers by means of digital transformation holds a large scope. To address this business need we have developed multiple offerings focused on Agile Infrastructure and modern Enterprise Solutions”, says Sashi Kumar, CEO & MD, Happiest Minds.

A class apart from the rest
Occasionally does one come across a company that focuses on client satisfaction as well as the impact of product offerings on the industry as a whole. Along with the Digital Transformation & Enterprise Solutions’ unit, Happiest Minds also has a dedicated Product Engineering Services (PES) unit for offering Enterprise based Platforms and Consumer Solutions, as well as an Infrastructure Services and Security Business (IMSS) BU to successfully enable value add via Digital Transformation for its customers.

Understanding the need for products and services based platforms, Happiest Minds has introduced a whole range of iSaaS offerings for Infrastructure & Security.

Also, digital consumer engagement platforms such as “Engagement Junction” as well as MIDAS, provide a range of digital services to create end-to-end solutions. Several more IP led solutions are currently under development.

Awards and Recognition
The testament to Happiest Minds’ growing prowess and recognition in the field of enabling Digital Transformation for its customers comes from the recent accolades it has won, namely:
• Being listed on the Inc. India ‘Innovative 100’ list
• Anointed second fastest growing technology company on ‘Deloitte Technology Fast 50 India 2014’ also being ranked #13 in APAC 500 by Deloitte, measured through sustained revenue growth over three years
• Ranked fifth in the ‘Top 10 Ranking for Employee Health & Wellness’ prepared by Society for Human Resources Management India (SHRM) in November last year

The Roadmap Ahead
The company’s strategy of focusing on disruptive technologies has resonated well with its customers till date and it has achieved several records for an IT services company present in India, within 3 years from its launch. The company is now on track for its goal of going public in 7 years from its launch.

Knowing the Key Executives
Ashok Soota –Executive Chairman
Ashok is widely recognized as one of the pioneering leaders of the Indian IT industry. He has in the past, led the growth of Wipro’s IT business to a US$ 500 million run-rate and was also the founding Chairman & MD of MindTree. In the past, he also took charge of a sick company, Sriram Refrigeration and within a year turned the company around to profitability. In his fourth journey as an entrepreneur, Happiest Minds is en route to achieving its goal of being the fastest company to achieve US$ 100 million revenue.
Ashok holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree from Roorkee University (now IIT, Roorkee), an MBA from the Asian Institute of Management, Philippines and is also a Fellow of INAE. He has also served on Prime Minister’s Task Force for IT and on the Advisory Council for the World Intellectual Property Organization, Geneva.

Sashi Kumar – CEO & MD
Sashi has recently joined Happiest Minds as its CEO and Managing Director. Prior to joining Happiest Minds, he was associated with CSC in India, as its Managing Director. With 23+ years of rich IT industry experience, Sashi’s experience has been advantageous for innovation in a world of productized services and solutions. His past companies include SAP, Microsoft and Wipro. Sashi holds a B.Tech degree in Engineering and Technology in Applied Electronics Engineering.
“We believe that happiest employees will lead to happiest customers.”