WNS CEO’s Syntel visitor
By Pulkit Sharma

NASSCOM ranks WNS as the No. 2 BPO company in India.  WNS was set up in 1996 and employs 21,000 people in 21 delivery centres in Americas, Europe and Asia looking after 200 global clients. In 2009, WNS had net revenue of $386 Mill. Techgoss had exclusively reported on how Syntel BPO boss Keshav Murugesh had left to head WNS. And how Keshav was head hunting ex Syntel colleagues.

The parting was so bitter that Keshav was not even accorded a formal farewell on behalf of Syntel.

On April 15, 2010, Techgoss had reported on how the new WNS boss was head hunting old Syntel colleagues (Story below)
]
On July 1, 2010,  Techgoss had reported on how the new WNS boss Keshav Murugesh had head hunted a Syntel IT boss to join his new team (Story below).

Now a Tipster tells Techgoss that there is much talk at the Syntel and WNS water coolers after it emerged that the WNS CEO Keshav Murugesh had invited Syntel Vice President Corporate Services & Global Procurement Head, Raghunath Ramdas, for a meeting at the former’s residence on the weekend.  Our Tipster tells us that while Mr. Ramdas was chummy with Mr. Murugesh when the latter headed Syntel, he has some ‘differences of opinion’ with the new Syntel CEO Mr. Ranade.  Will Mr. Ramdas jump ship or was it merely two friends catching up for old time’s sake?

Raghunath Ramdas is the Senior Vice President Corporate Services & Global Procurement Head at Syntel Inc. Raghunath has been with Syntel for 20 years.  Before joining Syntel, he was Manager Finance at Tata Infotech Ltd. 

Raghunath was educated at Walsh College of Accountancy and Business Administration, Institute of Chartered Accountants of India as well as AICPA- USA

(Tipsters, Big thank you for all your tips and photos. If you need to speak to us in confidence or write for us, email us at techgoss[at]hotmail.com. Or use the Anonymous Tip form at the top of our website. Anonymity guaranteed. We pay Rs. 700 – Rs. 1000 for 100 – 200 word snippets. Unfortunately, we cannot use any tips which are not backed up by enough facts)

(Techgoss had published the following on July 1, 2010)

WNS CEO head hunts Syntel IT boss
By Pulkit Sharma

NASSCOM ranks WNS as the No. 2 BPO company in India.  WNS was set up in 1996 and employs 21,000 people in 21 delivery centres in Americas, Europe and Asia looking after 200 global clients. In 2009, WNS had net revenue of $386 Mill. Techgoss had exclusively reported on how Syntel BPO boss Keshav Murugesh had left to head WNS. And how Keshav was head hunting ex Syntel colleagues.

On April 15, 2010, Techgoss had reported on how the new WNS boss was head hunting old Syntel colleagues (Story below)

Now a Tipster tells Techgoss that WNS boss Keshav Murugesh has managed to lure away the highly regarded Syntel’s DGM of Information Systems, Sridhar Pachigolla.  According to our Tipster, Sridhar left Syntel last week to join WNS on a salary of Rs. 55 Lakhs/per annum.  Apparently, Sridhar Pachigolla had some differences with the Syntel Finance team.

Naturally, Syntel would not let go such a tech expert without a counter offer.  When Sridhar resigned, Syntel President and CEO Prashant Ranade did his best to retain him within the organization, but to no avail.

Sridhar Pachigolla’s last role at Syntel was as the Deputy General Manager (IS).  He started his career as an Analyst Programmer with Unique Computers before moving on to become Manager at Parity Systems.  From Parity, he moved on to become General Manager at Global Inc followed by a stint as Executive Director at Computer Terminus.  Mr. Pachigolla was educated at Nagarjuna University.

Now the entire IS of Syntel is headed by CIO Muralidharan Ramachandran and two more account managers - Sivakumar Annabattuni & Satyanarayan Maddukuri. Out of these two managers, the popular Satyanarayan Maddukuri has the body language of a man who will leave Syntel if he gets the right opportunity.

(Tipsters, Big thank you for all your tips. If you need to speak to us in confidence or write for us on a long term basis, email us at techgoss[at]hotmail.com. Or use the Anonymous Tip form at the top of our website. Anonymity guaranteed. Unfortunately, we cannot use any tips which are not backed up by enough facts)

(Techgoss had published the following on April 15, 2010)

New WNS boss head hunting old Syntel colleagues
By Pulkit Sharma

NASSCOM ranks WNS as the No. 2 BPO company in India.  WNS was set up in 1996 and employs 21,000 people in 21 delivery centres in Americas, Europe and Asia looking after 200 global clients. Last year, WNS had net revenue of $386 Million. Techgoss had exclusively reported on how Keshav Murugesh had left Syntel to join WNS.

Keshav Murugesh had dramatically quit his role as President and CEO of BPO Syntel in Feb, 2010 and joined WNS in the same month.  And it seems that he is already missing his old BPO Syntel which was so angry about Keshav leaving that they did not even give him a proper farewell party.

How much is Keshav missing Syntel?  So much that he is laying the ground work for many of his old colleagues to join him at WNS.

A recruiter at an elite HR firm rang Techgoss to say that WNS has worked out a short list of senior people with about 8 plus years who will be replaced in the next few months.  This recruiter tells Techgoss that the new WNS CEO has made it clear to some senior managers from Business Unit Heads to Marketing Heads that they could do with changes and that they could manage to get better opportunities outside the company.

Many of these senior managers marked to be replaced have impeccable track records developing new business lines and creating, transitioning, managing and delivering profits upon profits for long spells.

When Techgoss rang a key tipster in WNS, he confirmed that Keshav is moving to replace a number of managers. The business development heads, various Executive vice presidents, senior vice presidents are being asked to find better prospects than stay on in WNS. While these senior management employees may have stock options, they definitely do have deep relationships with their juniors, their clients and others within the industry.

It seems like Keshav Murugesh wants to bring in his own team from Syntel to replace these people.  But the fact is that these targeted senior executives at WNS have achieved more than their counterparts at Syntel.

This Techgoss tipster at WNS tells me that many of his senior managers are currently being paid Rs. 30 Lakhs/annum.  HR firms normally charge 1 month’s gross salary to head hunt a replacement.  There is talk that as many as 10-15 senior managers at WNS may be replaced in the next 12 months.  This would entail a recruitment bill running into tens of lakhs.

Our sources at Syntel confirm that a number of managers have their bags packed ready to join their ex boss at WNS.