Mahindras go to employees for new name

Friday, 4 January 2013 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

HYDERABAD: What’s in a name? For the Mahindra group this is not a clichéd question.

It is this question that is taking its time as it gets ready for the merger of Mahindra Satyam with Tech Mahindra. The best way to sort out this, it felt, is to ask its 72,000 employees to suggest a name for the merged entity.

Recently, the management sent an e-mail link to a survey, inviting suggestions from its staff. For starters, the firm gave them a list of options including Tech Mahindra, Mahindra Infosystems, and Mahindra Consulting Services. They can suggest a new name too.

When approached, a top Mahindra Satyam executive said they had conducted the survey “to gather the opinion of the employees only. The management will take a call on the name. What we have mentioned in the survey is suggestive only. If something brighter comes up from the staff, we might go for it,” he said.

The employee reaction has, however, been mixed. While Mahindra Satyam employs 37,000 people, Tech Mahindra has 35,000 on rolls.

“We have filled in the survey. But I am wondering whether they will retain the Satyam tag or not. I wish they will,” Sarat (name changed), an old timer with Satyam, told Business Line.

The Mahindra Satyam-Tech Mahindra duo had received all but one statutory permission for the merger.

The Andhra Pradesh High Court is yet to clear the merger petition filed by the company. Some minority shareholders filed a separate petition questioning the swap ratio.

They alleged that the ratio was fixed to favour the Mahindras, giving little benefit to the Satyam shareholders.

A section of employees feels the Mahindras might go for a name sans Satyam tag but highlights the Mahindra brand name as is the case with all the firms in the group.

(The Hindu Business Line)