Subroto Bagchi

Indian entrepreneur and business leader

Subroto Bagchi

Born|  (1957-05-31) 31 May 1957 (age 66)

Patnagarh, Balangir, Odisha

Nationality| Indian
Citizenship| India
Alma mater| Utkal University
Occupation(s)| Chairman, Odisha Skill Development Authority
Employer| Government of Odisha
Title| Independent Director, Mindtree (Retired on 16-July-2019)
Board member of| Bagchi is a Member of the Governing Council of the Software Technology Parks of India.
Spouse| Susmita Bagchi – Odia Author
Website| http://www.subrotobagchi.in

Subroto Bagchi (born 31 May 1957) is an Indian entrepreneur and business leader. He is the co-founder of Mindtree, an Indian technology MNC. He has autobiographed his life story in his book Go Kiss the World.

## Early life and education[edit]

Bagchi was born to Makhan Gopal Bagchi and Labonya Prova Bagchi in Patnagarh, Odisha, where his father was a junior government servant. He studied political science at Utkal University.[1] and LLB at Delhi University. In 1974, he underwent training with the Parachute Regiment of the Indian Army and successfully completed the 5 mandatory jumps to earn the "Para Wings". In 1975, he was adjudged the Best NCC Cadet of India at the Republic Day Parade in Delhi where he was awarded the Prime Minister's Cane Honor. He represented the University at many Inter-University Debate Competitions. In 1975, he won the Chancellor’s Cup as the best Debater of Utkal University.

Bagchi has been awarded an Honorary Ph.D. in business studies by his alma mater, Utkal University and an Honorary Ph.D. in Science by the Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology. He has also been inducted into the Order of Engineer by University of Florida.

## Professional career[edit]

He started his work life as a clerk in the Industries Department of the Government of Odisha in 1976 after giving up his post graduate studies. After a year of working there, he qualified to be a management trainee in DCM in 1977 where he worked for the ensuing 5 years. In 1981, he entered the computer industry and worked for a number of computer companies between 1981 and 1999 in various functions like sales, marketing and operations. His longest stint was at Wipro where he became the Chief Executive of Wipro's Global R&D before working for chairman Azim Premji as corporate vice-president, Mission Quality. He left Wipro in 1998 to join Lucent Technologies. He left Lucent a year after to co-found Mindtree in 1999 along with 9 other co-founders. Mindtree is a $1 billion (Fiscal 19), Global IT services company with approximately 20000+ people. It is listed at the National Stock Exchange and the Bombay Stock Exchange in India.[2]

When Mindtree started, Subroto Bagchi began as chief operating officer. Soon after, the company was hit by a global economic slowdown and then the events of 9/11 took place. Many early-stage companies collapsed during this time and Bagchi moved to the US in response and helped the leadership team stay together through the difficult years.

Between 1999 and 2007, he was instrumental in articulating Mindtree's mission, vision and values. He led leadership development, marketing and knowledge management initiatives that differentiated the company from the beginning. Mindtree's distinctive physical locations reflect his thought leadership. He is also the face of the company's outreach beyond business. In 2007, he was part of the apex team that led Mindtree from an idea to IPO. Post-IPO, Bagchi took on the role of Gardener at Mindtree. In this new role, he focused full-time on the Top-100 leaders at Mindtree to expand their leadership capacity beyond the founding team. In 2010, he was appointed vice-chairman to the Board. On 1 April 2012, he assumed the office of chairman. He stepped down as the chairman in January 2016.[3] On May 1, 2016, at the invitation of the Chief Minister of Odisha, Naveen Patnaik, he took on the full-time role of chairman, Odisha Skill Development Authority in the rank and status of a Cabinet Minister at an annual salary of 1 rupees.

In 2021, he was appointed as Chief Spokesperson of the Government of Odisha on COVID-19. In 2024, he stepped down as Chairman of Odisha Skill Development Authority & was appointed by the Government of Odisha as Chief Advisor for Institutional Capacity Building.

Bagchi and his writer wife Susmita have helped set up the Bagchi-Parthasarathy Hospital at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) to enable IISc to bring science, engineering & medicine under the same roof. This 650-bed hospital will help the Institute of Medical Sciences of IISc to produce physician scientists. The Bagchi couple have gifted the Bagchi-Sri Shankara Cancer Hospital and Research Centre for bringing world-class cancer treatment to Odisha. Similarly, they have gifted the Bagchi-Karunashraya Centre for Palliative Care to the State of Odisha. The 110-bed hospice will help 3000-4000 cancer patients every year who no longer respond to treatment.

## Bibliography[edit]

Bagchi has several business books to his credit that have been best sellers. His books have been translated into major Indian languages in addition to Chinese and Korean, His book ‘Go Kiss the World’ was part of Penguin’s classic collection. His most recent book “Sell’ won the C K Prahalad Award for best business book of 2018.

Apart from writing books, he has been a columnist for Business World, Times of India, Forbes India and Odia daily, Sambad.

Year  | Title

|

2007  | High-Performance Entrepreneur[4]
2008  | Go Kiss the World: Life Lessons For The Young Professional[5]
2009  | The Professional
2012  | MBA at 16[6]
2013  | The Captainship: First-gen Entrepreneurs
2013  | Zen Garden
2013  | The Elephant Catchers[7][8]
2013  | The Professional Companion[9]
2014  | On Leadership and Innovation
2017  | Sell

## References[edit]

1. ^ Editorial, Reuters. "Officer Profile | Quotes | Reuters.co.in". Reuters India. Retrieved 6 July 2017. `{{cite web}}`: `|first1=` has generic name (help)[permanent dead link]
2. ^ "Mindtree Q3 net profit up 7.2%; rejigs management". www.moneycontrol.com. Retrieved 18 January 2016.
3. ^ "Mindtree appoints Ravanan as CEO, Natarajan as executive chairman". The Times of India. 18 January 2016. Retrieved 18 January 2016.
4. ^ "MindTree's Subroto Bagchi becomes best-selling business author". Retrieved 23 August 2013.
5. ^ Soundarya, R. "Go Kiss the World". The Viewspaper. Retrieved 20 November 2014.
6. ^ Muthalaly, Shonali. "Lessons from Bagchi's book". The Hindu. Retrieved 20 November 2014.
7. ^ "This one is for those seeking breakout success". Archived from the original on 18 December 2013. Retrieved 23 August 2013.
8. ^ "Book Review: The Elephant Catchers". The Sunday Indian. Retrieved 20 November 2014.
9. ^ "The Professional Companion (article)". LiveMint. 13 January 2013. Retrieved 20 November 2014.

## External links[edit]

* [1]Official website
* Official Mindtree page

Authority control databases

International|

* ISNI
* VIAF

National|

* Germany
* Israel
* United States
* Korea