Chairman (Mahindra Group), Tech Mahindra Limited
'Focus On Quality Of Work, Not Quantity': Anand Mahindra On L&T Boss, N Murthy's Work Week Comments
Amidst the growing debate on what shall be the ideal working hours for employees, which was started after some remarks made by L&T's chairman S N Subrahmanyan recommending to work for "90 hours per week", Anand Mahindra also has his take on this debate.
#AnandMahindra #SNSubrahmanyan #L&TChairman #90HoursWorkWeek #WorkLifeBalance #LarsenToubro #Subrahmanyan #NarayanMurthy #Infosys #HWNews
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About Anand Mahindra
Anand Mahindra, chairman of the Mahindra Group, addressed the impact of artificial intelligence on the IT services industry during a shareholder meeting on July 20, 2026. He stated that AI will not kill the IT services industry but will make it more vital, arguing that while AI is moving to the center of business operations, making it work reliably and securely at enterprise scale is difficult. He said that companies like Tech Mahindra are needed to integrate, govern, and shape AI around each enterprise's context, comparing AI to a smartphone that becomes indispensable through the enabling layer provided by IT services. Mahindra also discussed the concept of "enterprise alpha," which he described as a company's data, workflows, judgment, and domain knowledge. He said that while building sovereign models is important, enterprises will increasingly need the ability to work across models, and that Tech Mahindra's role is to help preserve that alpha through platforms, solutions, and workflows that sit above and around the model.
Transcript (6 segments)
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Moderator0:00
I think that's fantastic advice. I think there is a need for this conversation because corporate leaders have created wealth and created millions of jobs in India. The young have their own understanding of how they want to lead their lives, and that is leading to a lot of debate as well, you may be aware about work-life balance. And there are prescriptions on 70-hour work weeks, 90-hour work weeks. How do you address something like that? What is your idea of this balance and how much is too much?
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Anand Mahindra0:39
I'll tell you, I have huge respect for Mr. Narayana Murthy and others, so let me not get this wrong, of course. But I have to say something. I think this debate is in the wrong direction because this debate is about the quantity of work. My point is we have to focus on the quality of work, not on the quantity of work. So it's not about 48, 40 hours, it's not about 70 hours, it's not about 90 hours. What output are you doing? Even if it's 10 hours, you can change the world in 10 hours. So the minister just sent me a note saying we have the My Bharat platform, which is a single window platform for all youth activities, and we will integrate with the Aspire platform. Thank you, sir. Now that's what you call an action-oriented government right there. He didn't even wait one minute before responding. My salaam to you. So coming back to your question, I have always believed that you have to have leaders and people in your company who make wise decisions, wise choices. So the question is which kind of mind makes the right choices and right decisions. And I think a mind that is exposed to holistic thinking, that is open to inputs from around the world. That's why I'm such a votary of liberal arts. I think even if you are an engineer, even if you're an MBA, you must study art, you must study culture. The MC was very kind that we support art and culture. Why am I making shareholders pay for that? Because I think you make better decisions when you have a whole brain, when you are informed about arts, culture. That's when you'll make a good decision. If you're not spending time at home, if you're not spending time with friends, if you're not reading, if you don't have time to reflect, how will you bring the right inputs into making a decision? Let's take our business. You make a car. We have to decide what a customer wants in a car. If we are only in the office all the time, we are not with our families, we are not with other families. How are we going to understand what people want to buy? What kind of car do they want to sit in? So that is why I'm a big votary. I'm not going to say you need to work so many hours or that you have to be in a tunnel just to complete a project or a task or there's a crisis, but you should not be in a tunnel every time. And Gandhi-ji said, open your windows, let the air in. So I definitely think there's no such thing as a work-life balance. It's not about balancing two things. You make good decisions if you have a holistic life, and you cannot be in a tunnel all the time.
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Moderator3:44
Absolutely, and I think there's something to be said for both the arguments. I mean, you don't become a Narayana Murthy with a 9-to-5 work schedule, right? Sometimes you have to push. We grew up learning things like no pain, no gain. And yet I think everybody has their own threshold and they decide what they... You're very successful. If I could ask you, how many hours a week do you work?
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Anand Mahindra4:09
You know, this is what I want to avoid. I don't want it to be about the time, I don't want it to be about quantity. Ask me what's the quality of my work. Don't ask me how many hours I work.
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Moderator4:25
And since you're giving us tips, you look worried, it's not a trick question. How much time in a day do you spend on social media? Because you've aced your social media game, and yet you have managed time so well because you've built institutions, and I think we can all learn.
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Anand Mahindra4:42
This is a challenge. I'm often asked this question. Then I'm asked, do you have an office that manages it? If anyone's read my tweets, if you think my office can write like that, then I've got a fabulous team who lives inside my head. I don't know why people even ask that. So then you say how much time do you have? And every time I'll get in my timeline this kind of thing keeps coming up. I want to tell people I'm on... I've been asked this. I'm on X, on social media, not because I'm lonely. My wife is wonderful. I love staring at her. I spend more time... So I'm not here to make friends. I'm here because people don't understand it is an amazing business tool. How in one platform I get feedback from 11 million people. If I asked any research firm to tell me, can you get me a sample of 11 million, do you know what they charge me? So frankly, I once asked Microsoft or something, create a cockpit for me that tells me what's happening in my factory, what's happening here, what's happening there. And they said a million dollars. So I said, can't do it. And then Twitter came around and it was free. So everybody out there has a mobile camera. I'll give you just two examples, which since these are young people. One of them was a person who tweeted to me saying, I want to thank you. My girlfriend and I were at a concert in Nashik and she got sick and was throwing up right outside the wall of your factory. You may know this story, I may have told you this. And she said that at that time your chowkidar from the factory, the security officer, came out and he helped us and got her water. And I just wanted to thank you. That's a wonderful gesture instead of trying to chase us away. So I called up the factory manager and I said, find out who this chowkidar is. I want you to felicitate him in front of people, give him some flowers from me and say that's the culture I want Mahindra to have.