MakeMyTrip CEO uses Amber for post-merger sentiment
3,000+
CEO-Level
Business challenges
- Post-merger scale: After merger with Ibibo Group and Redbus, reaching close to 3,000 people made personal connects impossible
- CEO blindspot: No matter what you do, even if it's your full-time job, you can't talk to 3,000 people individually
- Engagement phases: Employees spend only first few months as newbies and last few months in exit mode - need to keep the 3-4 years in between fully engaged
MakeMyTrip wouldn't be the company it is if it weren't for its people. When they're happy it's great, but when they aren't happy you need early warning signals you can do something about it. As we grew post-merger to close to 3,000 people, I needed to know the pulse of the company.
The Amber shift: CEO's window into organizational sentiment
Deep Kalra, who believes human capital is the most important thing, deployed Amber to understand sentiment across 3,000+ employees - replacing guesswork with AI-powered pulse checks.
🎯 Early warning system
- Picks up sentiment being expressed and sometimes not even coming forward
- Catches issues before employees enter "exit mode"
- Helps maximize the 3-4 year engagement window when employees give their best
🔍 Sentiment beyond surveys
- Reaches everyone, not just the 10-20-30 people HR can talk to manually
- Processes emotions and expressions people share naturally
- Power of many - everyone can express themselves if they desire
🤝 HR effectiveness multiplier
- Stops HR from spending time guessing, estimating, and trying to figure out how people are feeling
- Gives HR the right tool to be more effective in engagement work
- Helps CEO spread his wings across large, distributed organization
“What I really like about Amber is it's putting together this very important area of HR with AI. It picks up sentiment which is being expressed and sometimes not even coming forward. I have to be candid - I don't think we've seen or used anything like Amber. It's very different from everything we've seen.”
Key success drivers
- CEO ownership - Founder & Group CEO personally champions Amber as his tool to understand company pulse
- Post-merger integration - Used to understand sentiment across newly combined organization of 3,000+ employees
- Diagnostic approach - Positioned as diagnostic tool that tells you the issues, then doctors (HR) fix them
- Universal reach - Everyone can express themselves, not just the vocal few HR can manually reach
- Emotion detection - AI picks up not just what's said but what's emoted and sometimes not coming forward
- Efficiency focus - Stops HR guessing and enables data-driven engagement strategies
A story that stands out
Post-merger, Deep Kalra worried about losing talent during the integration chaos. He couldn't personally connect with 3,000 people, but he needed to know who was at risk. Amber started flagging patterns - high performers from the acquired entities feeling disconnected from the merged culture. These weren't people who would raise their hands in town halls or schedule meetings with leadership. They were quietly disengaging. Because Amber caught the early warning signals, HR could intervene during the crucial middle years when employees give their best - not in the "exit mode" last few months when it's too late. As Deep puts it, Amber is like a diagnostic tool - it doesn't fix the issues, but it tells you the issues. Then HR, like doctors, can examine and treat. This approach saved multiple key hires during integration and showed Deep the pulse of his company when traditional methods would have left him guessing.
Impact
By giving the CEO and HR a diagnostic tool for sentiment, MakeMyTrip transformed how they understand and engage their post-merger workforce.
- 3,000+ employees reached post-merger integration
- CEO-level visibility into organizational sentiment
- Early warning signals before employees enter exit mode
Hi, I'm Amber - your Chief Experience Officer. I talk to employees, reveal potential flight risks, and deliver insights on what truly matters to them.