Unfolding Narratives

“The Office Space
Should Ensure
Agility, Ownership,
Autonomy and
Growth for the
People Working
in it.”
Hike Messenger’s youthful and
fresh attitude towards its
customers has got to start with its
staff first, according to its Founder
& CEO, Kavin Bharti Mittal.
He conceptualised and designed the workplace along with a small,
fast moving team comprising a product designer, a graphics
designer and the workplace head. All of 28, Kavin Bharti MIttal, heads
the company that created the only communication app built out of
India. With over 100 million users exchanging over 40 billion
messages per month as of January 2016, Hike is by far the 2nd largest
messaging app in the country.
Kavin launched Hike in December 2012 and since, have had
investments in the company from Bharti, SoftBank, Tiger Global and
some of Silicon Valley’s top tech veterans. He completed his Masters
in Electrical and Electronics Engineering and Management (M.Eng.)
from Imperial College, London. During his summer breaks at college,
he interned at some of the world’s leading companies such as McLaren
Racing, Google and Goldman Sachs.
Today he has further plans for enhancing the work place for his
employees as well says Kavin Bharti Mittal in conversation with
Anurag Yadav.
How do you define the modern office space in today’s times?
A modern office spaces allow people flexibility in terms of freedom to
work in an environment that is not restrictive but instead fosters
creativity and productivity, and finally, the freedom to make space
one’s own. It must allow people to walk in feeling inspired, a place
where people would do the best work of their lives every day and most
importantly, the kind of work that the employees of Hike would
proudly tell their kids about one day.
Do you think the ‘informality’ in an office space is a universal
standard or there can be reasons for a straight jacketed and formal
design as well?
Every organisation has a culture and the workplace needs to be
reflective of it. Having said that, times have changed; people live in
highly connected and collaborative social environment. Workspaces
need to adapt accordingly, especially when you’re engaging millennial
employees.
How does it help the staff to be more productive?
At Hike, we have a flexible performance driven work culture. We have
different kinds of workspaces – open workspaces, green gardens,
spaces of solitude, collaborative spaces, recreational spaces and so on
– that can be personalised to our employees’ needs such that they never
get bored. Everybody has a different method of working and at Hike,
we provide spaces that people can make their own, and work their best
from while having fun.
26 Architecture Update March 2016