Interview with Lexitas

Nishat Mehta CEO

Getting to Know Nishat

Debbie Weaver: 

You’ve had such a dynamic career across industries – business intelligence, analytics, marketing, and now legal services. What initially drew you to Lexitas?

Nishat Mehta: 

Put very simply, it was Gary [Buckland, former Lexitas CEO and current Lexitas Chairman, advisor, and board member]. He introduced me to the company and the industry. He described and emulated a culture that was exactly what I was looking – one where I would look forward to working with my colleagues every day. As he described Lexitas, we talked about the need to integrate the company’s then-47 acquisitions. (It would become 51 by the time I joined!) This felt like an innovation and go-to-market execution challenge, which is the common connection across my professional experiences.


Debbie Weaver: 

You’ve worked with companies of all sizes, from startups to industry giants. What lessons from those experiences have shaped your leadership style?

Nishat Mehta: 

Leaders have exactly one job – to find a way to get the most out of their employees now and in the future. I study the managers under which I was most productive, trying to distill what it was about their style that got the most out of me. I believe in the carrot more than the stick, transparency of information, and direct, clear communication.

Debbie Weaver: 

You have a background in applied mathematics and computer science – how do you think those skills have influenced the way you approach business and leadership?

Nishat Mehta: 

Whether writing a mathematical proof or programming a video game, both of these fields require taking a large problem and breaking it into discrete smaller ones, repeating this process until you have small enough problems that you can solve. Then you build and optimize each of the small solutions and put them together to solve the larger problem. Leading a company is very similar, in that large problem solving is how we become successful. It’s made of a series of smaller steps, and we keep breaking down complex steps into simpler ones until we can tackle each one. 

Debbie Weaver: 

You’ve now stepped into the role of CEO at Lexitas after serving as COO & President. What has been the biggest surprise or learning curve so far?

Nishat Mehta: 

I was recently introduced to a quote attributed to General Douglas MacArthur, which goes something like, “Never give an order that can be understood; always give orders that cannot be misunderstood.” In this role, things I say can be used to make decisions throughout the organization in ways I may never have intended and may never know about. I need to be crystal clear in what I say. And just as importantly, I need to know when not to say anything and leave it to others in the organization – who have more expertise on a specific topic – to provide instructions.
 

The Role of Community Service and Philanthropy in Business

Debbie Weaver: 

How do you see corporate social responsibility fitting into the broader business strategy for companies today?

Nishat Mehta: 

Philanthropy carries two benefits. The first is the ethical one that we all feel when we’re connected to these efforts. It just feels right that those with excess resources should help those in need. The challenge with this justification is that different leaders can feel differing amounts of how much to give back which can create whiplash as leadership shifts.

The second benefit – one that feels more lasting – is when philanthropy directly improves the performance of the business. I spent several years working for a data science division of The Kroger Co., the largest grocer in the U.S. and owner of brands such as Kroger, Ralphs, Harris Teeter, Smiths and Fred Meyer. We were constantly reminded that there was only so much we could do internally to improve the business. Instead, the biggest impact to our organization came when we did things to improve the lives of our customers (price discounts and coupons, local events, sponsorships, philanthropy, etc.) in our communities, because the success of the people in our communities led to our success. 

This symbiotic relationship, where companies help their communities – which, in turn, strengthens companies that serve those communities – is what I believe is necessary to fully ingrain corporate social responsibility into every company more permanently.

Debbie Weaver: 

At Lexitas, we’ve made community engagement a priority through initiatives like LEAF (the Lexitas Employee Assistance Fund) and partnerships with organizations supporting veterans, underserved communities, and those in need. How do you envision Lexitas continuing to expand its philanthropic impact?

Nishat Mehta: 

I think of LEAF as separate from the rest of our philanthropic efforts, in that I believe we have a commitment to both our employees and our communities. Our employees choose to give up a third of their days and half of their waking hours to work for Lexitas. Their commitment should be matched by ours to help them in times of extreme need. LEAF is aimed to address that concern. 

Our community-focused philanthropic efforts are enabled by the hard work of our employees giving us the capacity and resources to give back to our communities in ways that strengthen the communities that support our employees. I want us to continue to identify philanthropy opportunities that maximize our impact.

I would also like to look for more activities that we can organize in some of our office locations that carry a dual benefit of helping our communities and bringing our teams closer together.

Debbie Weaver: 

Have you had any particularly meaningful experiences with community service in your career that shaped your perspective on corporate giving?

Nishat Mehta: 

I had an opportunity to be part of a Saturday morning where 200 employees got together to convert a run-down park into a brand-new playground, working with Kaboom! – an organization that builds areas of play in underserved communities across the country. It was literally heavy lifting, pouring concrete and tightening screws for a few hours, ended by engaging with the kids that would play there going forward. We gained the immediate joy of seeing the smiles on kids’ faces as they ran onto a playground that had been a patch of dead grass the night before. And we had the longer-term satisfaction of working together with our colleagues to build something lasting.

Debbie Weaver: 

Some leaders view philanthropy as an obligation, while others see it as an opportunity to create real impact. Where do you fall on that spectrum?

Nishat Mehta: 

I certainly see it as an opportunity to directly impact our communities in a significant way. However, it is exactly this dependency on a single leader’s perception that makes me think about how to embed philanthropy in a company’s success. Investing in programs that benefit our employees, bringing them together, and helping the communities that also represent our clients is the way to embed our philanthropic efforts into the company’s ethos that cannot be undone by change of leadership.

Debbie Weaver: 

What role do you think employees could play in shaping a company’s community engagement efforts?

Nishat Mehta: 

There are so many philanthropic programs that deserve investment. We want to invest in those that have the biggest impact on our employees. I believe this creates two roles for our employees. The first is more involvement from our employees in selecting where we invest our efforts. The second is in ensuring they know that Lexitas offers eight hours a year of time off related to volunteering activities. We want to make sure managers encourage their employees to take advantage of this benefit to do things – either as a group or on their own – that extend our philanthropic impact.

Debbie Weaver: 

How can companies like Lexitas balance business growth with meaningful philanthropic efforts?

Nishat Mehta: 

If implemented the right way, I don’t believe this is a balance, but rather a virtuous cycle. If we choose the right philanthropic efforts, and we measure the impact on our employees and communities the right way, we will see these efforts drive greater business growth, which in turns enables us to invest more in these efforts.
 

Personal Insights

Debbie Weaver: 

You mention in your LinkedIn bio that character is key to long-term success. What values do you try to embody as a leader, and how do you encourage them within Lexitas?

Nishat Mehta: 

I believe leaders need to be empathetic and consistent. Empathy is the art of not just putting yourself in another’s shoes, but also recognizing when you are not able to – and giving the other person the benefit of the doubt in those situations instead of judging them.

Consistency is just as critical as a leader. When a colleague sets up time to ask for my opinion or a decision, they have put a lot of time thinking about the problem and will spend more time on this topic after we meet. The success of that meeting cannot depend on my mood that day, or the way my last meeting went. My colleagues need to know me well enough to know how I will react in most situations so we can have productive and efficient conversations.

Debbie Weaver: 

Who has been a major influence in your professional journey, and what’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

Nishat Mehta: 

My father used to check me every time I said “That doesn’t make sense.” He would remind me that everyone believes they are rational, and therefore, to them, their actions make perfect sense. Instead, I learned to reframe it as “that doesn’t make sense to me.” The addition of these two short words changes perspective dramatically, in that I need to make the effort to better understand your position and how two rational people can arrive at opposite conclusions. That forms the basis for conflict resolution. This simple change requires humility and confidence at the same time – a set of character traits that I try to bring to work every day in the right portions. 

Debbie Weaver: 

You’re a big Los Angeles Lakers fan – do you see any leadership parallels between business and sports?

Nishat Mehta: 

100%. The Lakers have been fortunate to have employed two of the greatest coaches in NBA history: Pat Riley and Phil Jackson. Both of these individuals were not the best players (though, ironically, they were great teammates). However, they were incredible coaches because they could motivate and bring a set of individuals together to become greater than the sum of their parts. I take solace in the fact that I will never know more about Lexitas than many of our long-term employees, but I can still play an important role in leading this group.

Related to this lesson is also that both of these legends ultimately left the Lakers having burned many bridges with their players who were ready to see them go. I am constantly reminded that if I only focus on short-term success, it will lead to long-term stagnation. Great leaders must find a balance between driving their teams today and maintaining a tempo that can be sustained longer-term.

Debbie Weaver: 

If you could give one piece of advice to young professionals just starting their careers, what would it be?

Nishat Mehta: 

Balance confidence with humility. My kids help me with this, in that they are learning things differently and faster than I did. They are better at sports than I ever was, more adept in use of technology than I am, and more aware of their surroundings than I ever was at their age. On the other hand, I find opportunities to remind them about areas where Dad still knows more about some situations than they do. It’s not about making myself feel good. Instead, it’s about helping them understand an important lesson:  as confident as they deserve to be given the era they are living in, they also need to accept what they don’t know and go find people to learn those things from.

Just as importantly, don’t let humility cause you to back down each time you are challenged. Be confident enough to make your point and then listen to determine if your point has the potential to be improved upon.

Debbie Weaver: 

Lastly, what are you most excited about as you lead Lexitas into this next chapter?

Nishat Mehta: 

I am most excited by the idea that our future success is tied more to skill than it is to luck.

Our platform is incredibly strong. We work in an industry that is recession-proof and not impacted by macroeconomic shocks. We also have a very loyal client base for which we consistently deliver great service, leading to a stellar reputation. 

Without a solid industry or a good reputation, companies have to rely on things to “go their way” in order to have success. In our situation, the path to double or triple the size of the company requires us to solve problems that are mostly in our control. I feel so fortunate to have the opportunity in front of us, with the team we have in place.