From the Editor
Remaking Infosys
http://www.businesstoday.in
I
n many ways, Vishal Sikka, the first non-founder CEO of Infosys, is the complete
antithesis of N.R. Narayana Murthy, the man who picked him to take over the
company that Murthy and his co-founders had built over three decades. Sikka
is a big man with a deep laugh that emanates from his belly and an informality
that one rarely finds in the corner office. Murthy is a far more buttoned-down
personality, and every step that he takes is measured. He is precise to a fault.
But the two men are more similar than most people realise. They have great
passion and are workaholics. Both are excellent operational managers, though
they represent very different generations of the technology industry. And they
have a great appetite for risk.
When Murthy and his co-founders built Infosys from scratch, they toiled for a
decade before the big opportunity transformed Infosys from a small company to a
global brand. They spotted a market demand in the 1990s. And they executed
their plans so brilliantly that Infosys became the IT industry bellwether for India
for almost two decades, even though TCS was always the bigger company.
Even after Murthy stepped down as CEO in 2002, Infosys continued to cruise
along. It had a dream run till about 2008/09, when the global financial meltdown
put enormous pressure on the traditional outsourcing model that the Indian IT
industry followed. Simultaneously, the global IT landscape was changing. All the
companies in India took corrective measures to adapt to the new market realities,
but Infosys seemed the one that had lost its way. Sure, it was still keeping its profit
margins intact, but it lagged its peers in terms of growth.
In 2011/12, then CEO S.D. Shibulal – a co-founder – unveiled an ambitious Infosys 3.0 programme. Unfortunately,
the Infosys fortunes did not improve quickly enough to meet
market expectations. At a point when the expectations of a
turnaround had fallen to its lowest, Murthy came back from
semi-retirement to take over as executive chairman. He
chopped, changed and got rid of some flab – but it was clear
that his second stint was not as successful as his original stint
had been. The expectations were too high and the industry
had changed too much.
When Sikka was anointed as the new chief, there were
mixed feelings among Infosys watchers. He was coming with a big reputation – he
had played a crucial role in the turnaround of the iconic SAP. But there were questions about how he would fit into Infosys. Also, whether he would be able to replicate his success in SAP in a company that was in a very different market segment.
As it turns out, quite a few of the questions have been answered, though a few
remain. Infosys, after the results of the past four quarters, seems well on its way to
recapturing the title of the Indian IT bellwether by 2017, that Sikka had promised.
It has also become a vastly different company with a new-found aggression.
But critics say that Sikka is not dramatically reinventing Infosys. He has taken
quite a few of the good ideas of Infosys 3.0, made some additions and modifications,
and focused Infosys on a big target. He is using new technology and management
tools to improve productivity and operational efficiency. But he is not changing
the basic business direction of the company.
One does not know whether changing the business direction was part of his
brief, though. In our cover story this issue, Managing Editor Rajeev Dubey looks
at the Sikka impact on one of India’s iconic companies.
Meanwhile, there is some good news to share. Last year, Senior Editor Goutam
Das picked up two awards for business reporting, while Senior Assistant Editor
Sarika Malhotra picked up one as well. This year has also started well with Sarika
picking up Laadli award for best investigative story by a business magazine.
[email protected]
@ProsaicView
Editor-in-Chief: Aroon Purie
Group Chief Executive Officer: Ashish Bagga
Group Editorial Director: Raj Chengappa
I
Editor: Prosenjit Datta
Managing Editor: Rajeev Dubey
Deputy Editors: Alokesh Bhattacharyya, Venkatesha Babu,
Anand Adhikari
I
CORRESPONDENTS
Senior Editors: P.B. Jayakumar, Nevin John, Goutam Das
Senior Associate Editors: Mahesh Nayak, Ajita Shashidhar,
Joe C. Mathew
Associate Editors: E. Kumar Sharma, Dipak Mondal,
Manu Kaushik, Anilesh Mahajan
Senior Assistant Editors: Sarika Malhotra,
Chanchal Pal Chauhan, Sumant Banerji
Assistant Editor: Nidhi Singal
Principal Correspondent: Sonal Khetarpal
I
RESEARCH
Principal Research Analysts: Niti Kiran, Avneet Kaur
I
COPY DESK
Senior Editors: Rishi Joshi, Mahesh Jagota
Associate Editor: Samarpan Dutta
Chief Copy Editors: Gadadhar Padhy, Sapna Nair Purohit
Senior Sub Edit