A case analysis of how Infosys shaped itself without Mr. Narayana Murthy and his demands to come back during the crisis faced by Infosys

3. Infosys – An Indian Dream
 Established in 1981.
 Founded by former employees of Patni Computer Systems –
N. R. Narayana Murthy, Nandan Nilekani, N. S. Raghavan, S. Gopalakrishnan, S.
D. Shibulal, K. Dinesh, Venugopal and Ashok Arora.
 Vision - To help our clients meet their goals through our people,
services and solutions.
 Mission - dedicated to providing the people, services and
solutions our clients need to meet their information technology
challenges and business goals.

4. Infosys until Murthy left

5. Return of Narayana Murthy
5 reasons why Infy needed the charisma of Murthy
• Infosys is no longer the leader.
• Infosys struggling to grow.
• Investors have lost confidence.
• Employee morale down.
• Conservative management.
0 5000 10000 15000
TCS
INFOSYS
COGNIZANT
2013/14
2012/13
2011/12
2010/11
2009/10

6. Demands of Murthy
 Full supreme decision making authority.
 Private Jet for company purposes.
 Entry of Rohan Murthy.

7. Consequences of Murthy’s
demands
 Principle of “ Founder-CEO succession plan”
o CEO’s should retire at the age of 60.
o No family members of the founders should work at Infosys.
 Faced tough criticism.
o Disrupted the succession plan led by him and the co-founders
o It would go against the Infy values.

8. Power Centre
The dream team : Core executive committee
 Rohan - delivery effectiveness and productiveness
 Raghunath - chief risk officer (expenses and cost cutting).
 Deepak P. - sales effectiveness.
 H.R Binod - Talent supply chain.
22.00%
23.00%
24.00%
25.00%
26.00%
2013 2014
Operating Margins

9. Role of Rohan Murthy
 Executive assistant to Senior Murthy.
 “Extra constitutional authority”.
 Cutting back on workforce.
 Time tracking software.
 Strategies put forward by Rohan:
 Measuring individual productivity of engineers.
 Automation in software development.
 Reinforce and foster technical competence.
 Mentoring of junior employees.
 Online education to retrain people.
 Inculcate “culture of innovation”.

10. Side Effects of Murthy’s reign
 Seniors and experienced hires.
 200 people from B-Schools.
 But without perks.
 Hikes and salaries.
 Targets set by demanding Murthy.
 Attrition rate increased.
 Long term vs Short team allocation of budget.
5.00%
10.00%
15.00%
20.00%
2009/10
2010/11
2011/12
2012/13
2013/14

11. Leadership in Infy
 Shibulal- the 4th CEO of Infy ,decided an early retirement.
 12 high profile executives left Infy after NRN’s return.
 Top three internal CEO candidates quit.
 Departure of B.G Srinivas :significant moment in the
history of Infy’s leadership.

12. Reasons given by a few
• Ashok Vemuri :
• responsible for company’s poor performance
• Was not happy with Murthy’s centralized style of planning
• V.Balakrishnan ( director & head of BPO-Finacle)
• Wanted to start up a private equity space : Exfinity Fund
• To work with young entrprenuers in the business
• B.G .Srinivas :
• Was dissatisfied when employees reporting him were
evaluated as contenders for CEO post.

13. Reasons by Industry Insiders
• Clear vision : revive Infy back to No.1 IT firm
• Participate in onshoring & non linear businesses
• Shift in priorities
• Exes unwillinging to be more agile & flexible to change
• Could not cope up with pressure
• Put on “performance improvement plan”

14. Reinventing Infy
 Focus on revenue growth.
 Focus on market share ahead of margins.
 Embrace automation –for innovation.
 Invest in People.
 Focus on the customer.
 Rebuild the sales engine.
 Strengthen platforms.