Friday farewell: Narayana Murthy logs out of Infosys

PTI

Bangalore, 20 August 2011: NR Narayana Murthy on Friday stepped down as Chairman of Infosys, bringing the curtains down on his 30-years of illustrious innings at the helm, even as he sought to inspire the new leadership team and the employees to take the company to greater heights.

 

At the farewell ceremony at the NASDAQ-listed company’s headquarters in Bangalore on Friday evening, Murthy outlined his vision for the $ 6 billion IT firm. Infosys should now aspire to become a $ 60 billion firm and "who knows, hopefully, $ 600 billion company", the iconic business leader said.

 

"When I thought of (starting) Infosys on December 29, 1980, I frankly did not think I will bid goodbye to an Infosys of this size and this proportion", he added.

 

 

Murthy co-founded the company with six professionals 30 years ago and now it has a workforce of more than 1.3 lakh. He said the company has grown pretty well in the last 30 years in terms of revenues, profits, employee strength, number of investors and market capitalisation, among others.

 

"However, what is most gratifying to all of us is the respect that this company and its leaders have received over the last several years", said Murthy, who was given a standing ovation at the function.

 

He said Infosys must exist for hundreds of years to add value to society and expand its operations to every country on the planet. Murthy, who ended his formal operational association with the company and would now don the role of Chairman Emeritus, said he does not believe in any legacy.

 

"For me, the past is dead and gone. And whatever little work I had to do, I have done to the best of my ability", he said, adding that if lessons learnt in the past are put to use and practices become better, it would create a bright future for the company.

 

"I don’t want to be nostalgic", said Murthy, who was at his usual self and showed no special emotion on the last day in office.

 

Exhorting the employees to seek excellence, he said performance is the only way to get respect from stakeholders. "There is no short-cut to this. Performance brings recognition, recognition brings respect and respect brings power," Murthy said.

 

He appealed to the Infosys leadership team to "resurrect" the fast-track leadership programme started by him which was "somehow abandoned", and stressed the need to measure performance at the individual level and not at the team level.

 

Murthy said such an approach would give incentive to high-performers in teams, and average performers to strive hard and become high-performers.

 

"If we don’t do this (measure performance at individual level), I personally believe we will bring down our productivity to mediocre levels, average levels", he said.

 

Murthy said he is appalled by a section of youngsters in India who question the need to spend eight-and-half-hours in office every day, adding, there is a need to look at the productivity and work habits of some countries such as China, South Korea and Singapore where people work harder.

 

He argued that youngsters should not look at such practices in the US and Europe which are already developed, whereas India probably needs 50 years, or "may be 100 years" to reach their level.

 

"A nation is as good as the productivity of its people," he said. At this stage of India’s development, youngsters should work hard. "We are a poor country. We have a long way to go".

 

Murthy said Infosys should seek to hire bright talent from top universities of the world such as Harvard, MIT, Cambridge, Oxford and Tokyo, as well as top institutions in India.

 

He stressed the need for Infosys to lead by example, continue to show character and stick to its value system. Infosys top officials S Gopalakrishnan and SD Shibulal, incoming Chairman KV Kamath were among those who spoke at the function, attended among others by Murthy’s wife Sudha and their two children.

 

The speakers praised Murthy for his leadership quality, his "human touch" and his values, as they narrated their association with him.