In the eye of storm, a look at Rajiv Bansal's post Infosys stint

Moneycontrol BureauOver the past week, Rajiv Bansal has been at the eye of one of corporate India’s biggest storms after the founders of Infosys questioned the Board’s decision to give the former Chief Financial Officer a hefty severance package of Rs 17.38 crore. Two days after the strife at Infosys came to light, it emerged that Bansal had parted ways with Ola, just a year after joining India’s largest ride-hailing app.

Bansal has remained mum on both events, which former colleagues and industry experts say is in keeping with his way of working. A former Infosys employee told The Economic Times that while Bansal is articulate, he has always been media shy.

A few of his colleagues at Ola felt he was at misfit at the startup, given he had spent 17 years as a bluechip, Nasdaq-listed company. They said his finance team created processes that inadvertently ended up slowing down operations across departments.  

People familiar with his working style at Ola told the paper that Bansal could be a tough boss who is to the point and not one to cultivate relationships.At Infosys, Bansal was said to have had differences with newly-appointed chief executive Vishal Sikka, who in an interaction with the media on Monday, explained Bansal’s departure as an outcome of “team chemistry issues”. Bansal was also reportedly unhappy about the quality of acquisitions made by the software services company.