Infosys appoints a new CEO and MD. Salil Parekh, the former Capgemini executive will face key challenges of reviving growth and forging peace between Infosys founders and the board.
In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Independent Director of Infosys, V Balakrishnan, Former CFO of Infosys and TV Mohandas Pai, Chairman of Manipal Universal shared their views and readings on the new appointment.
Mazumdar-Shaw said that approximately, 30 potential candidates were evaluated for Infosys MD & CEO post.
She further said that Salil Parekh is a very holistic and capable leader with the kind of attributes that we were looking for in terms of experience, market understanding, strategic capabilities in terms of thinking about the future and of course cultural understanding of work in India.
Talking about Vishal Sikka, she said one need to understand that it’s not that Murthy objected to the functioning of Sikka. Murthy was concerned about some specific issues.
Balakrishnan said that Salil Parekh seems to be a good choice. He has handled large markets like North America and Europe.
Sikka’s understanding of services was not that good as he had a product background, he added. According to him, Infosys should focus more on bread and butter service.
Salil Parekh's appointment is a positive development for Infosys, said TV Mohandas Pai
I will be happy if the founders have their nominees on the board, he added.
Pai further said that having a 5-year appointment will lend stability. However, there might be 1-2 exits in senior management.
Below is the verbatim transcript of Kiran Mazumdar Shaw's interview:
Q: In Infosys, if you can give us an idea as to how many candidates were there and why Mr. Parekh scored?
A: There were approximately 30 potential candidates and we used a set of matrix and filters to arrive at a shortlist and once we arrived at a shortlist which was approximately ten candidates, we the Nomination and Remuneration Committee (NRC) went through a rigorous process of interviewing the shortlisted candidates from which we finally came to a final list of candidates and Salil was one of them and we basically believed that he was a very holistically capable leader with the kind of attributes that we were looking for in terms of experience, in terms of market understanding, the strategic capabilities in terms of thinking about the future and of course the cultural understanding of the work in India.
Q: Two questions - (a) has Mr. Parekh met Mr. Murthy and (b) last time when Vishal Sikka came on board, he also had very high pedigree but we know what happened over the last one year. So are there systems in place to ensure that something like this does not repeat?
A: I think you should understand that it is not that Mr. Murthy ever objected to the functioning of Mr. Sikka. I think Mr. Murthy was concerned about a few events that caused the whole issue and he was very justified in being concerned about those issues because he had a certain view of those issues which were recently basically put to rest but I would say that I do not think Mr. Murthy expects to be consulted in the way you are suggesting.
Nandan Nilekani is there at the helm. I think Mr. Murthy has full trust in Mr. Nilekani. You have seen Mr. Murthy's statement about Salil Parekh's appointment. I do not think Salil has met Mr. Murthy as yet but during the course of his appointment and taking over as CEO, he is bound to meet Mr. Murthy after he takes over purely out of respect for the founders. It is not just Mr. Murthy; he is going to meet other founders as well. So I do not think we should read anything more into that.
Q: Basically it appeared that the founders were not on board with everything that the board and the CEO were doing. So what Anuj is asking you is - are there new systems now to keep everyone on board with major decisions?
A: This particular process has been followed with great stringency and with very high level of governance and you will understand that this was done in a very confidential way and I was happy that there were no leaks into the media while this process went on.
I just think that having Nandan at the helm makes it all the more important for me to mention that Salil Parekh will have a very good transition into his new role.
Q: I sure there would have been internal candidates. I guess Mr. Pravin Rao was also a candidate. Do you think that Mr. Salil Parekh will be able to manage the top management; after all they were also contenders for the position?
A: I am not going to get into that aspect of -- of course there were internal candidates but both the internal candidates and Salil Parekh have a good understanding of the fact that it is the organisation's interest that has to come first and Salil Parekh has a maturity to deal with senior leadership.
Pravin Rao is a very-very competent and capable leader and he himself has welcomed Mr. Parekh's appointment. So I do not think we are going to see a huge disruption and Salil Parekh has a maturity and experience to work well with the senior leadership team.
Q: It is too early but has anything been decided on what the structure of the compensation could be this time around because that was the big talking point earlier as well?
A: Yes it has and you will get to know about the compensation package after he takes charge.
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