Infosys may have had its celebrations on completing 40 years in the business on December 14, but the air in the room was firmly set on the company’s next 60 years. At least, that was co-founder NR Narayana Murthy’s target for co-founder and non-Executive Chairman Nandan Nilekani. “At least 100 years the company has to flourish,” Murthy said.
Nilekani, who returned to the company in 2017, set his sights firmly on looking to formulate a succession plan for the company. This, of course, comes after Infosys’ first attempt at this — with Vishal Sikka as the first non-co-founder CEO — saw a bitter end. Sikka resigned following a tumultuous three-year tenure, and saw Nilekani return.
“My challenge is a little more acute, because I have some founder's clout but I'll be handing over to a chairman at whatever point that I exit from the scene, who will be a non-founder. There's no plan B now. If I hand over to somebody and it doesn't work out, there's no Plan B. I can't come back at 75 or something...So there's no plan B,” the 67-year-old Nilekani said.
He said that when he decides to leave, implementing Narayana Murthy’s vision of putting in place the right leadership structure, people and the right values is the biggest thing on his mind.
Murthy, too, said that one of the cardinal rules of Infosys of all seven co-founders “was to never have our hand in the till”, adding that there was one violation.
But the talk about a succession plan also put focus on the relationship between the Chairman and the CEO, and what Nilekani sees as the ideal one for the future.
Nilekani said he has always maintained that he will be around for as long as required, but he doesn’t want to be at the helm of Infosys for too long — such as being around when it celebrates the completion of five decades in the business.
“I do have a huge responsibility, because when I came, I could come. I can't say that tomorrow. We have to make sure that it's done well and that it perpetuates after that, too. It's not just one transition. You have to put in place a system where there's perpetual transitions, both of the chairman and the CEO,” he said.
He added that every Chairman-CEO combination should have the same kind of trust and working relationship that CEO Salil Parekh and he have. “That's a hard ask to think ahead that much because it's all about human beings and so on. But that's my goal. I certainly don't want to be there longer than necessary,” he said.
He even gave the example of Parekh as the ideal CEO, and said that the CEO's job is “running, executing, managing, motivating people, and being very customer-focused.”
“One of the things I like about Salil is he will drop everything and catch a flight to Greenland if necessary, if he has to close a deal. I have not seen that,” he added.
On the side of the Chairman, Nilekani added that a strong Board is crucial — which will think of the long term, look at governance, at values that Murthy and others have put in place and also adopt it as their own.
“They have to behave like founders, even though they may not be founders,” he said.
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