Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy revealed his ideological transformation from a "strong leftist" during his student years to a staunch advocate of entrepreneurship. Speaking at the Moneycontrol Startup Conclave 2023, Murthy shared his journey, highlighting the profound impact of his experiences in France and his belief in the power of job creation, wealth generation, and responsible governance.
When Murthy left to work in France, he recalled engaging in conversations with individuals representing diverse economic and political perspectives, and that after this his convictions underwent a significant transformation.
Murthy recounted, "On Saturdays, I went to Sorbonne (University) and had lots of conversations with capitalists, socialists, and communists, and I finally came to the conclusion that the only way society can indeed remove poverty is through the power of entrepreneurship, the power of creating jobs, the power of translating ideas into jobs, the power of translating ideas into wealth for some people, investors, and power of enhancing taxes paid to the government.”
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Inspired, Murthy conducted an “experiment” when he returned to India.
“And that was primarily the reason when I came back I wanted to conduct an experiment. My first experiment, you were not even born, that was a failure – Softronics, and the second one (Infosys) has done reasonably well,” he acknowledged, addressing his son Rohan Murty, amid audience laughter.
Watch: Narayana Murthy on how he recruited his first Infosys colleagues based on 3 things
He also divulged into his first failed entrepreneurial attempt saying that there was no market at that time for computers. “There were very few computers in India,” he said and revealed that after that he focused on exports to countries where the market was big when he founded Infosys.
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