N.R. Narayana Murthy
As he signed off from his second innings as chairman of Infosys at the company’s 33rd annual general meeting on Saturday, a full four years ahead of his term, founder N.R. Narayana Murthy, in a long, candid and, sometimes angry, speech, spoke of the ‘hard and tough’ choices he had to make during the past year, why he had let go of over a dozen senior executives, and of a new vision of a transformed company that would once again lead the industry.
Admitting that Infosys had “somehow diluted the focus on meritocracy and accountability during the last decade,” he said that upon his return in 2013, he had “set about identifying hidden jewels in the company and giving them opportunity to lead its resurrection, and identifying not-so-well performing people and moving them to tasks that they were best suited for”.
Raging against a “section of the media” that had written about the company “based on malicious rumours, unfounded allegations and speculations” and had thus hurt employees’ and shareholders’ morale, Mr Murthy indicated that the much-talked-about departures of 12 senior executives had no impact on the company.
“Some of those who left were low performers, some were seniors who had higher aspirations that could not be fulfilled at Infosys. Those who had to be retained were retained.”
On the criticism he has faced over the past year for bringing his son Rohan Murthy into the company, Mr Murthy said it was Rohan who had “conceived, implemented and pushed forward” six strategic initiatives that Infosys had started that would, in time, once again make Infosys an industry leader.
Rohan left the company on Saturday, as his father had promised.