Leadership and Infosys

A group of donkeys led by a lion can

defeat a group of lions led by a donkey.

Presented by
Gaurav Pathodia
Malleswara Sastry
Key success factors of Infosys
• Sound Management Skills

• Nurturing Working Atmosphere

• Commitment To Values, Speed ,Imagination and Excellence

• Personnel Management

• Infrastructure
Other success factors
• Invest in well understood, proven product & not just R&D.
• While dealing with investors, always under-promise and over
deliver.
• Have a healthy sense of paranoia and respect for the
competition.
• Leaders in the making.
 Leadership at Infosys

“A true leader is one who leads by example and

sacrifices more than anyone else, in his or her
pursuit of excellence”

-N R Narayana Murthy
“The principal dynamic force that motivates and coordinates
the organization in the accomplishment of its objectives”.
Leadership styles

Although good leaders use all different styles, with one of

them normally dominate, bad leaders tend to stick with
one style.
Continued

Narayan Murthy is a visionary who applied his

leadership skills to build one of the biggest IT
companies in India.

Stress on Building and maintaining relationships.

Innovation is the only means to sustain customer

loyalty in a flattening world.

Acceleration of innovation is an imperative that

organisation should address through well defined
framework
He distributed the company’s profits among the
employees through a stock option program and
adopted the best corporate governance practice.
Following the PSPD model
• Predictability: The company has had long-term relationships
with its key clients and this has helped it in a better
understanding of the future trends in the global technology
marketplace. Infosys’ repeat business levels (at 95%+ levels)
are among the highest in the industry. This has helped in better
visibility of growth for the management.
• Sustainability: Apart from the previous factor of long-term
client relationships, the company has, over the years
transformed a large number of its customers into partners,
which whom the company has build on innovative processes
and technologies. This has provided the much-required
sustainability to the company’s growth.
• Profitability: As mentioned before, Infosys has been
gradually moving up the value chain. While this has impacted
margins in recent times on account of a higher onsite
proportion that these services carry, the fact that a lot of these
are being gradually moved offshore will help the company
pare margin decline. Rising contribution of high-value
services also aids improvement in the productivity levels.
• De-risking: The company has been gradually shifting its
revenues from the US region to other large markets like the
EU and Asia Pacific. Apart from this, the company has also
reduced its exposure from a few clients and now has one of the
largest client bases in the industry. These moves are all in line
with the company’s aim of de-risking its business model.
Advantages

• Higher margins

• Higher predictability of revenue

• Stronger relationship

• End to end service providers

 On Hold for a Year
• Murthy described several of the obstacles to doing business in
India in the early 1980s. "It took us a year to obtain a
telephone connection, two years to get a license to import a
computer, and 15 days to get foreign currency for travel
abroad. Thus, the first ten years of our marathon seemed
interminable and frustrating. Although we managed to keep
our heads above water, we were floundering."
• Leadership Style: Infosys believes that leadership is one of the most
essential ingredients of organizational success which is provided by its
Chairman, N R Narayanmurthy. Leadership is based on high business
vision and predominantly supportive styles. There is emphasis on
developing leadership qualities among employees. For this purpose, it has
established “Infosys Leadership Institute”. Top management emphasizes
on open door policy, continuous sharing of information, takes inputs from
employees in decision making, and builds personal rapport with
employees. As we have seen over last few years, we have seen smooth
transition from N R Narayanmurthy to Nandan Nilakeni and from Nandan
Nilakeni to Kris Gopalkrishnan without any adverse effects on the
company outlook and each one has proved to be an able leader taking
company forward.
• The company emphasizes on training and development of its
employees on continuous basis and spends about 2.65 per cent
of its revenues on up gradation of employees‟ skills, and
around 50% as employee costs. In spite of thousands of people
joining every month, Infosys has been able to maintain its
training standard mostly due to its highly matured processes
capabilities and investment in infrastructure.
• Shared Values: Values are important part of Infosys’s
organizational culture. In fact its tagline depicts how much
emphasis it lays on core values. The core values are: •
Customer Delight: A commitment to surpassing customer
expectations. • Leadership by Example: A commitment to set
standards in business and transactions and be an exemplar for
the industry and teams. • Integrity and Transparency: A
commitment to be ethical, sincere and open in our dealings. •
Fairness: A commitment to be objective and transaction-
oriented, thereby earning trust and respect. • Pursuit of
Excellence: A commitment to strive relentlessly, to constantly
improve ourselves, our teams, our services and products so as
to become the best.
• Infosys got its first joint venture partners in Kurt Salmon
Associates. Gopalakrishnan played the main role in this joint
venture. But it got collapsed in 1989 and Infosys came into
almost dying stage. Gopalakrishnan then told Murthy that they
had nothing after eight years of trying to bring up a company.
Those who studied with us had cars and houses. The company
was on the verge of collapse. One of the founders of Infosys,
Ashok Arora decided to quit. The other founders did not know
what to do. But Murthy had the courage of conviction. ‘If you
all want to leave, you can. But I am going to stick (with it) and
make it,’ Murthy told them. This was actually courage and
firm determination of Murthy, which finally saved the
company.
Some of the traits that differentiates him from others are :

• Simple living-high thinking

• Under-promising & Over-delivering:
He has tremendous respect for people and sound philosophy
of “under-promising & over delivering”. This helps him build
a healthy long-term relationship with his colleagues,
employees, family, friends, business associates and network of
shareholders.
• Pioneer in HRM
• Performance Oriented
• Strategy: ( Customer is the King)
• Social being
 People Management
• Infosys’ retention capability was a function of both
of its rigorous selection procedure as well as
proactive HRD practices.

• About 80% of the middle & senior level executives

were promoted from within the organization.

• Provides many facilities which were intended to take

care of both professional & personal needs.
 People Management
• Infosys was one of the first companies, to adopt an Employee
Stock Exchange Option & create additional wealth for its
employees.

• Best Reward Systems – High salaries by industry average for

software companies.

• Encouraged communication with each other & with higher

management.

• To improve communication, the MD sent mails every

fortnight.
 People Management
• Groupism was not encouraged.

• Ideas that are great, deserve cheers and should be

encouraged.

• Everything is judged in merit. Ego doesn’t come into picture.

Transactions were zero-based so there is no history sheet.

• The organization should have one goal & one vision.

Infosys’ Corporate Culture
• The first rule was never to use corporate resources for personal benefit.

• The second rule is that the company treats all its stakeholders, be they
customers, employees, shareholders, vendors, or society with fairness,
honesty, and transparency

• The third rule is that all people are to be treated with equal respect

• The fourth rule is that all discussions are issue based. This principle means
that important issues are debated fiercely, if necessary, without
degenerating into personality conflicts
• Senior management has an ‘open door’ policy, and it is common to see
employees discussing their issues and concerns with members of senior
management
 “We have always viewed Infosys as a vehicle for creating
wealth for our employees”
• Thus, Infosys became the first Indian company to offer low-
cost stock options to most of its employees. Based on
seniority, over 60% of employees are eligible to receive stock
options. With the run up in its share price, this practice has
created many millionaires among the ranks of employees. An
unexpected bonus is that employees now focus on adding
value to the company so that its stock price continues to
appreciate.
-Murthy
How far can you go???

Thank you