INTERVIEW: NR NARAYANA MURTHY

"Losing the mindset of fear is what one needs to make progress"

Posted: Saturday, Dec 23, 2006 at 0000 hrs IST
Updated: Saturday, Dec 23, 2006 at 0000 hrs IST

Font Size

Feedback

Discuss

Discount UK Shopping

Gold the most preferred investment

: Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy has carved himself a niche as a business leader, visionary and an exemplar of corporate governance. Sebastian PT caught up with the man himself in Jaipur last week for a freewheeling discussion on a range of issues including Murthy’s personal beliefs, his disenchantment with the political class, the need for good politicians to be given a chance and his disinclination for painting on the ‘large canvas of politics’. On a different plane, he explains the magic that has made Infosys special and how he remains impressed by China’s dedication, determination and discipline and its focus on its objectives. Excerpts from a conversation:

What, according to you, was the most defining moment for Infosys?

Sometime in August 1981, we (Infosys founders) all sat down and said that we will seek respect and follow a value system. We are unique in the sense that each one of us has believed in making short-term sacrifices, being open-minded, transaction-oriented, believing in transparency and learning from people who are better than us. To me, the moment we we came to this agreement, it became the most defining moment for Infosys.

Do you wish you could have done something different or better?

Infosys is an enlightened democracy and we do things after considerable discussion and debate. A good thing about democracy is that it avoids disaster, but it also means that it takes a little more time. Possibly, we could have been a little more ambitious in the first 10 years of Infosys.

It is said that Infosys was started in a different context and it may be hard to build another Infosys currently…

If you want to do the same thing that we did, it would obviously appear difficult. But entrepreneurship is all about nurturing a new idea. If there is a set of people who think of an idea that is different and better than our idea, I think they will succeed even faster today. The economy is more open and the friction to business is much less than it was for us.

Post Comments

Comments: (Limit 3,000 characters)

Name		Message
Email ID
Subject

TERMS OF USE:
The views, opinions and comments posted are your, and are not endorsed by this website. You shall be solely responsible for the comment posted here. The website reserves the right to delete, reject, or otherwise remove any views, opinions and comments posted or part thereof. You shall ensure that the comment is not inflammatory, abusive, derogatory, defamatory &/or obscene, or contain pornographic matter and/or does not constitute hate mail, or violate privacy of any person (s) or breach confidentiality or otherwise is illegal, immoral or contrary to public policy. Nor should it contain anything infringing copyright &/or intellectual property rights of any person(s).

I agree to the terms of use.