BG Srinivas has been a hotshot at Infosys for sometime now. Tell him that and he shoots back, ?I am not sure about that tag.? Being an executive council member at Infosys?apart from being in charge of Europe and the manufacturing vertical?BG is counted upon as one among the best new generation leaders in Indian IT. Water cooler talk is that he could end up as the CEO at Infosys.

Do you want to be a CEO, we ask. ?Well all I want to do now is maximise the impact. I want to ensure that the company continues to earn global respect. When there is external focus one does not tend to think about these aspects,? he says on expected lines.

Teams that work under BG have one thing in common. They are driven by huge ambition. BG injects quite a bit of that in his team members and always wants them to look at the big picture. ?I would like them to aim for a big target. Even if they fall short, I am okay with it. But it?s not good to aim low and then achieve it. That does not make a big impression on me. What I repeatedly tell my people is not worry about failure.?

BG believes in keeping himself approachable. ?I ensure that I am available for my team. It?s important that all internal issues are solved so that we can focus on external matters.? He was raised in Nelamangala on the outskirts of Bangalore. The importance of education was drilled into him at an early age and he did not disappoint. ?Even as a kid, I used to love gathering information. I used to read all publications and keep myself updated.?

After his engineering, BG joined ABB, the Swedish corporate major. He spent 14 years there. At ABB, he rose up the ranks through sheer hard work and excellent execution of his skill sets. ?Chasing numbers is a passion with me. ABB taught me importance of chasing and achieving targets. I haven?t forgotten those early lessons. At one point, I never thought I would be leaving ABB, and worked extensively in Europe. As it happened, I was implementing SAP at ABB and while I was busy with it, I got a call from Infosys.?

BG joined Infosys in 1999. While taking care of the enterprise solutions market at Infosys, BG got a call to move to the US, and then again he was transferred back to Bangalore. One fine day, Infosys founder SD Shibulal called BG over and gave him an offer to head Europe. ?I was given about five minutes to decide. I quickly called up my wife, and she was supportive. And there I was heading Europe, based out of London.?

?London is a great city and my family loves being there. There are some amazing parks and outdoors and I love the culture. But it is India that fascinates me the most. There is so much that can be done here.

Together, we need to contribute to society and improve the various aspects of living. In my own way I support some of the schools around.?

Today BG has more than 25 years of experience in business and consulting and people turn to him for advise from all quarters.

At Infosys, he was instrumental in establishing the Enterprise Solutions practice, which is today the IT firm?s largest practice.

BG, who heads Infosys? manufacturing business unit, is also responsible for the engineering and product development business, globally. As a member of the Executive Council of Infosys, he holds responsibilities for the Europe region and he is also on the Board of Infosys BPO and three other Infosys European subsidiaries. As the head of Infosys? European operations, he helped the continental business to scale past $1 billion in revenues.

?I hope India becomes an economic superpower. Inclusive growth is very important,? says BG thoughtfully. He is also involved with the World Economic Forum, where he works with Young Global Leaders (YGL) and other education related programme.

There is now immense competition among the young leaders at Infosys. There is Subash Dhar, Chandrasekhar Kakal and BG all vying to surge ahead. The next generation of leaders look ready to take over.

?I always tell my team not to worry about how the other person is doing. It?s about team work and external focus,? adds BG.