Infosys Technologies founder chairman N R Narayana Murthy has said the widening revenue gap with TCS will be a good incentive for the new top management to address. While denying Infosys was under any pressure due to the lead created by TCS, Murthy said the event should motivate the new leaders to strive harder.
?It (TCS? lead) is not a worry. It is only an incentive,? he said. ?Look, we now have three top leaders at the summit at Infosys. Vaman (KV Kamath), Kris and Shibulal make a wonderful team. I know them very well, and there can only be very few people who can match their combined intellect,? Murthy told FE in an interaction on Sunday.
Murthy said the company and the industry in general has seen tougher times before. ?I don?t want to call it a crisis. There is no crisis in the IT sector. Talking about Infosys, we have done so well under Kris? leadership, who grew the company from $3 billion to $6 billion. Remember he had to steer the company through the global economic tsunami.? He said the next generation leaders at Infosys are quite capable of meeting the challenges. ?We have many leaders waiting in the wings. These future leaders together with Kris, Shibu and Kamath can take the company to new heights. There are no concerns on this front,? he said.
The outgoing chairman, who has been named chairman emeritus for life during the board meeting on Saturday, said there was no conflict of interest in ICICI bank chairman KV Kamath becoming the chairman of the software major. ?ICICI may be a client, but there is a factor called materiality. As per accounting norms, if a client contributes less than 5% of the revenues then there is no question of conflict of interest. And plus we are never known to borrow from banks,? he said. Infosys? core banking software product Finacle has been deployed at ICICI bank.
On board member Mohandas Pai?s exit from the company, Murthy said he had told the HR chief to continue keeping in mind the opportunities that lay ahead. ?Look, he is very young. I told him that he could continue with the company and do well, as his contribution to the company is very well valued. But it appeared that he wanted to do things outside Infosys.?
Murthy said he did not quite understand the founders versus professionals debate, that has erupted since the exit of Pai. ?After all, the founders too were professionals when they joined hands. One can?t hold it against them. People like Kris and Shibulal are very fine technologists who have helped the company come this far.? Market analysts and industry experts have often dubbed the company as risk averse and conservative, but Murthy felt that was not the case. ?Recently, we opened a $130 million development centre in Shanghai, where companies have not done too well. Don?t you think that?s a risk. Also, we can acquire a company only when there is a total strategic fit, and not just because someone wants us to.?