The first quarter of FY12 was CEO Kris Gopalakrishnan?s last quarter as Infosys CEO ? he takes over as executive co-chairman in August. In an interview with FE?s Goutam Das, he explains why he is more optimistic about the firm?s future than he ever was. ?

In the four years you have been CEO, what is that made you most happy? ?

One, we navigated the downturn and came out strong. I feel good about what we have been able to achieve. The first year I took over, we had 35% growth. Next two years growth was in the range of 11.9% and 3%. Last fiscal, growth came back to 26%. We recovered nicely. Second, we prepared ourselves for the future. Infosys 3.0 is in place, the re-organisation is almost complete, the new leadership has taken over. I feel very good that we are in a good position to play a leadership role in the industry, continue to drive change not just in Infosys but in our client organisations as well. ??

Are you happy with the current sales engine of the company? ?

You can always continue to improve. There is never the satisfaction that it is the best that can be. We will continue to fine tune the sales strategy, continue to evolve that. Today, we have broad capabilities from consulting to product and platforms. We have to make sure that we educate our sales force, bring in new capabilities like selling to CXOs, sell into industries like the public sector. ??

As you transition to the new role, the world appears to be in a volatile situation again. Are the sales cycles already getting elongated?

The cycles are not elongated but there is a little bit of unpredictability on the decision making side. Today, if someone is supposed to sign off on a deal, they typically postpone it by one or two weeks looking at the external environment. The impact is unpredictability in the short-term rather than the medium term. Budgets have not been changed and we expect the spending to be normal. In the medium to long-term, I am positive on IT spending because technology will continue to drive productivity improvement. Hence, I feel that the market for IT services will continue to be robust. I am very optimistic about the next 30 years compared to the previous 30 years. ????

The next wave in the industry is said to be the high value services game. How is Infosys preparing?

For the top-end, we have to recruit more in the local markets, especially in places like Europe where language is an important consideration for clients to engage with us. We also have to invest in thought leadership, in ideas that we can take to clients proactively. We have to look at the high-value business very differently from the operations part. In business ?operations, the focus is on efficiency and cost. Whereas, on the transformation side, the focus is time to market, getting the solutions right, focusing on the growth agenda and increasing competitiveness. The third piece is non-linearity. Here, the focus is on new engagement models. We have to make sure that our revenue is broad-based; ensure we are able to support clients across all their requirements and not just on the cost side. ?

High-end services such as consulting require more experienced people. Will the company?s people model change?

On the front-end, it would be experienced people to start with. Overtime, you will see us recruiting in campuses which we are already starting to do. Then, we will have a complete pyramid when it comes to consulting. Today, it is like a diamond ? broad in the middle and narrows down at the bottom. Going forward, it has to be a pyramid like in the business operations side. It will take us some time to get there. Earlier, the consulting business was small and, therefore, was run only by experienced people.