Focus on strategy overhaul, new CEO
I will be asking my colleagues to do a quick refresh on the strategy NANDAN NILEKANI, non-executive chairman, Infosys
BENGALURU: Life does indeed come full circle—as Nandan Nilekani tweeted on Friday.
Nilekani, who built India’s most high-profile information technology firm from scratch with six others, now finds himself with the unenviable task of rebuilding Infosys in the wake of unprecedented chaos that saw the exit of its CEO and chairman in the space of a week.
In addition to finding a new CEO and reconstituting the board, Nilekani will also outline a new strategy, which will see management changes, according to comments he made in an analyst call on Friday, and two people familiar with the development.
Ni lek a ni declined to comment on the strategy, calling it premature, but said details will be shared in October. He hast asked board members Ravi V en kate san and DN Prahlad, part of a threemember committee of directors on the board, to work with other top executives such as interim CEO UB Pravin Rao, strategy head Deepak Padaki and chief financial officer MD Ranganath to formulate the new strategy.
“We are moving quickly to put in place a new architecture of what needs to be done going forward, including getting a new CEO, which is of primary importance to us, as well as looking at the board composition and what should be the strategy going forward,” Nilekani said during the analyst call.
Essentially, there are three pillars to the new strategy: improving the way Info sys does business; re-examining all the initiatives started by Sikka under his three-year-long “new and renew” approach; and charting out a new roadmap for Infosys’s $500-million Innovation Fund.
To improve the way it does business, Infosys is expected to hire more top executives who can tackle newer technologies and also strengthen engagement with most Fortune 500 clients, said an executive who requested anonymity.
Management changes, including possibly elevating Mo hit Joshi, president and head of the banking, financial services and insurance and healthcare verticals as head of sales could be in the offing. Deepak Padaki, head of M&As, could be entrusted with the additional task of overseeing the Info sys Innovation Fund, said another executive.
“Any legacy of Sikka will be put to rest. I will not be surprised to see the Palo Alto office shutting down in the coming weeks ,” said the second executive.
“I will be asking my colleagues to do a quick refresh on the strategy,” Nilekani told analysts, as the company formed a small “strategic group” of key executives, chief financial officer Ranganath, Padaki, deputy chief operating officer Ravi Kumar S. and Joshi to fix the company’s strategy.
Finally, Infosys is expected to take along, hard look at the Innovation Fund, as the track record of start-up investments under Sikka was patchy at best.