Infosys to unveil strategy at analyst meet on April 23
BENGALURU: Infosys Ltd will share details of its new strategy on 23 April, when the Bengaluru-based outsourcing giant will host an analyst day. For this reason, chief executive officer (CEO) Salil Parekh may refrain from sharing too many specifics of the new strategy when Infosys declares its fourth-quarter and full-year earnings on Friday.
Parekh, and his team of other senior management, will apprise analysts over the company’s strategy over half-a-day on 23 April in Mumbai, according to two executives familiar with the development.
“(The management) will give the headlines of the strategy on Friday and will spell the details only on 23rd when it holds the analyst day,” said the first executive. Rather than making significant changes, Infosys will make a few tweaks to its current “renew and new” approach, as part of which the firm is looking to use newer technologies to run its current business better and also offer newer solutions using technologies such as artificial intelligence and automation tools, according to the second executive, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Infosys is also expected to update on its ongoing plans to hire more locals in the US, as part of previous CEO Vishal Sikka’s plan to hire 10,000 Americans by 2019, in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s protectionist policies.
“We believe that Infosys could save most of the key strategy messages for its Analyst Day on April 23,” Keith Bachman, an analyst with BMO Capital Markets, wrote in a note dated 11 April. “Comments thus far suggest more tweaks to its existing strategy than substantial changes. Moreover, given our view of no major strategic shifts, we do not envision major changes in terms of FY2019 guidance. Absent any significant change in direction, we think the stock will likely be range-bound over the near term.”
However, analysts expect clarity on how the company is looking to fill in some of the top-level positions—which are vacant after a string of senior management exits over the past 12 months—as well as details on mergers and acquisitions and the $500-million Infosys Innovation Fund and the road map for the company’s products and platforms (Edgeverve) business.
Significantly, in the past, when Infosys was run by its founders, the company used to host an analyst day annually—a practice that got diluted when the first non-founder CEO Sikka took over in 2014.
During Sikka’s three years, the management had one such analyst day event in Pune in 2016.
With Nandan Nilekani now back as non-executive chairman, Infosys’s decision to host an analyst day appears to be a throwback to the past. “This (having an analyst day) has not been the convention with Indian firms but the goal appears to improve dialogue and transparency,” said Ray Wang, founder of Constellation Research, a technology research and advisory firm.