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Follow UsNandan Nilekani has done a Narayana Murthy by paving way for
Kris Gopalakrishnan, the current COO, president, and joint managing director to
take over the mantle of the CEO. Nilekani will become the co-chairman of the
board of directors.
The announcement came ahead of the Q4 and annual results, and
has surprised everybody. It is difficult to comprehend Nilekani's decision
considering that he is still 52 and one would have liked him to continue for
more time. NR Narayana Murthy formally made the announcement saying that
Nilekani has been a very successful CEO, and it was time for him to pass on the
baton to the other co-founder, Krish Gopalakrishan. Murthy has also been quoted
as saying that he wanted to give opportunities to others and that all members of
the top management are equally competent, probably hinting that it could happen
in the future again./dq/media/post_attachments/2f3303e9886078230de26338146bd579d27cf53fea98275831a1bc8532f9e111.jpg)
SD Shibulal, group head, Worldwide Sales and Customer Delivery,
will step into Gopalakrishan's post. Claude Smadja, chairman of the Nomination
Committee said, "Going through the nomination process, it was obvious that
Kris and Shibulal were the best candidates to take the relay from Nandan and
Kris respectively, in terms of leadership capabilities, vision and
gravitas."
On his decision, Nilekani said, "We wanted to set an
example at a time when cronyism and dynastic rule becoming the order of the
day." The process of selection took about seven months. The most
interesting aspect is that even non-Infosys candidates were considered. The
company, however, did not reveal their names.
After Vivek Paul's departure, Wipro continues to be without a
CEO and Azim Premji has been quoted as saying that "Wipro does not need a
CEO. But for global operations, Wipro does have some CEO positions to run the
Europe, US, China and Japan offices, along with other regional branches.
| Infosys is a unique example because there are five co-founders, and not having family members involved in the business makes lot of sense by avoiding a power struggle |
| Job Cut Out |
|
K Gopalakrishan: To make Infosys more competitive, increase productivity further, continue to be a leader in corporate governance, attract the best of global talent and enhance brand equity further Nandan Nilekani: Focus on key client relationships, be a brand ambassador, deal with broad industry issues, provide global thought leadership, lead some transformation initiatives and contribute to strategy SD Shibulal: Focus on increase competitiveness, improve customer experience, further increase employee engagement and increase the depth of services |
Nilekani's emphasis time and again on 'none of the
co-founders' children will ever work at Infosys" was noteworthy, adding
that Infosys was built on the foundation of meritocracy and not cronyism.
However, it is also a fact that children of Infosys founders do own a
substantial share in the company, according to the shareholding pattern
mentioned on the website.
Legacies that Worked
Contrary to what Nilekani said, there have been several instances of
successful businesses run by families or a mix of family and professional
executives. The phenomenal success of Tata, Birla and Reliance are some
examples. Vijay Mallya of United Breweries group inherited the business from his
father at the age of 27 and there are all indications of his son, Sidhartha,
grooming to be closely involved in the business. Another excellent example is
Mittal Arcelor, where Aditya Mittal, son of LN Mittal and the CFO of the
company, successfully crafted the merger with Arcelor and is known to be the
real brain behind series of deals which made the company a force to reckon with
in the global steel industry. There are several examples of global companies
too.
| Born to Succeed? |
|
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B Teja Raju: Son of Ramalinga Raju, chairman of Satyam Computers Education: An engineer with an MS from Carnegie Mellon in the US Currently: Runs a company by the name of Maytas (Satyam spelled backwards), a Satyam Group Company into infrastructure development operating out of Hyderabad, with a revenue of Rs 400 crore.
Rashid Tariq
Tarun |
Rohan Murthy Currently: A doctoral student in the computer science department of Harvard University Akshata Murthy: Daughter of NR Narayan MurthyCurrently: Studying in the US
Janhavi
Roshni
Devita |
Most of the scions of founders of successful Indian companies
have had the best education in India followed by a stint at global business
schools like Harvard, Wharton and others. Most of them have made a mark in their
respective fields and there have been no indications joining their parent's
companies. Satyam founder's son B Teja Raju successfully runs Maytas (Satyam
spelled backwards), a Satyam Group Company in the infrastructure development
business out of Hyderabad with revenue of Rs 400 crore. Brother-in-law of
Ramalinga Raju servers on the board of Satyam and earlier served as the CEO of
Dun & Bradstreet Satyam Software, a joint venture company of Dun &
Bradstreet and Satyam Computer Services.
Infosys is a unique example because there are five co-founders
(K Dinesh, S Gopalakrishnan, NR Narayana Murthy, Nandan M Nilekani, and TV
Mohandas Pai) and not having family members involved in the business makes lot
of sense by avoiding a power struggle or professional rivalry which might ensue
between the family members, impacting business. Indirectly, though, all the
family members of Infosys founders own significant shares of the company without
being involved in the business on a daily basis. Was it too early for Nilekani
to make way? Should he have stayed longer? Everyone is asking these questions.
Though, there are no easy answers.
Sudesh Prasad
sudeshp@cybermedia.co.in