The one unifying transformational approach: Salil Parekh, CEO, Infosys

Our One Infosys approach works in tandem with our purpose-led way of running business – helping us drive growth, profitability, and shareholder return even though the testing time, says Salil Parekh, CEO, Infosys.

Excerpts from his interview

Congratulations on winning the Dataquest IT Person of the Year 2022. Past winners have included N.R. Narayana Murthy and Nandan Nilekani. What do you attribute Infosys’ staying in power over the last 40 years to?

Thank you, it is an honor to be considered for this recognition, and humbling to be counted among so many illustrious predecessors. Infosys is a company that continues to evolve in response to the needs of the market while drawing strength from the incredibly strong foundation laid by the company’s founders.

We are positive that the policy environment will continue to play a significant role in driving the digital economy of the country. With democratization of digital infrastructure being the government’s goal for India by 2047.

The values that they set reflect in our continued aspiration, to this day, to be a well-governed model organization for diverse talent to work in an inclusive workplace, and bring value from technology both for our clients and for the larger good. The investments the company’s founders have made to shape Infosys into a sustainably growing and socially responsible business continue to catalyse our success. 

What would you say are the reasons for the high performance of Infosys in the last 3-4 years, especially through the tough pandemic years?

Our focus has been on deepening our client relevance. This led us to strengthening our digital capabilities – especially building strong cloud capabilities as we did with Infosys Cobalt, along with AI and data analytics capabilities. We also worked steadily to empower our employees with strong digital skills. We brought it all together as one unifying transformational approach we call One Infosys. The foresight served us really well and helped us tide through the difficult global situation because we were well-equipped to help our clients move to the cloud, and embrace data analytics and cloud security. Outside of this, Infosys, as a company, has always had a very strong foundation of deep values and a great work culture powering our delivery engine. Our One Infosys approach works in tandem with our purpose-led way of running the business – helping us drive growth, profitability, and shareholder return even through the testing time.

What is the toughest thing about heading an established large Indian IT firm and what is the formula for success?

We are operating in a dynamic environment where our clients’ needs are changing swiftly. Ensuring client relevance is always an exciting challenge. On the other hand, our employees must remain client-centric too, which means investing in their lifelong learning – empowering them with fast-evolving digital skills. Fortunately for us, the trust our clients have in Infosys is very heartening and the dedication and learnability of our employees is outstanding.

How will generative AI applications like ChatGPT disrupt the world and how soon will they be integrated into business processes?

We are leveraging generative AI capabilities for our clients and within the company today. We have active programs and projects with clients, working with generative AI platforms to address specific areas, processes, and libraries within their businesses. We have trained open-source generative AI platforms on our own — internal software development libraries. We anticipate generative AI to provide more opportunities for working with our clients and to enable us to improve our own productivity. 

Is Indian IT in particular and the country in general ready for the government’s India2047 mission, of which a large factor will be our technology adoption?

India is fast creating its growth path to become the world’s third-largest economy in less than a decade from now. With the government’s vision and drive for propelling the technology/IT sector, we are positive that the policy environment will continue to play a significant role in driving the digital economy of the country. With democratization of digital infrastructure being the government’s goal for India by 2047, we are aligned with the government in the endeavor to make empowering technology available and accessible to all.

Salil Parekh, CEO and MD, Infosys

sunilr@cybermedia.co.in