Nandan Nilekani, co-founder and chairman of Infosys, on Saturday, said the India’s second largest software exporter had taken “several steps” to ensure stability after its earlier CEO Vishal Sikka resigned following a public spat with founders.
“When I stepped for the second time into Infosys, in August, one of the concerns that you raised was about the company’s stability,” Mr. Nilekani told shareholders at the 37th annual general meeting. “We have taken several steps during the year to remedy this.”
“We have a very stable management team, we have a very stable board, everybody is united and agrees that we are really on the verge of something momentous. The focus is now on relentless execution.”
Mr. Sikka resigned after the founders, led by co-founder N.R. Narayana Murthy, accused the then board of poor governance and irregularities in the acquisition of an Israeli firm, Panaya. Mr. Nilekani was drafted into a new board and he took over as the non-executive chairman of the company on August 24.
“I assure you that we will spare no efforts to do all that it will take to release our aspirations, with the generous support of all stakeholders, my colleagues on the board, a highly-capable management team, and thousands of motivated Infoscions,” Mr. Nilekani said.
‘Team’s resilience’
“In fact, it is the resilience of this team that has seen through Infosys through some testing times in the year that’s gone by and helped the company deliver strong financial performance,” he said.
“Every industry, every sector, including media, entertainment, healthcare, financial services, retail, and pharmaceuticals, is undergoing tremendous transformation driven by the digital revolution that engulfs us,” Mr. Nilekani said.
“This then brings us to the wonderful opportunity that lies before us to do something very different, to help these businesses deal with increasing digitisation, increasing technology and partner with them as they imagine and execute their own digital transformation.”
Infosys’s digital revenues constituted 25.5% of the total in the financial year ended March 31, 2018.
“We have a framework to guise how we drive digital agility at scale for our clients across five areas — experience, insight, innovate, accelerate and assure,” Mr. Nilekani said. “We have evolved from leveraging classic software development methods to approaching software creation in more agile, more digital ways.”
Infosys is also re-skilling its employees as the company builds more local capabilities in America, Europe, and Australia, it is ensuring that learning and development match the pace of localisation, he said.
“Tomorrow will bring something as yet unknown. Something new. Rest assured, brand Infosys will be ready. And relevant.”
