Days before he takes over the reigns at Infosys, Vishal Sikka told shareholders that he viewed his new job as an opportunity to contribute to the software-led transformation that the world was witnessing.
Addressing his first Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) here on Wednesday, Mr. Sikka said he saw no reason to make ‘grand changes’ in strategy or direction.
Speaking on the sidelines, the first non-founder CEO told reporters that his first order of business was to continue and grow the culture, processes and plans put in place by the founders.
However, he added, “There comes a time in the life of a company when the instinct, intuition and knowledge of the founders has to be replaced by processes, structures and principles, and innovations that we put together. Pravin [COO Pravin Rao} and my endeavour will be to do that.”
When probed on strategy, he said: “It’s too early to talk about strategy, but I will say that initiatives by Kris [S. Gopalakrishnan], S. D. Shibulal and N. R. Narayana Murthy have started to show results. The recent momentum is in our favour and I see no reason to change this,” he said, adding, however, that he would like to augment the work down with some innovation and new technologies. He also said he looked forward to spending time at the Mysore campus, and being part of the company’s ‘extraordinary learning culture’.
Responding to a Mumbai-based shareholder’s query on who will run the day-to-day operations, given Mr. Sikka has said he would be based out of the U.S., outgoing Executive Vice-Chairman S. Gopalakrishnan said the company believed the arrangement was a ‘good model’ given 62 per cent of the company’s revenues comes from the U.S. and 23 per cent from Europe. The EGM passed resolutions on Mr. Sikka’s appointment and salary, announced earlier in June, with the requisite majority.
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