Change is painful, says Narayana Murthy

Though Infosys met its annual guidance for the fiscal ending March, it lagged behind industry performance for the current year.

In a message to Infoscions in the company’s annual report, executive chairman of the board and Infosys co-founder N.R. Narayana Murthy, implored employees to “think big and act boldly”. 

Staying stuck

Reflecting on the way ahead, he wrote: “Growth is painful. Change is painful. But, nothing is as painful as staying stuck where you do not belong.” He said that performance was creditable in the 2013-2014 fiscal by doubling growth in revenue terms, a performance he described as “laudable and stellar”. 

Though Infosys met its annual guidance for the fiscal ending March, it lagged behind industry performance for the current year. Its guidance at 7-9 per cent, also lagged the industry’s combined guidance for the coming fiscal.

Growth numbers

Mr. Murthy has been critical of the company’s performance in recent analysts and investor meets, where he has repeatedly marked his dissatisfaction with current growth numbers.

Days after announcing that the company will hive off its products, platforms and solutions business into a separate entity named Edgeverve Systems Ltd., the company for the first time went on record naming the team that will head the new subsidiary. According to the report, Mr. Murthy will be the chairperson, while Sanjay Purohit and Samson David will be directors of the new company. Both Mr. Purohit and Mr. David have been working in leadership roles with the PPS business.