Infosys Technologies says its brand equity in campuses has not diminished.
“There was a recent survey that said that IBM and Infosys are the number 1 and 2 in the campus. That buzz has not reduced,” said Kris Gopalakrishnan, Executive Co-Chairman, in an exclusive interaction with Business Line and The Hindu . He was joined by CEO and Managing Director S. D. Shibulal. Excerpts:
On campus hiring this year
On Chinese competition
Gopalakrishnan: Chinese competition will come in the future. It is not a big factor today. Many of the Chinese companies are system integrators whereas large Indian companies are all services companies. China may become a big competitor in 3-5 years as it is trying hard to shift from a manufacturing to a services economy.
Shibulal: We have committed to building a $100-million centre in Shanghai.
On the Palmer case
Gopalakrishnan: It is a whistleblower case. Judgment said there was no validity in it.
Shibulal: It is a retaliation claim. The judge has taken a view this case does not merit going into trial itself as evidences don’t show it. It vindicated our view that we never retaliated.
On e-governance initiatives
Gopalakrishnan: One report says the Government plans to spend Rs 27,000 crore in 3-5 years on e-governance projects. We are in some of the large projects such as income-tax project and post-office banking.
On State projects
Gopalakrishnan: We are doing a smart grid project for the Karnataka Government. Different governments have different priorities: Land records are doing well in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, Karnataka did well in smart grid, Andhra did the e-governance services portal.
On Narayana Murthy’s shadow over Infy
Gopalakrishnan: When you have somebody of Narayana Murthy’s stature, the shadow will be there for some time. Like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. He is always there for advice. But operationally or from a board perspective, he is not there.
On the next CEO for Infy
Gopalakrishnan: One of our biggest responsibilities as founders is to identify and groom the next generation of leaders. Any good company must be able to generate its own leaders. Employees are working hard and it is only fair they get a chance. If you go outside, it only means you don’t have good leaders within.
On creating Infy millionaires and being part of corporate folklore
Gopalakrishnan: It is very humbling and satisfying. Humbling in the sense we never imagined. Satisfying because we made an impact. There is also a sense of responsibility. We have to show the legacy is beyond the company. We have created an amazing platform because it can be used for anything. We are building 10,000 toilets in northern Karnataka; 5,000 are already delivered. We trained 73 autoworkers in Detroit. These were non-computer science workers; we trained them as we do in Mysore (Infy training facility) and 27 have found jobs in the IT industry.
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