Former employees of Infosys, especially those in the middle and senior levels, would be keen to rejoin the Bangalore-based company thanks to N.R. Narayana Murthy’s return to the helm, says a former board member.
“I think a lot of good people will be willing to come back... You need a strong leader like Murthy to hold a company like Infosys together. Leaders like Murthy are born once in lifetime,” said T.V. Mohandas Pai, who is currently Chairman of Manipal Global Education.
Pai had quit Infosys the same year (2011) Murthy retired as non-executive chairman and veteran banker K.V. Kamath, who was then independent director of Infosys, took over as non-executive Chairman. In addition to being a board member, Pai has headed various functions such as Finance and Human Resources in the 17 years he spent at the company.
With Murthy coming back to Infosys, will Pai also contemplate a return to the company? “You need to ask Murthy about it. It is up to him to build his team. None of us are presumptuous,” he said.
However, Pai feels that Murthy should try and build the next set of leaders who can take the company forward in the next 7-10 years.
Since 2011, Infosys has seen significant churn, especially in middle and upper management levels, in both its core IT services and BPO businesses. The ones who quit include Infosys’ head of financial services (consulting) in the US, Shaji Farooq, head of corporate relations H.R. Binod, sales head Subhash Dhar and Infosys BPO COO Ritesh Idnani.