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Vishal Sikka, the first non-founder CEO of Infosys, says the next big innovation from Infosys may not be another product like Finacle, but one from the grassroots level — from every employee working on 22,000 customer projects.
In an interaction with BusinessLine on Sunday, before heading back to the US where he is based, Sikka said he has visited all of Infosys’ development centres across the country and addressed 61,999 Infoscions so far.
“I have asked all Infoscions to innovate proactively on every single thing they are working on. Innovation will be brought in through automation and artificial intelligence in all the projects.”
The company is opening a design innovation centre in Silicon Valley this year, which will, to start with, have 10 customer teams along with an Infosys group collaborating on innovations, to start with.
Products, he said, will be a new dimension that Infosys will add to its offering to customers, not because it aspires to become a product company but because it will amplify the Infosys teams with an arsenal of technology and innovation that will further improve the way they deliver customer requirements.
Sikka believes that instilling a sense of purpose is the key to engaging the 1,69,638 Infoscions.
Sikka said he was uncomfortable describing his leadership style. “I am grounded in reality and do not like to get caught up with big words and PowerPoint presentations. My leadership style is being informal, curious and engaging,” he said.
“I am always curious and I like to hang out with people who are curious, who are re-thinking things and asking unusual questions.”
The former SAP executive said it was important for an organisation to create the right environment.
“We must inspire people and create a culture of doing things that will motivate people. Once that is done, people will stop thinking about the number of hours they spend at work. Life is too short to waste our time on things we don’t believe in.”
On using Infosys’ huge cash reserves for acquisitions, Sikka said he would look to buy firms with the right technology. “I have no interest in buying yesterday’s technology or padding up our revenue by buying companies that are doing the same kind of work that we are,” he said.
“We are interested in acquiring companies that will… give us that jolt of innovation to improve our productivity.”
Also read: ‘Innovation has to be brought to whatever we do’
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