After being away from the company for seven years, apart from meeting visitors at the sprawling Infosys campus in Bangalore’s Electronic City, Narayana Murthy has decided to return as the Executive Chairman of the Board and Additional Director of the company. This is following a request from the Board asking him to come back. Murthy spoke on his gameplan for Infosys, and his investments in Catamaran Ventures (which he took up post retirement) on the sidelines of a function here.
On his comeback
I was completely taken by surprise when I heard it in the morning. To be fair, I have been completely disconnected and used to come to my office to meet visitors. When K.V. Kamath, Chairman of the Board, approached me on May 4, I told him I would need some time to think about it.
After discussing it with my family, I decided that as long as I can add value in the company, I will take up the role. I have been away from executive responsibilities for the last seven years. Therefore, I am not as much in touch with the youth of Infosys. Second, post my retirement period, I set apart time for doing things that I enjoyed most with youngsters.
Immediate priorities…
It has been a few hours since the announcement and I will have to spend more time and understand the situation. Shibu is the CEO and I am there to add value. We will continue to focus on 3.0 strategy and additionally enhance focus on large software application development maintenance, technology infrastructure and remotely manage a company’s IT assets related projects. Ultimately, it is about aligning employees and confronting every challenge with one voice.
On the vacant COO post
The Board will decide through a consultative process to determine if there is a need for it.
On whether his son Rohan Murty will be groomed to take over as CEO
He will be my executive assistant and will be assisted by a team, which we have not yet finalised. However, I would like to clarify that he will have no leadership role and his only job is to make him more effective. When I was requested by the Board to come back, I realised that the quickest and best way to be effective and to add value to the company is by utilising the competencies of a small team of people that I have been interacting with in the last 2-3 years and Rohan happens to be one of them.