About Aananthkumar M: My Bibliology

<a href="http://anandbusybee.blogspot.com/2011/09/my-bibliology.html?spref=bl">About Aananthkumar M: My Bibliology</a>: Hi Friends.. Its me Anand see this world on 3rd December 1986, With my Parents of Mr Nataraj And Mrs Boopathi and Elder Brother to Ms G...

About Aananthkumar M: My Bibliology

About Aananthkumar M: My Bibliology : Hi Friends.. Its me Anand see this world on 3rd December 1986, With my Parents of Mr Nataraj And Mrs B...

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N.R Narayana Murthy Founder-Chairman, Infosys Technologies Limited

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <br /> <div class="soc_profile_img" style="text-align: center;"> <img alt="N.R Narayana Murthy" src="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/profilephotos/Narayana-Murthy.jpg" title="N.R Narayana Murthy" /> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <b><span style="font-size: x-small;">N. R. Narayana Murthy</span></b> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Nagavara Ramarao Narayana Murthybetter known as  N. R. Narayana Murthy, is an Indian businessman and a software engineer. He is the founder and currently the non-executive Chairman and Chief Mentor of Infosys Technologies Limited.</span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">Murthy currently serves<span style="font-size: x-small;"> as an independent director on the boards of DBS Bank, HSBC and Unilever. He also serves on the boards of the Ford Foundation, UN Foundation, Indo-British Partnership, and NDTV.</span></span> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">He is a present member of the Advisory Boards and Councils of the Stanford Graduate School of Business, the Corporate Governance initiative at the Harvard Business School, Indian School of Business, Cornell University committee on academic affairs and committee on alumni affairs and development, Yale University and the University of Tokyo’s President's Council. He is a member of the Board of Directors of INSEAD, Board of Overseers of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Singapore Management University, Board of Trustees and the Board of Advisors for the William F. Achtmeyer Center for Global Leadership at the Tuck School of Business, Asian Institute of Management (AIM), Board of Members of School of Management at Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Asia Business Council and Business Advisory Council of Great Lakes Institute of Management and International Institute of Information Technology - Bangalore.</span></span> </div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">He also serves as a director of the Central Board of the Reserve Bank of India and as Co-Chairman of the Plc. He is a member of the Prime Minister of India's council on trade and industry and is a member of the Asia Advisory Board of the British Telecommunications.</span></span> </div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">In August 2004, TIME magazine’s listed him under “Global Tech Influentials” as one of the ten leaders who are helping shape the future of technology. In November 2006, TIME magazine again voted him as one of the Asian heroes who have brought about revolutionary changes in Asia in the last 60 years.</span></span> </div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img alt="http://www.timescontent.com/tss/photos/preview/209409/NR%20Narayana%20Murthy.jpg" height="150" src="http://www.timescontent.com/tss/photos/preview/209409/NR%20Narayana%20Murthy.jpg" width="195" /></span></span></span></span> </div> <table border="0" style="width: 500px;"> <tbody> <tr> <td><table cellspacing="2" class="infobox biography vcard" style="height: 270px; width: 549px;"> <tbody> <tr> <th colspan="2" style="font-weight: bold; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span class="fn" style="font-size: x-small;">N. R. Narayana Murthy</span></span></div> </th> </tr> <tr> <th scope="row" style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Born</span></span></div> </th> <td><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">August 20, 1946 </span> <span class="noprint" style="font-size: x-small;">(age 64)</span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Shidlaghatta, Kolar, Karnataka, India</span></span></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <th scope="row" style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Alma mater   </i></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span></th> <td><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">University of Mysore</span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">IIT Kanpur</span></span></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <th scope="row" style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Occupation</span></span></div> </th> <td class="role"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Chairman of Infosys Technologies</span></span></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <th scope="row" style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Salary</span></span></div> </th> <td><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">$50,000 USD (Infosys)</span></span></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <th scope="row" style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Net worth</span></span></div> </th> <td><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">$2 billion (2011)</span></span></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <th scope="row" style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Spouse</span></span></div> </th> <td><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Sudha Murthy</span></span></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <th scope="row" style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Children</span></span></div> </th> <td><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">2</span></span></div> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <div style="text-align: justify;">  <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /> </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Born into a Kannada Madhwa Brahmin family in Mysore, India on August 20, 1946, in Sidlaghatta near Muddenahalli (Birth place of Sir M Vishveshwarya), Murthy graduated with a degree in electrical engineering from the National Institute of Engineering, University of Mysore in 1967 after attending government school, and received his master's degree from IIT Kanpur in 1969.</span></span>  </div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">His first position was at IIM Ahmedabad as chief systems programmer where he worked on a time-sharing system and designed and implemented a BASIC interpreter for ECIL (Electronics Corporation of India Limited).</span></span> </div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">After IIM Ahmedabad, he then joined Patni Computer Systems in Pune. Before moving to Mumbai, Murthy met his wife Sudha Murthy in Pune who at the time was an engineer working at Tata Engineering and Locomotive Co. Ltd. (Telco, now known as Tata Motors) in Pune. In 1981, with an investment of Rs.10,000 ($250 at the time) from his wife, he founded Infosys with six other software professionals. He served as chairman of the National Association of Software and Service Companies from 1992 to 1994. Mr. Murthy is the brother-in-law of serial entrepreneur Gururaj "Desh" Deshpande and the uncle of former NASSCOM Chairman and MphasiS chief Jerry Rao.</span></span> </div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <h2 style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="mw-headline" id="Professional_career" style="font-size: x-small;">Professional career</span></span> </h2> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Murthy founded Infosys in 1981 in Pune with an initial capital of US $250, most of which was borrowed from his wife Sudha Murty. At its inception, he invited six other engineers to join the company. Murthy served as the founder CEO of Infosys for 21 years, and was succeeded by co-founder Nandan Nilekani in March 2002. At Infosys he articulated, designed and implemented the Global Delivery Model which has become the foundation for the huge success in IT services outsourcing from India. He also lead the company through several key decisions including its listing on the Indian stock exchange and the listing on NASDAQ,.</span></span> </div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Murthy retired from his executive position at Infosys on 20 August 2006. However, he continues as the Non-Executive Chairman of the board.</span></span> </div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">Murthy started a new venture capital fund called Catamaran Venture Fund with the money he got by selling 800,000 Infosys shares worth 174 Crores. Sudha Murthy does it again by helping him in setting up his VC Fund by giving him Rs.430 crores which she got by selling quarter of her stake 1.6% in Infosys. </span><span class="mw-headline" id="Personal_life" style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img alt="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr04.jpg" height="138" src="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr04.jpg" width="180" /> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img align="left" alt="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr02.jpg" height="138" hspace="4" src="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr02.jpg" width="180" /></span><img align="left" alt="" border="0" height="138" id="ctl00_cphpagemiddle_reparticle_ctl00_imglarge" src="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr03.jpg" style="border-width: 0px;" width="180" /></span></div> <div style="text-align: left;">  <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="mw-headline" id="Personal_life" style="font-size: x-small;">Personal life</span></span></b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="mw-headline" id="Personal_life" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /> </span></span><b><span style="overflow: hidden; text-align: center; width: 550px;">Narayana Murthy with wife Sudha </span></b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="mw-headline" id="Personal_life" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /> </span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">His wife, Sudha Murthy née Kulkarni, is an Indian social worker and accomplished author. She is known for her philanthropic work through the Infosys Foundation. Her sister, Jayashree Despande is wife of enterpreneur and founder of US-based Sycamore Networks, Gururaj Deshpande.<br /> </span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;">Narayanan Murthy saying ’bout his dear wife…</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="150" src="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr06.jpg" title="narayan murthy and sudha murthy" width="195" /></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img align="left" alt="" height="150" src="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr05.jpg" width="195" /></span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">They have two children - Rohan and Akshata. Rohan is engaged to Venu Srinivasan's (of TVS motors) daughter Lakshmi Venu. Akshata Murthy is married to Rishi Sunak.</span></span> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">N R Narayana Murthy is the proud father of an entrepreneur in the making and passionate research student. When he stepped down as executive chairman of Infosys, Akshata Murty (26) and Rohan Murty (22)</span> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img align="left" alt="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr07.jpg" height="150" src="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr07.jpg" vspace="0" width="195" /></span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">It’s Bangalore’s wedding of the year—Akshata Murty, the daughter of Infosys co-founder N.R. Narayana Murthy, and Rishi Sunak, her classmate from Stanford Business School. The Leela Palace was choc-a-block with the nattily turned out venerables. The lavish spread was traditional south Indian amid the coconuts fronds woven with flowers and banana trees that added the perfect touch to the afternoon.<br />   <br /> <br /> </span><br /> <b><span style="font-size: x-small;"> SHARING EXPERIENCE:</span></b><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Chief Mentor of Infosys Technologies N.R. Narayana Murthy and his wife Sudha Murthy, chairperson of Infosys Foundation, with students from Stanford Graduate School of Business on the Infosys campus in Bangalore<span style="font-size: x-small;">.</span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img alt="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr09.jpg" border="0" height="150" src="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr09.jpg" vspace="5" width="195" /></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img align="left" alt="" border="0" height="150" src="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr08.jpg" vspace="5" width="195" /></span></span></div> <h2 style="text-align: justify;">  </h2> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <h2 style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="mw-headline" id="Awards_and_honours" style="font-size: x-small;">Awards and honours</span></span></h2> <br /> <table border="0" style="width: 500px;"> <tbody> <tr> <td><table border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" class="wikitable" style="font-size: 90%;"> <tbody> <tr> <th bgcolor="#dddddd"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">Year</span></div> </th> <th bgcolor="#f2f2f2"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">Name</span></div> </th> <th bgcolor="#e8e8e8"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">Awarding organization</span></div> </th> <th><div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> </th> </tr> <tr> <td bgcolor="#dddddd"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">2010</span></div> </td> <td bgcolor="#f2f2f2"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">IEEE Honorary Membership</span></div> </td> <td bgcolor="#e8e8e8"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.</span></div> </td> <td><div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td bgcolor="#dddddd"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">2010</span></div> </td> <td bgcolor="#f2f2f2"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">Foreign Associate Member</span></div> </td> <td bgcolor="#e8e8e8"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">United States National Academy of Engineering.</span></div> </td> <td><div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td bgcolor="#dddddd"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">2008</span></div> </td> <td bgcolor="#f2f2f2"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">Padma Vibhushan</span></div> </td> <td bgcolor="#e8e8e8"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">President of India.</span></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td bgcolor="#dddddd"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">2008</span></div> </td> <td bgcolor="#f2f2f2"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">Officer of the Legion of Honor</span></div> </td> <td bgcolor="#e8e8e8"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">Government of France.</span></div> </td> <td><div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td bgcolor="#dddddd"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">2007</span></div> </td> <td bgcolor="#f2f2f2"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE)</span></div> </td> <td bgcolor="#e8e8e8"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">Government of United Kingdom.</span></div> </td> <td><div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td bgcolor="#dddddd"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">2007</span></div> </td> <td bgcolor="#f2f2f2"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">IEEE Ernst Weber Engineering Leadership Recognition</span></div> </td> <td bgcolor="#e8e8e8"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.</span></div> </td> <td><div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td bgcolor="#dddddd"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">2003</span></div> </td> <td bgcolor="#f2f2f2"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">Asia's Businessmen of the Year</span></div> </td> <td bgcolor="#e8e8e8"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">Fortune magazine.</span></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td bgcolor="#dddddd"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">2003</span></div> </td> <td bgcolor="#f2f2f2"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">Indo-French Forum Medal</span></div> </td> <td bgcolor="#e8e8e8"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">Indo-French Forum.</span></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td bgcolor="#dddddd"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">2003</span></div> </td> <td bgcolor="#f2f2f2"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">World Entrepreneur of the Year</span></div> </td> <td bgcolor="#e8e8e8"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">Ernst and Young.</span></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td bgcolor="#dddddd"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">2001</span></div> </td> <td bgcolor="#f2f2f2"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">Wharton Business School Dean's Medal</span></div> </td> <td bgcolor="#e8e8e8"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">University of Pennsylvania.</span></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td bgcolor="#dddddd"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">2001</span></div> </td> <td bgcolor="#f2f2f2"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">Max Schmidheiny Liberty Prize</span></div> </td> <td bgcolor="#e8e8e8"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">Switzerland.</span></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td bgcolor="#dddddd"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">2001</span></div> </td> <td bgcolor="#f2f2f2"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">Nikkei Asia Prize</span></div> </td> <td bgcolor="#e8e8e8"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">Nikkei Inc.</span></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td bgcolor="#dddddd"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">2000</span></div> </td> <td bgcolor="#f2f2f2"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">Padma Shri</span></div> </td> <td bgcolor="#e8e8e8"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">President of India.</span></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td bgcolor="#dddddd"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">1998</span></div> </td> <td bgcolor="#f2f2f2"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">Distinguished Alumnus Award</span></div> </td> <td bgcolor="#e8e8e8"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur.</span></div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td bgcolor="#dddddd"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">1996</span></div> </td> <td bgcolor="#f2f2f2"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">JRD Corporate Leadership Award</span></div> </td> <td bgcolor="#e8e8e8"><div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">All India Management Association (AIMA).</span></div> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <div align="justify"> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" style="width: 500px;"> <tbody> <tr> <td style="text-align: left;"><ul><span style="font-size: x-small;"> <ul> <li><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">2006: In May 2006, Narayana Murthy has, for the fifth year running, emerged the most admired business leader of India in a study conducted by Brand-comm, a leading Brand Consulting, Advertising and PR firm</span></span></li> <li><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">2005: In December 2005, Narayana Murthy was voted as the 7th most admired CEO/Chairman in the world in a global study conducted by Burson-Marsteller with the Economist Intelligence Unit . The Economist ranked him 8th among the top 15 most admired global leaders (2005). He was ranked 28th among the world's most-respected business leaders by the Financial Times (2005). He topped the Economic Times Corporate Dossier list of India's most powerful CEOs for two consecutive years – 2004 and 2005.</span></span></li> <li><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">2001: He was named by TIME / CNN as one of the twenty-five, most influential global executives, a group selected for their lasting influence in creating new industries and reshaping markets.</span></span></li> <li><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">1999: BusinessWeek named him one of the nine entrepreneurs of the year and he was also featured in the BusinessWeek's 'The Stars of Asia' (for three successive years - 1998, 1999 and 2000).</span></span></li> </ul> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></ul> <h2 style="text-align: justify;">  </h2> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <h2 style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="mw-headline" id="Books">Books</span></span></span></h2> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <ul><span style="font-size: x-small;"> <ul> <li><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>A Better India, A Better World</i>, Penguin Books, 2009, ISBN 978-0-670-08283-4</span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </li> </ul> </span></ul> </div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <h2 style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="mw-headline" id="Quotes">Quotes</span></span></span></h2> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <ul><span style="font-size: x-small;"> <ul> <li><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">“Our assets walk out of the door each evening. We have to make sure that they come back the next morning.” </span></span></li> <li><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">“Performance leads to recognition. Recognition brings respect. Respect enhances power. Humility and grace in one's moments of power enhances dignity of an organisation,” </span></span></li> <li><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">“The real power of money is the power to give it away.” </span></span></li> <li><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">“In God we trust, everybody else bring data to the table.” s </span></span></li> <li><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">“Progress is often equal to the difference between mind and mindset.” </span></span></li> <li><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">“I want Infosys to be a place where people of different genders, nationalities, races and religious beliefs work together in an environment of intense competition but utmost harmony, courtesy and dignity to add more and more value to our customers day after day.” </span></span></li> <li><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">“A clear conscience is the softest pillow in the world." </span></span></li> <li><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">“When in doubt, disclose."</span></span></li> </ul> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></ul> </div> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </div> <div id="content-container"> <div id="ctl00_PlaceHolderMain_EditModePanel2"> <div class="ExternalClassDE174FE4F8994A408D44AB9B4BC14F4A"> <div class="ExternalClass7691569BE9FA4C32AD9DC7452BBB3139"> <div class="ExternalClass379F78E744504A44AE522D77AF23CCC9"> <div class="ExternalClass6BED1F8B2F6F4586AF70805C57292966"> <div class="ExternalClassE1657B4F61464E5A8F4506AB6755787A"> <div class="ExternalClass3B0F500CEA1E40B393885707E86AEE8E"> <div class="ExternalClass312C5A724AB44B89A7D88401AF40B396"> <div class="ExternalClassAA46302CF43C47AA8D9F3910DAEE42A5"> <h3 style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">N. R. Narayana Murthy</span></span></h3> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Chairman of the Board and Chief Mentor, Infosys Technologies </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img align="LEFT" alt="N. R. Narayana Murthy" border="0" src="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr010.jpg" style="border: 0px solid;" /></span></span></div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">N. R. Narayana Murthy is the Founder-Chairman of Infosys Technologies Limited, a global software consulting company headquartered in Bangalore, India. He founded Infosys in 1981. Under his leadership, Infosys was listed on NASDAQ in 1999.</span></span> </div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Mr. Murthy articulated, designed and implemented the Global Delivery Model which has become the foundation for the huge success in IT services outsourcing from India. He has led key corporate governance initiatives in India. He is an IT advisor to several Asian countries.</span></span> </span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">He serves on the boards of HSBC, Ford Foundation and the UN Foundation. He served as a member of the Unilever board between 2007 and 2010. He also serves on the boards of Cornell University, Wharton School, Singapore Management University, Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore, and INSEAD.</span></span> </div> </span> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The Economist ranked Narayana Murthy among the ten most admired global business leaders in 2005. He topped the Economic Times list of India’s most powerful CEOs for three consecutive years: 2004 to 2006. He has been awarded the Padma Vibhushan by the Government of India, the Legion d’honneur by the Government of France, and the CBE by the British government. He is the first Indian winner of Ernst and Young’s World Entrepreneur of the year award and the Max Schmidheiny Liberty prize, and has appeared in the rankings of businessmen and innovators published by India Today, Business Standard, Forbes, BusinessWeek, Time, CNN, Fortune, and Financial Times. He is a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering and a foreign member of the US National Academy of Engineering.</span></span> </div> </span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">Life lessons from Narayana Murthy</span></span> </b> </div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><img align="left" alt="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr011.jpg" border="0" height="150" hspace="5" longdesc="http://192.168.1.7/wisdom/generation/fckeditor/editor/undefined" src="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr011.jpg" width="195" /><span style="font-size: x-small;">N R Narayana Murthy, chief mentor and chairman of the board, Infosys Technologies, delivered a pre-commencement lecture at the New York University (Stern School of Business) on May 9. It is a scintillating speech, Murthy speaks about the lessons he learnt from his life and career. We present it for our readers:</span></span></div> <br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Dean Cooley, faculty, staff, distinguished guests, and, most importantly, the graduating class of 2007, it is a great privilege to speak at your commencement ceremonies.<br /> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">I thank Dean Cooley and Prof Marti Subrahmanyam for their kind invitation. I am exhilarated to be part of such a joyous occasion. Congratulations to you, the class of 2007, on completing an important milestone in your life journey.</span><span style="font-size: x-small;">After some thought, I have decided to share with you some of my life lessons. I learned these lessons in the context of my early career struggles, a life lived under the influence of sometimes unplanned events which were the crucibles that tempered my character and reshaped my future.</span><br /> <span style="font-size: x-small;">I would like first to share some of these key life events with you, in the hope that these may help you understand my struggles and how chance events and unplanned encounters with influential persons shaped my life and career.<br /> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">Later, I will share the deeper life lessons that I have learned. My sincere hope is that this sharing will help you see your own trials and tribulations for the hidden blessings they can be.<br /> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">The first event occurred when I was a graduate student in Control Theory at IIT, Kanpur, in India.</span></span> </div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">At breakfast on a bright Sunday morning in 1968, I had a chance encounter with a famous computer scientist on sabbatical from a well-known US university.<br /> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">He was discussing exciting new developments in the field of computer science with a large group of students and how such developments would alter our future. He was articulate, passionate and quite convincing. I was hooked. I went straight from breakfast to the library, read four or five papers he had suggested, and left the library determined to study computer science.</span><br /> <span style="font-size: x-small;">Friends, when I look back today at that pivotal meeting, I marvel at how one role model can alter for the better the future of a young student. This experience taught me that valuable advice can sometimes come from an unexpected source, and chance events can sometimes open new doors.<br /> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">The next event that left an indelible mark on me occurred in 1974. The location: Nis, a border town between former Yugoslavia, now Serbia, and Bulgaria. I was hitchhiking from Paris back to Mysore, India, my home town.<br /> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">By the time a kind driver dropped me at Nis railway station at 9 p.m. on a Saturday night, the restaurant was closed. So was the bank the next morning, and I could not eat because I had no local money. I slept on the railway platform until 8.30 pm in the night when the Sofia Express pulled in.<br /> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">The only passengers in my compartment were a girl and a boy. I struck a conversation in French with the young girl. She talked about the travails of living in an iron curtain country, until we were roughly interrupted by some policemen who, I later gathered, were summoned by the young man who thought we were criticising the communist government of Bulgaria.</span></span> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img align="left" alt="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr012.jpg" height="150" src="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr012.jpg" width="195" /></span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;">  <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The girl was led away; my backpack and sleeping bag were confiscated. I was dragged along the platform into a small 8x8 foot room with a cold stone floor and a hole in one corner by way of toilet facilities. I was held in that bitterly cold room without food or water for over 72 hours.<br /> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /> I had lost all hope of ever seeing the outside world again, when the door opened. I was again dragged out unceremoniously, locked up in the guard's compartment on a departing freight train and told that I would be released 20 hours later upon reaching Istanbul. The guard's final words still ring in my ears  --  "You are from a friendly country called India and that is why we are letting you go!"<br /> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /> The journey to Istanbul was lonely, and I was starving. This long, lonely, cold journey forced me to deeply rethink my convictions about Communism. Early on a dark Thursday morning, after being hungry for 108 hours, I was purged of any last vestiges of affinity for the Left.<br /> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /> I concluded that entrepreneurship, resulting in large-scale job creation, was the only viable mechanism for eradicating poverty in societies.<br /> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /> Deep in my heart, I always thank the Bulgarian guards for transforming me from a confused Leftist into a determined, compassionate capitalist! Inevitably, this sequence of events led to the eventual founding of <b>Infosys</b> in 1981.<br /> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">While these first two events were rather fortuitous, the next two, both concerning the Infosys  journey, were more planned and profoundly influenced my career trajectory.<br /> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /> On a chilly Saturday morning in winter 1990, five of the seven founders of Infosys met in our small office in a leafy Bangalore suburb. The decision at hand was the possible sale of Infosys for the enticing sum of $1 million. After nine years of toil in the then business-unfriendly India, we were quite happy at the prospect of seeing at least some money.<br /> <br /> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">I let my younger colleagues talk about their future plans. Discussions about the travails of our journey thus far and our future challenges went on for about four hours. I had not yet spoken a word.<br /> <br /> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">Finally, it was my turn. I spoke about our journey from a small Mumbai apartment in 1981 that had been beset with many challenges, but also of how I believed we were at the darkest hour before the dawn. I then took an audacious step. If they were all bent upon selling the company, I said, I would buy out all my colleagues, though I did not have a cent in my pocket.<br /> <br /> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">There was a stunned silence in the room. My colleagues wondered aloud about my foolhardiness. But I remained silent. However, after an hour of my arguments, my colleagues changed their minds to my way of thinking. I urged them that if we wanted to create a great company, we should be optimistic and confident. They have more than lived up to their promise of that day.<br /> <br /> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">In the seventeen years since that day, Infosys has grown to revenues in excess of $3.0 billion, a net income of more than $800 million and a market capitalisation of more than $28 billion, 28,000 times richer than the offer of $1 million on that day.<br /> <br /> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">In the process, Infosys has created more than 70,000 well-paying jobs, 2,000-plus dollar-millionaires and 20,000-plus rupee millionaires.<br /> <br /> </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img align="left" alt="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr013.jpg" height="150" src="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr013.jpg" width="195" /></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>A final story:</b> On a hot summer morning in 1995, a Fortune-10 corporation had sequestered all their Indian software vendors, including Infosys, in different rooms at the Taj Residency hotel in Bangalore so that the vendors could not communicate with one another. This customer's propensity for tough negotiations was well-known. Our team was very nervous.</span><br /> <br /> <span style="font-size: x-small;">First of all, with revenues of only around $5 million, we were minnows compared to the customer.<br /> <br /> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">Second, this customer contributed fully 25% of our revenues. The loss of this business would potentially devastate our recently-listed company.<br /> </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Third, the customer's negotiation style was very aggressive. The customer team would go from room to room, get the best terms out of each vendor and then pit one vendor against the other. This went on for several rounds. Our various arguments why a fair price  --  one that allowed us to invest in good people, R&D, infrastructure, technology and training -- was actually in their interest failed to cut any ice with the customer.</span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /> <br /> </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">By 5 p.m. on the last day, we had to make a decision right on the spot whether to accept the customer's terms or to walk out.</span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /> </span></span></div> <br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">All eyes were on me as I mulled over the decision. I closed my eyes, and reflected upon our journey until then. Through many a tough call, we had always thought about the long-term interests of Infosys. I communicated clearly to the customer team that we could not accept their terms, since it could well lead us to letting them down later. But I promised a smooth, professional transition to a vendor of customer's choice.<br /> <br /> </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img align="left" alt="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr014.jpg" height="150" src="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr014.jpg" vspace="5" width="195" /></span></span></div> <b><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">This was a turning point for Infosys.</span></span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><br /> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /> Subsequently, we created a Risk Mitigation Council which ensured that we would never again depend too much on any one client, technology, country, application area or key employee. The crisis was a blessing in disguise. Today, Infosys has a sound de-risking strategy that has stabilised its revenues and profits.<br /> I want to share with you, next, the life lessons these events have taught me.</span></span><br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>1. </b>I will begin with the importance of learning from experience. It is less important, I believe, where you start. It is more important how and what you learn. If the quality of the learning is high, the development gradient is steep, and, given time, you can find yourself in a previously unattainable place. I believe the Infosys story is living proof of this.<br /> <br /> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">Learning from experience, however, can be complicated. It can be much more difficult to learn from success than from failure. If we fail, we think carefully about the precise cause. Success can indiscriminately reinforce all our prior actions.</span><br /> <br /> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>2. </b>A second theme concerns the power of chance events. As I think across a wide variety of settings in my life, I am struck by the incredible role played by the interplay of chance events with intentional choices. While the turning points themselves are indeed often fortuitous, how we respond to them is anything but so. It is this very quality of how we respond systematically to chance events that is crucial.</span><br /> <br /> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>3. </b>Of course, the mindset one works with is also quite critical. As recent work by the psychologist, Carol Dweck, has shown, it matters greatly whether one believes in ability as inherent or that it can be developed. Put simply, the former view, a fixed mindset, creates a tendency to avoid challenges, to ignore useful negative feedback and leads such people to plateau early and not achieve their full potential.<br /> <br /> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">The latter view, a growth mindset, leads to a tendency to embrace challenges, to learn from criticism and such people reach ever higher levels of achievement (Krakovsky, 2007: page 48).<br /> <br /> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>4. </b>The fourth theme is a cornerstone of the Indian spiritual tradition: self-knowledge. Indeed, the highest form of knowledge, it is said, is self-knowledge. I believe this greater awareness and knowledge of oneself is what ultimately helps develop a more grounded belief in oneself, courage, determination, and, above all, humility, all qualities which enable one to wear one's success with dignity and grace.<br /> <br /> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">Based on my life experiences, I can assert that it is this belief in learning from experience, a growth mindset, the power of chance events, and self-reflection that have helped me grow to the present.<br /> <br /> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">Back in the 1960s, the odds of my being in front of you today would have been zero. Yet here I stand before you! With every successive step, the odds kept changing in my favour, and it is these life lessons that made all the difference.<br /> <br /> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">My young friends, I would like to end with some words of advice. Do you believe that your future is pre-ordained, and is already set? Or, do you believe that your future is yet to be written and that it will depend upon the sometimes fortuitous events?<br /> <br /> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">Do you believe that these events can provide turning points to which you will respond with your energy and enthusiasm? Do you believe that you will learn from these events and that you will reflect on your setbacks? Do you believe that you will examine your successes with even greater care?</span></span> </div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">I hope you believe that the future will be shaped by several turning points with great learning opportunities. In fact, this is the path I have walked to much advantage.<br /> <br /> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>A final word:</b> When, one day, you have made your mark on the world, remember that, in the ultimate analysis, we are all mere temporary custodians of the wealth we generate, whether it be financial, intellectual, or emotional. The best use of all your wealth is to share it with those less fortunate.</span><br /> <br /> <span style="font-size: x-small;">I believe that we have all at some time eaten the fruit from trees that we did not plant. In the fullness of time, when it is our turn to give, it behooves us in turn to plant gardens that we may never eat the fruit of, which will largely benefit generations to come. I believe this is our sacred responsibility, one that I hope you will shoulder in time.</span><br /> <br /> <span style="font-size: x-small;">Thank you for your patience. Go forth and embrace your future with open arms, and pursue enthusiastically your own life journey of discovery!</span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The amazing Infosys story</span></span></b> </div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img align="left" alt="" border="0" height="150" src="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr015.jpg" vspace="4" width="195" /></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">Members of the Infosys start-up team in the early days. Chairman and Chief Mentor, the iconic N R Narayana Murthy, is seen at far left </span></span></div> <br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">Down memory lane</span></b></span> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">Infosys Technologies is one of the few Indian companies that has changed the way the world looks at India. </span></span> </div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">No longer is India a land of snake charmers and beggars. It is now perceived as an economic giant to reckon with, bursting with brilliant software engineers and ambitious entrepreneurs. And Infosys is an symbol of India's information technology glory. </span></span> </div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">Infosys has many firsts to its name: The first Indian firm to list on Nasdaq; the first to offer stock options to its employees. . . The company crossed $1 billion in revenues for the first time in 2004. TCS, however, was the first Indian IT firm to top $1-bn in revenues. </span></span> </div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">Infosys is an organisation that inspires awe and respect, globally. On July 2, Infosys completed 25 years in existence. This is its amazing success story, illustrated by rare photographs. </span></span> </div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img align="left" alt="" border="0" height="150" src="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr016.jpg" vspace="4" width="195" /></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">Infosys founders (Left to right): Nandan Nilekani, </span><br /> <span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">S Gopalakrishnan, N R Narayana Murthy, K Dinesh, N S Raghavan and S D Shibulal. </span><br /> <span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>How Infosys was born</b></span><br /> <span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">The idea of Infosys was born on a morning in January 1981. That fateful day, N R Narayana Murthy and six software engineers sat in his apartment debating how they could create a company to write software codes. </span><br /> <span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">Six months later, Infosys was registered as a private limited company on July 2, 1981. Infosys co-founder N S Raghavan's house in Matunga, northcentral Mumbai, was its registered office. It was then known as Infosys Consultants Pvt Ltd. </span><br /> <span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>What was the company's starting capital?</b></span><br /> <span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">US $250. Murthy borrowed $250 from his wife Sudha to start the company. The front room of Murthy's home was Infosys' first office, although the registered office was Raghavan's home. </span><br /> <span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Who were Murthy's six friends who joined hands to launch Infosys?</b></span><br /> <span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">Nandan Nilekani, N S Raghavan, S Gopalakrishnan, S D Shibulal, K Dinesh and Ashok Arora. </span><br /> <span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Are all of them still the founding directors?</b> </span><br /> <span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">Murthy is currently chief mentor and chairman while Nilekani is the chief executive officer and managing director. Gopalakrishnan, Shibulal and Dinesh are directors. Raghavan retired as joint managing director in 2000. He is currently the chairman of the advisory council of the N S Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. </span><br /> <span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">Ashok Arora worked for the company till 1988 and left after selling his shares in the then unlisted company back to the other promoters. He moved to the United States where he now works as a consultant. </span></span> </div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><img align="left" alt="" border="0" height="150" src="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr017.jpg" vspace="4" width="195" /><span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">(Left to right) Sudha Murthy, N R Narayana Murthy, Nandan Nilekani and Rohini Nilekani, a journalist at <i>Bombay</i> magazine before their wedding, at a picnic near Bangalore in the early 1980s. </span></span> </div> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">  <span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>'Murthy was always broke'</b></span><span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">'Murthy was always broke. He always owed me money. We used to go for dinner and he would say, 'I don't have money with me, you pay my share, will return it to you later.' For three years, I maintained a book of Murthy's debts to me. No, he never returned the money and I finally tore it up after our wedding. The amount was a little over Rs 4,000.' </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> <span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">An excerpt from Sudha Murthy's reminiscences. She is the wife of Infosys founder N R Narayana Murthy.</span><br /> <span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">Those days, Murthy wanted to do something with his life, but he had no money. Murthy was married to Sudha on February 10, 1978, while he was working with Patni Computers. </span><br /> <span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">In 1981, it was Murthy's idea to start Infosys. Murthy had a dream, and no money. So Sudha gave him Rs 10,000, which she had saved without his knowledge. Murthy and his six colleagues started Infosys in 1981. </span><br /> <span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">No, it was not in Bangalore, but in Pune that Infosys set up its first office, in 1981. The house that Murthy and Sudha bought with a loan became the first Infosys office. As Murthy ran Infosys, Sudha took up a job as a systems analyst with the Walchand Group of Industries to support their household. </span><br /> <span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">In 1983, Infosys moved to Bangalore when it got its first client, Data Basics Corporation from the United States.<br /> </span><span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">The first mini computer arrived at Infosys in 1983. It was a Data General 32-bit MV8000. The very next year Infosys switched from mini to main frames with a CAMP application for a Data Basics customer.  </span><span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img align="left" alt="" border="0" height="150" src="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr018.jpg" vspace="4" width="195" /></span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span></div> <div style="text-align: center;"> <div style="text-align: justify;">  <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;"> Narayana Murthy (middle row, second from left), S D Shibulal (top row, left) and Nandan Nilekani (top row, extreme right, partly hidden) with friends at picnic near Bangalore, early 1980s. </span></span></div> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>A huge struggle, day in and day out</b></span></span> </span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">When they began moving ahead with Infosys, the founders -- Murthy, Nilekani, Shibulal and the others -- took a firm decision -- that their wives would not be involved in the running of the company. </span><br /> <span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">So after Murthy, it was Nilekani and his wife Rohini who moved to Bangalore. But they had no house to stay. So the Nilekanis stayed with the Murthys at their Jayanagar home in Bangalore. </span><br /> <span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">Rohini took care of Murthy's son as Sudha helped write software programmes for Infosys. There was no luxury, only struggle, day and night. They had no car, no phone. Murthy later recalled that it was not the luxuries of life, but the passion to create something new and innovative that made them keep going on and on and on. </span><br /> <span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">Despite the struggles, the Murthys, the Nilekanis and the other partners took time out for picnics in Bangalore. </span></span> </div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img align="left" alt="" border="0" height="150" src="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr019.jpg" vspace="4" width="195" /><span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">T</span><span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">he Murthys' Jayanagar house in Bangalore, where Nandan Nilekani and his wife stayed after they moved to the city to pursue their dream: Infosy</span></span>s </div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>The crisis, and how Infosys began to grow</b></span><br /> <span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">The first years of Infosys were not smooth. Most of the founders -- Murthy, Nilekani, Dinesh, Shibulal and Gopalkrishnan -- were into writing codes. And they wanted to make an impact in the American market. </span><br /> <span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">So Infosys got its first joint venture partners in Kurt Salmon Associates. Gopalakrishnan, who had spent time working in the United States, was the public face of the KSA-Infosys venture in America. But the joint venture collapsed in 1989, leaving Infosys in the lurch. </span><br /> <span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">Gopalakrishnan relives the memories of those days. "We had nothing after eight years of trying to bring up a company. Those who studied with us had cars and houses," he says. </span><br /> <span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">The collapse of the KSA joint venture led Infosys to its first crisis. The company was on the verge of collapse. One of the founder-partners -- Ashok Arora -- was dejected with the way the company was going, and decided to quit. </span><br /> <span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">The others did not know what to do. But Murthy had the courage of conviction. 'If you all want to leave, you can. But I am going to stick (<i>with it</i>) and make it,' Murthy told them. </span><br /> <span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">The other partners -- Nilekani, Gopalakrishnan, Shibulal, Dinesh and Raghavan -- decided to stay. </span><br /> <br /> <span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">And thus began to germinate the seeds of Infosys' enormous growth. </span></span> </div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img align="left" alt="" border="0" height="150" src="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr020.jpg" vspace="4" width="195" /></span></span></div> <div style="text-align: center;"> <div style="text-align: justify;">  <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">N R Narayana Murthy in New York to sign an agreement with American Express. </span></span></div> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>The Nasdaq listing</b></span><br /> <span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">It is said that Infosys began getting big breakthroughs from the US market. </span><br /> <span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">How? The initial foray of Infosys into the US market was through a company called Data Basics Corp as a 'body-shop' or on-site developer of software for US customers. Later, Infosys formed a joint venture with Kurt Salmon Associates to handle marketing in the United States. </span><br /> <span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">Even today, Infosys derives about two-thirds of its revenue from the United States, serving corporate clients like Reebok, Visa, Boeing, Cisco Systems, Nordstrom and New York Life. </span><br /> <span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">Infosys is the largest publicly traded IT services exporter in India, providing services to 315 large corporations, such as GE and Nortel, predominantly in the USA. </span><br /> <span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">It was the first Indian company to list on the Nasdaq stock exchange in 1999. </span><br /> <span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">And the other Infosys group companies? </span></span> </div> <div align="justify"> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <ol><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><ul><span style="font-size: x-small;"> <ul> <li><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">Progeon Ltd: The Infosys BPO arm.</span></span></li> <li><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">Infosys Technologies (Shanghai) Company Limited: The company's base in China.</span></span></li> <li><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">Infosys Australia Pty Ltd: Infosys' Australian venture.</span></span></li> <li><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">Infosys Consulting Inc: The company's foray into the consulting business.</span></span></li> </ul> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></ul> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></ol> </div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img align="left" alt="" border="0" height="150" src="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr021.jpg" vspace="4" width="195" /></span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: center;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify">  <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">The early Infosys team brainstorming at Murthy's home in Bangalore, early 1980s. </span></span></div> </div> <div style="text-align: left;"> <div align="justify">  <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">Now, it's a global IT giant!</span></span> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span> </div> </div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">Today, Infosys provides consulting and IT services to clients globally. </span><br /> <span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">It uses a low-risk, global delivery model to accelerate schedules with a high degree of time and cost predictability. The company has over 53,000 employees worldwide. </span><br /> <span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">The Infosys corporate headquarters is located in Bangalore. Its US headquarters is in Fremont, California. </span><br /> <span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">Infosys has office across the globe: Atlanta, Bangalore, Beijing, Bellevue, Bridgewater, Bhubaneswar, Brussels, Charlotte, Chennai, Detroit, Frankfurt, Fremont, Hong Kong, Hyderabad, Lake Forest, Lisle, London, Mangalore, Mauritius, Melbourne, Milano, Mohali, Mumbai, Mysore, New Delhi, Paris, Phoenix, Plano, Pune, Quincy, Reston, Shanghai, Sharjah, Stockholm, Stuttgart, Sydney, Thiruvananthapuram, Tokyo, Toronto, Utrecht, Zurich. </span></span> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img align="left" alt="" border="0" height="150" src="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr022.jpg" width="195" /></span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: center;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify">  <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">CEO Nandan Nilekani spent a lot of his time writing software code in the company's early days. </span></span> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span> </div> </div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>25 years sheer determination, and growth</b></span><br /> <span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">In the last 25 years, Infosys has been growing and growing. </span><br /> <span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">Today, Infosys is India's second largest software exporter. It now enjoys a strong liquidity position with over Rs 6,000 crore (Rs 60 billion) in assets, including surplus cash. </span><br /> <span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">During 2005-2006, the Infosys internal cash accruals more adequately covered working capital requirements, capital expenditure and dividend payments leaving a surplus of Rs 1,612 crore (Rs 16.12 billion). </span><br /> <span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">As on March 2006, the company had liquid assets including investments in liquid mutual funds of Rs 4,463 crore (Rs 44.63 billion). This collectively makes the liquidity strength of Infosys at Rs 6,078 crore (Rs 60.78 billion). </span><br /> <span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Where are these funds parked?</b></span><br /> <span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">These funds have been deposited with banks, highly rated financial institutions and in liquid mutual funds. Infosys last year derived an average yield of 4.48 per cent (tax free) from these investments. </span><br /> <span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">The company received Rs 647 crore (Rs 6.47 billion) on exercise of stock options by employees and cash equivalents including liquid mutual funds increased by Rs 1,612 crore during 2005-06. </span></span></div> <br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></div> <table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(201, 228, 255); border: 1pt solid windowtext; margin-left: 0.75pt;"> <tbody> <tr style="height: 15pt;"> <td colspan="2" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(0, 51, 102); border: 1pt solid windowtext; height: 15pt; padding: 0in;"><div align="center"> <br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <b><span style="color: white; font-size: x-small;">Key milestones</span></b><br /> </span></div> </td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;"> <td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; height: 15pt; padding: 0in; width: 211.8pt;" valign="top" width="282"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Year of Incorporation : </span></span></td> <td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; height: 15pt; padding: 0in; width: 38.25pt;" valign="top" width="51"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">1981 </span></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;"> <td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; height: 15pt; padding: 0in;" valign="top"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Became a public limited company in India : </span></span></td> <td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; height: 15pt; padding: 0in;" valign="top"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">1992 </span></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;"> <td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; height: 15pt; padding: 0in;" valign="top"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">ISO 9001/TickIT Certification : </span></span></td> <td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; height: 15pt; padding: 0in;" valign="top"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">1993 </span></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;"> <td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; height: 15pt; padding: 0in;" valign="top"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Attained SEI-CMM Level 4 : </span></span></td> <td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; height: 15pt; padding: 0in;" valign="top"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">1997 </span></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;"> <td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; height: 15pt; padding: 0in;" valign="top"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Listed on NASDAQ : </span></span></td> <td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; height: 15pt; padding: 0in;" valign="top"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">1999 </span></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;"> <td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; height: 15pt; padding: 0in;" valign="top"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Crossed $100 million in annual revenues : </span></span></td> <td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; height: 15pt; padding: 0in;" valign="top"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">1999 </span></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;"> <td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; height: 15pt; padding: 0in;" valign="top"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Attained SEI-CMM Level 5 : </span></span></td> <td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; height: 15pt; padding: 0in;" valign="top"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">1999 </span></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;"> <td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; height: 15pt; padding: 0in;" valign="top"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Crossed $400 million in revenues : </span></span></td> <td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; height: 15pt; padding: 0in;" valign="top"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">2001 </span></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;"> <td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; height: 15pt; padding: 0in;" valign="top"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Crossed $ half a billion in revenues : </span></span></td> <td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; height: 15pt; padding: 0in;" valign="top"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">2002 </span></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;"> <td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; height: 15pt; padding: 0in;" valign="top"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Crossed $ billion in revenues : </span></span></td> <td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; height: 15pt; padding: 0in;" valign="top"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">2004 </span></span></td> </tr> <tr style="height: 15pt;"> <td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; height: 15pt; padding: 0in;" valign="top"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Crossed $ 2 billion in revenues :</span></span></td> <td style="border: 1pt solid windowtext; height: 15pt; padding: 0in;" valign="top"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">2006 </span></span></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span> <br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>The fantastic Infosys campus</b></span></span></div> <br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img align="left" alt="" border="0" height="150" src="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr023.jpg" width="195" /></span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: center;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="f12a"> </span><span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">The Infosys campus in Bangalore. <br /> </span></span></b></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span></div> <div style="text-align: center;"> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">The sprawling Infosys campus in Bangalore is the symbol of India's infotech growth.</span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">It is a campus where a company's beliefs are unique: </span></span> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <ol><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><ul><span style="font-size: x-small;"> <ul> <li><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">'We want to create wealth legally and ethically.'</span></span></li> <li><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">'We believe a good night's sleep is worth a billion dollars.'</span></span></li> <li><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">'A small percentage of a growing pie is better than a large part of a shrinking pie.'</span></span></li> </ul> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></ul> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></ol> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify">  <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;">These are the tenets that have helped India's largest software company grow into a well respected organisation. </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span> </div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify">  <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb2">I<b>nfosys Technologies Ltd</b> is, arguably, the brightest gem in corporate India's crown. An IT giant, having crossed the billion-dollar revenue mark on April 13, 2004, the company now rubs shoulders with the world's biggest and the best. Let us take a look at its development centres at Bangalore and Mysore </span></span></span> </div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb2">From 'Best Corporate House' to 'Best Employer,' the software major has won hundreds of accolades during its 23-year-old existence. </span></span></span></div> <br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb2">Recently, the American Society for Training and Development has rated Indian IT major Infosys Technologies Ltd as the world's best in employee training and development. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb2">Infosys provides consulting and IT services to clients globally from its impressive development centres in Bangalore and Mysore. </span></span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb2"><b>Let us take a virtual tour of the campuses…</b> </span></span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb2"><i>(Above) The Corporate Block-- also called the Customer Care Center -- at the Bangalore development centre, houses 8 conference rooms for the use of customers. The ground floor has a large conference room with the capacity to seat a 100 people, and the largest video wall in Asia. It also houses an experience theatre, which explains the history of software, talks about the Infosys story and what customers think about working with Infosys. </i> </span></span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="f12a" style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img align="left" alt="" border="0" hspace="0" src="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr024.jpg" style="height: 150px; margin: 0pt 10px 0pt 0pt; width: 195px;" vspace="0" /></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb2">Infosys uses a low-risk global delivery model to accelerate schedules with a high degree of time and cost predictability.</span></span></span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb2">The company's headquarters are in Bangalore, but its footprints can be found across the globe: Fremont, California (the US headquarters), Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, the Netherlands, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and United Arab Emirates. </span></span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> <span class="sb3" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb2"><i>A view of the Education & Research block, 1,15,000 sq. ft. in size includes a library of 30,000 sq. ft; class rooms to seat 200 people at one time and labs to seat 150 people. This entire complex can train 1000 software engineers at a given time. Once again this is reputedly the single largest location training / education center for a software services company, in the world. </i> </span></span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span></div> <div style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img align="left" alt="" height="150" src="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr025.jpg" style="color: black; margin: 0pt 10px 0pt 0pt;" width="195" /></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><span style="font-size: larger;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> </span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3"><span class="sb2">N R Narayana Murthy is the founder, Chairman and Chief Mentor of Infosys, while Nandan M Nilekani is the company's Managing Director, President and CEO. </span></span></span></span></span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span></span></div> <div style="color: black;"> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-size: larger;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span></span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: larger;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><br /></span></span></div> <span style="font-size: larger;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify">  <span class="sb3"><span class="sb2">Infosys already has almost 28,000 employees worldwide and it plans to hire another 10,000 more during this fiscal year. </span></span></div> </span></span></span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span></span></div> <div style="color: black;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span class="sb3"><span class="sb2">Most of the strategies of the company are finalised at its development centre in Bangalore. </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3" style="font-size: small;"><span class="sb2"><i> </i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>The room, at the Bangalore development centre, where the Infosys brains conceptualise their global strategies.</i></span></span></span><img align="left" alt="" border="0" hspace="0" src="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr026.jpg" style="color: black; height: 150px; margin: 0pt 10px 0pt 0pt; width: 195px;" vspace="0" /></span></span></div> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3">These are some of the milestones in Infosys journey:<br /> </span> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <table align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" style="width: 500px;"> <tbody> <tr> <td><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><br /> <ul><span style="font-size: x-small;"> <li><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span class="sb3">Incorporated in 1981</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3" style="color: white;"><br /> </span> </span></span></li> <li><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="color: black;"><span class="sb3">Went public in India in 1992</span></span></span></li> <li><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="color: black;"><span class="sb3">Attained SEI-CMM Level 4 in 1997</span></span></span></li> <li><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="color: black;"><span class="sb3">Listed on the Nasdaq in 1999</span></span></span></li> <li><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="color: black;"><span class="sb3">Crossed $100 million in annual revenues in 1999</span></span></span></li> <li><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="color: black;"><span class="sb3">Attained SEI-CMM Level 5 in 1999</span></span></span></li> <li><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="color: black;"><span class="sb3">Crossed $0.5 billion in revenues in 2002</span></span></span></li> <li><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="color: black;"><span class="sb3">Crossed $1 billion in revenues in 2004 </span></span></span></li> </span></ul> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3"><span class="sb2"><i>The swimming pool at Infosys's development centre in Bangalore.</i></span></span></span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img align="left" alt="" border="0" hspace="0" src="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr027.jpg" style="height: 150px; margin: 0pt 10px 0pt 0pt; width: 195px;" vspace="0" /></span></span></div> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="right" style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3"> </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <br /> <div style="text-align: left;"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3" style="color: white;"> <span class="sb2"> </span></span><span class="sb3"><span class="sb2">Infosys is one of the 8 Indian companies to figure among the top 1,000 companies listed by <i>BusinessWeek</i> magazine. Infosys is ranked 727th with a market capitalization of $7.61 billion).</span></span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3" style="color: white;"><span class="sb2"> </span></span></span></div> <br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3"><span class="sb2"><i>The lobby of Infosys's development centre in Mysore.</i> </span></span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img align="left" alt="" border="0" hspace="0" src="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr028.jpg" style="color: black; height: 150px; margin: 0pt 10px 0pt 0pt; width: 195px;" vspace="0" /></span> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="right" style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3"> </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3" style="color: white;"> <span class="sb2"> </span></span><span class="sb3"><span class="sb2">The software major posted a net profit of Rs 394.47 crore (Rs 3.944 billion) for the quarter ended June 30, 2004 as compared to Rs 278.12 crore (Rs 2.781 billion) for the first quarter ended June 30, 2003. </span></span></span></div> <br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3"><span class="sb2">The company's total income increased from Rs 1,114. 42 crore (Rs 11.144 billion) in the Q1 2003 to Rs 1,489.38 crore (Rs 14.893 billion) in the quarter ended June 30, 2004. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><br /> <br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3"><span class="sb2"><i>A view of Infosys's Mysore development centre.</i></span></span></span></div> </div> <div style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> <img align="left" alt="" border="0" hspace="0" src="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr029.jpg" style="height: 150px; margin: 0pt 10px 0pt 0pt; width: 195px;" vspace="0" /></span></span></div> </div> <div style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="right" style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3"> </span></span></div> <br /> <div style="text-align: left;"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3" style="color: white;"> <span class="sb2"> </span></span><span class="sb3"><span class="sb2">Infosys is second, after Tata Consultancy Services, among the Top 20 IT Software and Service exporters in India, according to the National Association of Software and Services Companies. </span></span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3"><span class="sb2">Wipro, Satyam, HCL Technologies, Patni Computer Systems, iFlex Solutions, Mahindra British Telecom, Polaris Software and Digital Globalsoft Ltd, make up the top 10. </span></span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3" style="color: white;"><span class="sb2" style="color: white;"><i><span style="color: black;"> The oldest building on its Bangalore campus, Infosys's 'Heritage Building' sports a distinctly different feel and architecture. Completed in 1994, spread over 5 acres of land it has a built up area of </span></i></span></span><span class="sb3" style="color: white;"><span class="sb2" style="color: white;"><i><span style="color: black;">150,000 sq. ft.</span></i></span></span></span></div> <br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img align="left" alt="" border="0" height="150" hspace="0" src="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr030.jpg" style="margin: 0pt 10px 0pt 0pt;" vspace="0" width="195" /></span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3" style="color: white;"> <span class="sb2"> </span></span><span class="sb3"><span class="sb2">The company has launched a 'campus connect' campaign which aims at improving the quality of graduates from engineering colleges in the country to coincide with IT industry requirements. </span></span></span></div> <br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3"><span class="sb2">Infosys has committed Rs 10 crore (Rs 100 million) for Campus Connect in the first phase for training students, faculty and providing industry inputs into the curricula for 30 engineering colleges across the country. </span></span></span></div> <br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><i>The Food Court at the Bangalore centre is an hyperbolic parabola, designed on the lines of the Sydney Harbor Opera House. Around 4000 quadratic equations were crunched to get the structure right. It houses three food courts and a gymnasium, a clothing store, a bank and other facilities for the employees. </i></span><br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3"><span class="sb2"> </span></span></span></div> <br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><br /> <br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br />  <span style="font-size: x-small;"><img align="left" alt="" border="0" height="150" hspace="0" src="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr031.jpg" style="margin: 0pt 10px 0pt 0pt;" vspace="0" width="195" /></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3"><span class="sb2">Infosys chief N R Narayana Murthy feels that the infrastructure problems plaguing Bangalore can be solved through a government-industry partnership. </span></span></span><br /> <br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3"><span class="sb2">His comments follow Wipro Chairman Azim Premji's hint that Wipro may move out of the city due to its bad infrastructure. </span></span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3"><span class="sb2">Murthy admits that the Bangalore's roads and traffic are bad and need to be addressed soon, but says: "A couple of years ago, it took three hours to reach the Electronic City from the city. Then, the government and industry solved the problem." </span></span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3"><span class="sb2"><i> The Infosys gym at its Bangalore centre is one of Asia's largest where most of the Infosys employees work out after office hours and on weekends. Other facilities include pool / snooker tables and dartboards apart from a swimming pool, a sauna and a Jacuzzi. Infosys is a fun place to work in. </i></span></span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img align="left" alt="" border="0" height="150" hspace="0" src="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr032.jpg" style="margin: 0pt 10px 0pt 0pt;" vspace="0" width="195" /></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3"><span class="sb2">Infosys set up a centre in the Bhavani block of the Technopark campus in Thiruvanthapuram in Kerala in 2003. </span></span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3"><span class="sb2">Besides its Bangalore and Mysore centres, the company also has development centres at Mangalore, Mohai, Pune, Hyderabad, Bhubaneswar in India. </span></span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3"><span class="sb2"><i>The company store, where Infosys employees get a variety of Infosys-branded merchandise. An outlet of Indus League, the store stocks clothes of the Indigo Nation and Scullers lines, as well as select products from Microsoft. This one is at the Bangalore development centre.</i></span></span></span></span><span class="sb3" style="color: white;"><span class="sb3" style="color: white;"><b>></b></span>  </span></span></div> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3"><span class="sb2"><span class="sb2"><b> </b></span></span></span><img align="left" alt="" border="0" height="254" hspace="0" src="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr033.jpg" style="margin: 15px 10px 10px 0pt;" vspace="0" width="190" /></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3"><span class="sb2"><span class="sb2"><b>A $1-BILLION GIANT:</b> On April 13, Infosys Technologies Ltd, India's information technology services giant, touched $1 billion in annual revenues for the first time. </span></span></span></span></div> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3"><span class="sb2"><span class="sb2">Which meant it was time to party. To celebrate the landmark achievement, Infosys had a huge bash on its campus. </span></span></span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3"><span class="sb2"><span class="sb2">It was an evening of fun and dance and a time to reiterate the feeling of being just the second Indian IT services company to do so (since then, Wipro too has joined the elite billion-dollar club). </span></span></span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3"><span class="sb2"><span class="sb2">Last year, the Mumbai-based Tata Consultancy Services announced that it had touched the billion-dollar mark in revenues. </span></span></span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3"><span class="sb2"><span class="sb2">Infosys's revenues of $1.06 billion came at a 31 per cent growth over the previous year, while profits rose to $285 million, an increase of 30 per cent. </span></span></span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3"><span class="sb2"><span class="sb2"> "Today, we have the required size, brand, compelling value proposition and ambition to build the next generation software services and consulting company," declared Infosys COO S Gopalakrishnan proudly while announcing the results. </span></span></span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img align="left" alt="" border="0" height="150" hspace="0" src="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr034.jpg" style="margin: 15px 10px 10px 0pt;" vspace="0" width="195" /></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="right" style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3"><br /> </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3"><span class="sb2"> </span></span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3"><span class="sb2"><span class="sb2"><b>A BASH TO REMEMBER:</b> Infosys pulled out all the stops to make sure this would be a party to remember. </span></span></span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3"><span class="sb2"><span class="sb2">The invite -- in shades of yellow, asking the recipient to join the 'Billion Dollar Day' celebration -- went out to not just employees, but also customers, shareholders, ex-Infoscions, corporate leaders and the media. </span></span></span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3"><span class="sb2"><span class="sb2">A special moment was also planned as Infosys's very first international customer, Donn Liles, President of Data Basics Corp also joined the celebrations. </span></span></span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3" style="color: white;"><span class="sb2" style="color: black;"><span class="sb2" style="color: white;"><span style="color: black;">Although singing sensation Enrique Iglesias was also in town, Infoscions preferred to spend the evening listening to Bollywood playback singer Kumar Sanu (left) and Alka Yagnik</span> (n</span></span></span></span></div> <br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">  <img alt="" border="0" height="3" hspace="0" src="http://im.rediff.com/uim/common/trans.gif" vspace="0" width="1" /></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img align="left" alt="" border="0" height="150" hspace="0" src="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr035.jpg" style="margin: 15px 10px 10px 0pt;" vspace="0" width="195" /> <img alt="" border="0" height="5" hspace="0" src="http://im.rediff.com/uim/common/trans.gif" vspace="0" width="1" /></span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3"><span class="sb2"> </span></span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3"><span class="sb2"><span class="sb2"><b>INFY'S HAPPY, AND GROWING, TRIBE:</b> Infosys has over 25,634 employees today. Many turned up in T-shirts in the colour of the company -- light blue -- to celebrate. </span></span></span></span></span> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3"><span class="sb2"><span class="sb2">They had every reason to. Apart from the company's milestone, Infosys made sure that its employees too were rewarded. </span></span></span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3"><span class="sb2"><span class="sb2">The company decided to give a one-time bonus of $1,000 to each employee along with a specially designed Titan watch, which shows world time and a T-shirt with a billion-dollar-mark logo. </span></span></span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3"><span class="sb2"><span class="sb2">Last year alone, Infosys added 11,900 employees, and the average age of an employee at Infosys is 26. Analysts say that they are confident that Infosys can manage its growing flock. </span></span></span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3"><span class="sb2"><span class="sb2"> "The business model and the management are capable of handling these issues. Infosys has proven that it can handle large-scale employee training and retention issues," says an analyst with a Mumbai-based equity research firm. </span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img align="left" alt="" border="0" height="150" hspace="0" src="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr036.jpg" style="margin: 15px 10px 10px 0pt;" vspace="0" width="195" /> <img alt="" border="0" height="5" hspace="0" src="http://im.rediff.com/uim/common/trans.gif" vspace="0" width="1" /></span> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3"><span class="sb2"> </span></span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3"><span class="sb2"><span class="sb2"><b>THE MEN WHO DARED TO DREAM:</b> Infosys is run by a rather close-knit team whose most public face is co-founder and chairman of the company, N R Narayana Murthy. </span></span></span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3"><span class="sb2"><span class="sb2">The Infosys legend is by now well known. Murthy and five others, who worked together at Patni Computers in Pune, decided to form Infosys in 1981. </span></span></span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3"><span class="sb2"><span class="sb2">Each member of the team brings a specific and rather diverse skill set to the company. S Gopalakrishnan, the deputy managing director and the chief operating officer, is seen as the technical brain, while Murthy is the strategist and the public face of the company. </span></span></span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3"><span class="sb2"><span class="sb2">Nandan Nilekani is the managing director and chief executive officer and in the last three years has been groomed by Murthy to become the public face of the company. </span></span></span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3"><span class="sb2"><span class="sb2">Another key member is T V Mohandas Pai who is the director of finance and administration and chief financial officer of Infosys. He joined Infosys in 1994 and was a member of the committee which formulated and instituted the guidelines for the employee stock option plan for the first time in India. </span></span></span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3"><span class="sb2"><span class="sb2">Infosys's strong management team is seen as its biggest strength. Analysts say it is the reason why the company has been able to stay ahead of its peers and grow consistently. </span></span></span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img alt="" border="0" height="3" hspace="0" src="http://im.rediff.com/uim/common/trans.gif" vspace="0" width="1" /><br /> <img align="left" alt="" border="0" height="150" hspace="0" src="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr037.jpg" style="margin: 15px 10px 10px 0pt;" vspace="0" width="195" /> <img alt="" border="0" height="5" hspace="0" src="http://im.rediff.com/uim/common/trans.gif" vspace="0" width="1" /></span></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="right" style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> </div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3"><span class="sb2"><span class="sb2"><b>YOU AIN'T SEEN NOTHIN' YET:</b> Clearly, Infosys is on a roll </span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3"><span class="sb2"><span class="sb2">In its guidance for the forthcoming fiscal, Infosys has forecast that revenues would rise 30-31 per cent and earnings by around 27 per cent. <br /> </span></span></span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify" style="color: black;"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify" style="color: black;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3"><span class="sb2"><span class="sb2">The aggressive forecast, say analysts, is a sign that the company is not deterred by the recent protests against outsourcing that have swept the United States and that its growth cannot be rolled back by market disruptions. </span></span></span></span></div> <br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify" style="color: black;"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify" style="color: black;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3"><span class="sb2"><span class="sb2">Infosys expects growth in the future to come from not just scaling the existing business, but also nurturing the business process outsourcing subsidiary of the company, Progeon, apart from the newly set up US arm, Infosys Consulting. </span></span></span></span></div> <br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify" style="color: black;"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify" style="color: black;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3"><span class="sb2"><span class="sb2"> "Infosys is becoming a monolith, a juggernaut. There's nothing that can possibly go wrong for it in the future. Last fiscal year was the toughest to get through and if they got through that so well, they can get through anything. There is no void or flaws in their revenue model for anyone to pick into," says R Ravi, an analyst with IDBI Capital. </span></span></span></span></div> <br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify" style="color: black;"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify" style="color: black;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="sb3"><span class="sb2"><span class="sb2"> </span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="f22" style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Narayana Murthy's dream for the future</b></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /> </span></span></div> <br /> <div align="justify" style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></div> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span class="f12" style="font-size: x-small;"><img align="left" alt="" border="0" src="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr038.jpg" /></span></span></span><br /> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><br />  <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><br /> <br /> <div align="justify">  <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="f12">India's software giant Infosys </span>Technologies Limited has entered its 25^th year of existence. In these 25 years, the company has scaled many a peak, making the nation proud of it.<br /> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">N R Narayana Murthy, Chairman, Infosys </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">, however, has plans to turn the company into a bigger, stronger, and global player.</span><br /> <span style="font-size: x-small;">At an analysts' meet, held to mark the silver jubilee celebrations of Infosys in Hyderabad, Murthy spoke about his future for the company.</span><br /> <span style="font-size: x-small;">Here's the speech that he delivered.</span></span></div> <br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">We start our 25^th year celebrations today. It is indeed laudable that we have run this marathon so far. Several happy thoughts come to my mind as I stand here. But, the most important one is our meeting in January 1981.</span><br /> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><br /> How Infosys began</b></span><br /> <span style="font-size: x-small;">It was a wintry morning in January 1981 when seven of us sat in my apartment, and created Infosys. We had lots of hope, confidence, commitment, energy, enthusiasm, hard work, passion and a sense of sacrifice.</span><br /> <span style="font-size: x-small;">We were short of one thing, money. We managed to put together just $250 in seed capital.</span><br /> <span style="font-size: x-small;">We never dreamt about size, revenues and profits. Our dream, right from day one, was to build a corporation that was, above all things, respected.</span><br /> <span style="font-size: x-small;">From the beginning, our team was unique in our commitment to a strong value system. We believed in putting the interest of the company ahead of our own interest. We believed in legal and ethical business.</span><br /> <span style="font-size: x-small;">We believed in respect and long-term gratification. And each of us brought complementary strengths to the company.</span><br /> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><br /> 'Entrepreneurship is a marathon'</b></span><br /> <span style="font-size: x-small;">To me, entrepreneurship is a marathon. I believe that the key to a successful corporation is longevity � my heroes are companies like IBM, Levers, and GE. These firms have shown growth in earnings quarter after quarter, for a long time.</span><br /> <span style="font-size: x-small;">Infosys itself has seen consistent growth in revenue and profitability for over 49 quarters, since it got listed in India. We have institutionalized performance and accountability in our systems and processes, and through the empowerment of our employees. Let me talk about some of the generic lessons we have learnt.</span><br /> <span style="font-size: x-small;">The name of the game is: predictability of revenues; sustainability of the prediction; profitability; and a good de-risking model. Measurement is key to improvement.</span><br /> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><br /> Value system</b></span><br /> <span style="font-size: x-small;">A sound value system is what differentiates long-term players from others. Putting the corporation's interest ahead of personal interest will advance personal goals in the long term.</span><br /> <span style="font-size: x-small;">No single person is indispensable. It is important that you give challenging engagements to deserving people, whether they are young or new in the organization. Youth and empowerment are the keys to scalability and longevity.</span><br /> <span style="font-size: x-small;">Every situation is what you make it to be. Confidence is half the battle, and leadership is making the impossible look possible. Speed, imagination and excellence in execution are the only three context-invariant and time-invariant attributes for success.</span><br /> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><br /> Trust of employees, investors</b></span><br /> <span style="font-size: x-small;">The trust of employees is the most important ingredient for successful leadership. To gain the trust of people, there is no more powerful leadership style than leadership by example. The world respects performance and action, not rhetoric.</span><br /> <span style="font-size: x-small;">It is better to obsolete our own innovations, rather than allowing our competitors to do it. A healthy sense of paranoia and respect for competition is an absolute must for success. It prevents complacency, and ensures that the organization is learning continuously. The ultimate test for customer satisfaction is making our customer look good in front of his / her customer.</span><br /> <span style="font-size: x-small;">I have realized that if you want to look smarter, you must surround yourself with people smarter than you. Everybody needs incentives to perform. Money is not the only motivator; respect, dignity, fairness and inclusiveness are essential to get the best out of employees. Every employee must feel an inch taller when talking about the company.</span><br /> <span style="font-size: x-small;">Being transaction-oriented in every decision avoids groupism. An emphasis on meritocracy and data-orientation enhances the confidence of employees in the fairness of the corporation. We believe in the adage, In God we trust, everybody else brings data to the table.</span><br /> <span style="font-size: x-small;">To retain the trust of your investors, it is better to under promise and over-deliver. Investors understand that every business will have ups and downs, and want us to level with them at all times. They want us give them bad news pro-actively and as early as possible. Therefore, When in doubt, disclose.</span><br /> <span style="font-size: x-small;">We have realized that we should never take any decision with the stock price in mind. The day we do this, we will ruin the company. Finally, we have realized that we can shortchange investors if we want to make Rs 1 crore (Rs 10 million), but if we want to make Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion), we have to play the game straight and honest.</span><br /> <span style="font-size: x-small;">We have realized that longevity requires that we follow every law of the land, even if we do not agree with it. We should work hard to change laws that hurt the progress of the corporation.</span><br /> <span style="font-size: x-small;">Unless we make a difference to the society and earn their trust, we cannot be long-term players. Therefore, in everything we do, we must ask ourselves whether we are adding value to the society around us, regardless of where we are -- US or India.</span><br /> <img align="left" alt="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr038.jpg" height="150" src="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr038.jpg" width="195" /><span style="font-size: x-small;"> <br /> </span></span></div> <br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>'What I want Infosys to achieve in 25 years'</b></span><br /> <span style="font-size: x-small;">What do I want to see this company achieve in the next 25 years? I want this to be a place where people of different races, nationalities and religious beliefs work together, in an environment of intense competition but utmost courtesy and dignity, to add greater and greater value to our customers, day after day. Just like we have received respect in India, I want Infosys to be the most respected company in every country that it operates.</span><br /> <span style="font-size: x-small;">But, to achieve these dreams, we have to be in existence over the next 250 years. I know we can do this for the following reasons: </span></span></div> <br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">We have an extraordinary leader in Nandan (Nandan Nilekani, Infosys CEO), a man of great vision, values and dynamism. He is ably supported by the best management team and professionals in the industry.</span></span></div> <br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <ul><span style="font-size: x-small;"> <ul> <li><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">We have a depth of leaders within the organisation, with over 500 leaders being part of our leadership training and mentoring programme.</span></span></li> <li><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The de-risking strategy at Infosys ensures that there is a backup for every position, and that decision-making is participatory across the company. In other words, it is not one person, but a team that looks at every decision. Thus, at Infosys, it is the leadership of ideas and meritocracy that drives every decision.</span></span></li> <li><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Every decision is supported by a strong portfolio of systems, processes and technology.</span></span></li> <li><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The value system of the company is time and context invariant.</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></li> </ul> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></ul> </div> <ul><span style="font-size: x-small;"> <ul> <li> <div> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">We will continue to have the mindset of a small company even as we grow and scale.</span></span></div> </div> </li> <li> <div> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Finally, and most importantly, I see youth, the feel-good factor and confidence around me.</span></span></div> </div> </li> </ul> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></ul> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">This is why I am confident Infosys will continue to serve the society as a long-term player.</span><br /> <br /> <span style="font-size: x-small;">Thank you.</span><br /> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>N R Narayana Murthy</b></span></span></div> <br /> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <h1 align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Narayana Murthy's 5 tips for success</span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></h1> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img align="left" alt="Infosys Technologies Chairman N R Narayana Murthy. Photograph: Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images" border="0" class="imgwidth" height="150" src="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr040.jpg" width="195" />The stock prices of leading Indian tech companies have been battered in recent weeks. Investors are skittish over rising inflation and higher interest rates that could tap the brakes on growth globally. But there's no sign India's companies themselves are losing strength. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Indeed, Infosys Technologies, Tata Consultancy Services , Wipro , and others continue to disrupt the $600 billion global tech-services industry. Infosys said on April 14 that per-share earnings in the current quarter would rise as much as 27% on a sales increase of as much as 33%.  <br /> </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> </div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">With that as a backdrop, <b>N R Narayana Murthy </b>the founder and longtime chairman of Infosys, stopped in New York on June 15 on something of a farewell tour. After 25 years at the helm, he's stepping out of his executive role and handing the baton to the next generation of leaders. </span></span> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /> </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>BusinessWeek</i> Senior Writer <b>Steve Hamm</b> interviewed Murthy at the company's offices in Rockefeller Center. Here's an edited version of their conversation: </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /> </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>You started Infosys and built it to what it is today. Why have you decided to retire from your role as executive chairman?</b></span></span> </span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">I set the rule that we should all retire at 60 so we can give opportunities to younger people to play a role in shaping the future of the company. I believe in the power and importance of youth. I gave up my CEO position four years ago so Nandan Nilekani could become the CEO. He will continue in the CEO role. </span></span> </div> </span> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Until now, both of us were running the company. Now I'll become the non-executive chairman, primarily responsible for managing the board, for governance functions. I won't be involved in running the company in an executive capacity. </span></span></div> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>When you look back on the early formative days of the company, did you ever imagine that Infosys would become such an important company in the worldwide tech industry?</b></span></span> </span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">No, not really. We started out as seven people in 1981, with $250. We had just one customer. Last year we closed at $2.5 billion. We have 52,000 employees and a market cap of about $20 billion. We never imagined we would come this far. </span></span> </div> </span> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">However, we were certain of one thing, and that is our value system. In fact, when we sat down in the bedroom of my apartment in 1981, we discussed for four hours what our objective should be. Should it be revenues, profits, market capitalization? </span></span> </div> </span> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">No, we said it should be none of those. We will seek respect from every one of the stakeholders. My view was if we sought respect we'd automatically do the right thing by each of them. We'd satisfy our customers, be fair to our employees, and follow the finest principles with respect to investors, we would not violate laws, and, finally, we'd make a difference to society. </span></span> </div> </span> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">And then, I said, automatically you'll get revenues and profits and all that. </span></span></div> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Why have Infosys and the other leaders of the Indian tech industry had such a dramatic and powerful effect on the worldwide tech industry?</b></span></span> </span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">It is simply because we are becoming more and more relevant to our customers and we are having greater and greater impact. </span></span> </div> </span> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Why? For two fundamental reasons. We have helped our customers reduce the cycle time in designing and implementing new systems that reflect the changing marketplace and the new business rules. By reducing cycle time, we have ensured that the people in the corporation that use these IT systems are that much more enthusiastic about the flexibility of the corporation to keep pace with the changes in the marketplace. </span></span> </div> </span> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Earlier, what was happening was it took three or four years to implement a system and there was a low level of probability of success. Because of the high level of programming talent in India, because of our focus on process excellence, and because of the power of leveraging the 24-hour work day, we have been able to take up large projects and complete them with reduced cycle time with the requisite quality. </span></span> </div> </span> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">People said, 'Now we can go think of new business initiatives to go after.' </span></span> </div> </span> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The second thing we have done is we're able to give more value for money. Both of these things matter a lot. </span></span> </div> </span> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Your success is having a dramatic impact on the $600 billion tech services industry-compressing revenues and margins. Will there be a lot more disruption for that industry? Is still just the beginning? Or are things settling out?</b></span></span> </div> </span> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The fact that IBM, Accenture, etc have started scaling up their operations in India indicates there's more juice left in this. What we're doing is applying the principle of the global delivery model to activities that people thought were not possible hitherto. </span></span></div> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">For instance, we believe that 35% of the consulting effort can be done in India, such as proposal preparation, presentation preparation, research, and analytics. Similarly, in the case of our business process outsourcing organization, equity research for a major European bank can be done in Bangalore. The bank is getting better value for money, and they're able to compress the cycle time. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">So, I'd say, the best is yet to come in leveraging the power of India -- both by the Indians and the multinationals. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Are the multinationals getting with it now?</b></span></span> </span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">They have started focusing in the recent past so they're still a few years behind Infosys. I'm sure they'll accelerate. But the fact that they're accelerating will force us to innovate more. </span></span> </div> </span> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">There are five elements of success. They are: </span></span></div> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <ul><span style="font-size: x-small;"> <ul> <li><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Openness to learn: Openness to subordinate your ego to take ideas from others. </span></span></li> <li><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Second, meritocracy: The best ideas are adopted and implemented using data to arrive at the best decision. </span></span></li> <li><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Third, speed: Assuring you do things faster compared to yesterday and last quarter. </span></span></li> <li><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Fourth, imagination: You continually bring better ideas and better innovation to the table. </span></span></li> <li><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">And finally, excellence in execution: That is implementation of these great ideas with a higher level of excellence today than yesterday. </span></span></li> </ul> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></ul> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">I tell my colleagues that there is no guarantee we will be in business five or 10 years from now. The only guarantee is the opportunity for us to use these five attributes. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">If we embrace them, we'll be in play five and 10 years from now. But the day we forget these, we'll disappear like dew on a sunny morning. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>In the United States there's a lot of concern about the effect of what the Indian companies are doing on U.S. industry and U.S. workers. Do you have advice for Americans on how to respond to this?</b></span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">I'm a very small person so I don't say I have any advice. However, let me say this: In the last 25 years the concept of globalization has become more and more pronounced. The world is becoming flatter and flatter and flatter.</span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">I define globalization as sourcing material from where it is cheapest, talent from where it best available, producing where it is most cost-effective, and selling where the markets are -- without being constrained by national boundaries. </span></span> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Anybody can leverage the power of globalization. It's not the monopoly of one geography. As long as corporations recognize this and leverage the power; if they see the entire globe as their arena and leveraging the best talent for each task from the different geographies; and if they operate as a global enterprise rather than a multinational enterprise, then there is a great future for all of us. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>What could go wrong for India and the Indian economy?</b></span></span> </span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The first is, if we don't improve our infrastructure in the next couple of years, it will be very difficult to be effective as a manufacturing nation. The software industry may create jobs for the educated people, but unfortunately it can't create jobs for the not-so-educated people. That's where manufacturing comes in. </span></span> </div> </span> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">If we don't improve the infrastructure, we won't be able to create jobs for the less-educated people. And that will create a strong negative current of dissatisfaction in the country. It could have profound effects. </span></span> </div> </span> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The second area where there could be impact is on globalization. There is so much discussion on the small number of jobs that have been lost in the U.S. because of Indian companies. </span></span> </div> </span> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">But the effect of globalization in India has been much larger. For instance, we had our own auto industry. The cars were not very good. But, still, they were being made in India. Today, we have GM, Toyota , everybody and his brother in India assembling lots of cars. Many of these companies import parts from other countries. As a result, the opportunity for job creation has not been as much as if the parts were made in India. </span></span> </div> </span> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Similarly, we had our own computer industry. They were not the best. But our people were producing them. When the famous computer companies came to India, we lost a lot of jobs. The same happened with the global soft drink companies. </span></span> </div> </span> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Probably 2 million or 3 million Indians have lost their jobs. So, do you keep all the multinationals out of India. Or, because 250 million middle-class Indians have benefited, do you embrace it? My view is we should embrace these global corporations, we should accept globalization, because it has benefited the large majority. </span></span> </div> </span> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Now, maybe I have contrarian views. As globalization becomes more pronounced, if we're not able to create more jobs for the less-educated people, we could then say globalization has not worked. </span></span> </div> </span> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">People are saying that in the U.S. already, even though the data says something else -- that corporations are becoming more efficient and nimble and able to compete in other countries better. The same thing could happen in India. </span></span> </div> </span> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">How to build a great company</span></b></div> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <h1 align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img align="left" alt="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr041.jpg" height="150" src="http://im.rediff.com/money/2005/jan/31spec.jpg" width="195" /></span></span></h1> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">N R Narayana Murthy , Chairman of the Board and Chief Mentor, Infosys Technologies, outlines the key ingredients to building a great company and the role of 'compassionate capitalism' in society.</span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Narayana Murthy is a co-chair of the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland. </span></span> </span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Excerpts from an interview with the Infosys Chairman:</span></span> </div> </span> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>You are fond of using the term 'compassionate capitalism.' What does this mean in the context of India?</b></span></span> </div> </span> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">As I look back on the idealism of my youth, I realise that a socialist system will not succeed as a system, because people need opportunities, incentives and competition in order to better themselves. This is the essence of capitalism.</span></span> </div> </span> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Embellish the spirit of capitalism with fairness, decency, transparency and honesty, and the result is compassionate capitalism.</span></span> </div> </span> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Compassionate capitalism is extremely important for every society, in general, and for developing countries, in particular.</span></span> </div> </span> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">In India, where the divide between the haves and have-nots is very large, the only way we can reduce this divide is by embracing compassionate capitalism.</span></span></div> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>To what do you attribute the success of Asia's multinationals?</b></span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The first factor is the work ethic. By and large, there is tremendous focus on hard work, pride in the company, and loyalty to the company in Asia. This focus exists in the West too, and that's how they have built great companies.</span></span> </span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">However, I see less emphasis in the West on such a work ethic these days.</span></span> </div> </span> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Second, there is a spirit of family in Asian companies. This means working as a team, showing concern for your fellow employees, making sacrifices for each other's benefit, and identifying with the common cause of the company.</span></span></div> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>How has Infosys responded to the tsunami that struck South-East Asia?</b></span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Infosys has contributed Rs 50 million to the Prime Minister's Fund. In addition, we requested employees to contribute a day's salary on a voluntary basis. We did something similar after 9/11.</span></span> </span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">We were the first Indian company and one of the few in the world outside the United States to contribute to the Firemen's Fund.</span></span> </div> </span> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The Infosys Foundation has donated clothing, medicine and food items to the victims of the tsunami. Some of our people have gone to affected areas and helped people to improve processes for better management of aid distribution.</span></span></div> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Some companies sell to the bottom of the economic pyramid, to customers with relatively little spending power. What is the business case for multinational companies to target this market?</b></span></span> </span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">About 80 per cent of the global population lives in the developing world. These people have low disposable income. Thus, taken as individuals, their buying strength is small but, as a group, they have an enormous potential as a market.</span></span> </div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">On the other hand, the markets in the developed world are getting saturated and growth is coming down. Hence, if multinational companies were to design products that are inexpensive and cater to this vast segment of low-disposable income consumers, then there is tremendous growth opportunity both in revenues and profits for MNCs.</span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Business can address social challenges through public-private partnerships. Again, what is the incentive for companies to partner with the public sector?</b></span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Public-private partnerships in developing countries like India are very important because a company cannot prosper on a sustainable basis, unless it makes a difference to the context in which it operates.</span></span> </span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">By making a difference to the society in which they operate, companies create goodwill in the society, and become friends of the society.</span></span> </div> </span> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">This responsibility is even greater in the case of multinationals, since there is a mistaken belief that multinationals do not care for the context, and are there only to plunder the society where they operate.</span></span> </div> </span> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">When the vast majority of the poor believe that there is a positive impact on them because of a public-private partnership involving multinationals, it is likely to create tremendous goodwill towards these companies.</span></span></div> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>What is the key to building a great company?</b></span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">First of all, we need good leadership. I don't know of a single great company that has not had good leaders. Great leaders raise the aspirations of their followers; they make people more confident, energetic and enthusiastic.</span></span> </span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Such leaders make people embrace the adage: a plausible impossibility is better than a convincing possibility.</span></span> </div> </span> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">People, who are motivated by great leaders, dream big, make sacrifices and achieve miracles. It is not sufficient just to have great leaders. We need a mechanism to identify, train, empower and mentor successive generations of leaders.</span></span></div> </span> <br /> <div align="justify">  <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Such leadership training and mentoring has to become the responsibility of the current generation of leaders.</span></span> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Second, we have to create a grand, noble vision which elevates the energy, enthusiasm and self-esteem of everyone in the company while ensuring that everybody sees a benefit in following the vision.</span></span> </span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Third, a company has to benchmark itself on a global scale in every area including sales, production, human resources, R&D and finance. It creates an open and confident environment where first-raters recruit first-raters.</span></span></div> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify">  <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Fourth, a great company continuously measures and improves the following attributes: meritocracy, fairness, justice, openness, speed, imagination and excellence in execution.</span></span> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></div> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Finally, a great company practices an enduring value system, and follows the finest system of corporate governance.</span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img align="left" alt="" border="0" class="imgwidth" height="150" src="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr042.jpg" width="195" /></span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <h1 align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The essence of leadership</span></span></h1> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify">  <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">A leader is an agent of change, and progress is about change. In the words of Robert F Kennedy, 'Progress is a nice word; but change is its motivator.'</span></span> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Leadership is about raising the aspirations of followers and enthusing people with a desire to reach for the stars. For instance, Mahatma Gandhi created a vision for independence in India  and raised the aspirations of our people.</span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify">  <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Leadership is about making people say, 'I will walk on water for you.' It is about creating a worthy dream and helping people achieve it.</span></span> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Robert Kennedy,  summed up leadership best when he said, 'Others see things as they are and wonder why; I see them as they are not and say why not?'</span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Adversity</b></span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">A leader has to raise the confidence of followers. He should make them understand that tough times are part of life and that they will come out better at the end of it. He has to sustain their hope, and their energy levels to handle the difficult days.</span></span>  </span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">There is no better example of this than Winston Churchill . His courageous leadership as prime minister for Great Britain successfully led the British people from the brink of defeat during World War II. He raised his people's hopes with the words, 'These are not dark days; these are great days -- the greatest days our country has ever lived.'</span></span> </div> </span> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Never is strong leadership more needed than in a crisis. In the words of Seneca, the Greek philosopher, 'Fire is the test of gold; adversity, of strong men.'</span></span></div> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Values</b></span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <br /> <div align="justify">  <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The leader has to create hope. He has to create a plausible story about a better future for the organisation: everyone should be able to see the rainbow and catch a part of it.</span></span> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">This requires creating trust in people. And to create trust, the leader has to subscribe to a value system: a protocol for behavior that enhances the confidence, commitment and enthusiasm of the people.</span></span> </span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Compliance to a value system creates the environment for people to have high aspirations, self esteem, belief in fundamental values, confidence in the future and the enthusiasm necessary to take up apparently difficult tasks. Leaders have to walk the talk and demonstrate their commitment to a value system.</span></span> </div> </span> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">As Mahatma Gandhi said, 'We must become the change we want to see in the world.' Leaders have to prove their belief in sacrifice and hard work. Such behavior will enthuse the employees to make bigger sacrifices. It will help win the team's confidence, help leaders become credible, and help create trust in their ideas.</span></span></div> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Enhancing trust</b></span></span>  </span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Trust and confidence can only exist where there is a premium on transparency. The leader has to create an environment where each person feels secure enough to be able to disclose his or her mistakes, and resolves to improve.</span></span> </div> </span> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Investors respect such organisations. Investors understand that the business will have good times and bad times. What they want you to do is to level with them at all times. They want you to disclose bad news on a proactive basis. At Infosys, our philosophy has always been, 'When in doubt, disclose.'</span></span></div> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Governance</b></span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Good corporate governance is about maximising shareholder value on a sustainable basis while ensuring fairness to all stakeholders: customers, vendor-partners, investors, employees, government and society.</span></span></div> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">A successful organisation tides over many downturns. The best index of success is its longevity. This is predicated on adhering to the finest levels of corporate governance.</span></span></div> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">At Infosys, we have consistently adopted transparency and disclosure standards even before law mandated it. In 1995, Infosys suffered losses in the secondary market. Under Indian GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles), we were not required to make this information public. Nevertheless, we published this information in our annual report.</span></span></div> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Fearless environment</b></span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Transparency about the organisation's operations should be accompanied by an open environment inside the organisation. You have to create an environment where any employee can disagree with you without fear of reprisal.</span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">In such a case, everyone makes suggestions for the common good. In the end everyone will be better off.</span></span></div> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">On the other hand, at Enron, the CFO was running an empire where people were afraid to speak. In some other cases, the whistle blowers have been harassed and thrown out of the company.</span></span></div> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Managerial remuneration</b></span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">We have gone towards excessive salaries and options for senior management staff. At one company, the CEO's employment contract not only set out the model of the Mercedes the company would buy him, but also promised a monthly first-class air ticket for his mother, along with a cash bonus of $10 million and other benefits.</span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> </div> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Managerial remuneration should be based on three principles:</span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Not surprisingly, this company has already filed for bankruptcy.</span></span></div> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <ul><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /> <ul> <li> <div> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Fairness with respect to the compensation of other employees;</span></span></div> </div> </li> <li> <div> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Transparency with respect to shareholders and employees;</span></span></div> </div> </li> <li> <div> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Accountability with respect to linking compensation with corporate performance.</span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span></div> </div> </li> </ul> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></ul> </div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Thus, the compensation should have a fixed component and a variable component. The variable component should be linked to achieving long-term objectives of the firm. Senior management should swim or sink with the fortunes of the company.</span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Senior management compensation should be reviewed by the compensation committee of the board, which should consist only of independent directors. Further, this should be approved by the shareholders.</span></span></div> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">I've been asked, 'How can I ask for limits on senior management compensation when I have made millions myself?' A fair question with a straightforward answer: two systems are at play here. One is that of the promoter, the risk taker and the capital markets; and the other is that of professional management and compensation structures.</span></span></div> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">One cannot mix these two distinct systems, otherwise entrepreneurship will be stifled, and no new companies will come up, no progress can take place. At the same time, there has to be fairness in compensation: there cannot be huge differences between the top most and the bottom rung of the ladder within an organisation.</span></span></div> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>PSPD model</b></span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">A well run organisation embraces and practices a sound Predictability-Sustainability-Profitability-Derisking (we call this the PSPD model at Infosys) model. Indeed, the long-term success of an organisation depends on having a model that scales up profitably.</span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Further, every organisation must have a good derisking approach that recognises, measures and mitigates risk along every dimension.</span></span></div> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Integrity</b></span></span></div> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Strong leadership in adverse times helps win the trust of the stakeholders, making it more likely that they will stand by you in your hour of need. As leaders who dream of growth and progress, integrity is your most wanted attribute.</span></span></div> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Lead your teams to fight for the truth and never compromise on your values. I am confident that our corporate leaders, through honest and desirable behaviour, will reap long-term benefits for their stakeholders.</span></span></div> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Two mottos</b></span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">In conclusion, keep in mind two Sanskrit sentences: <i>Sathyannasti Paro Dharma </i>(there is no <i>dharma </i>greater than adherence to truth); and <i>Satyameva jayate </i>(truth alone triumphs). Let these be your motto for good corporate leadership.</span></span></div> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img align="left" alt="" src="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr043.jpg" /><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">Narayan Murthy’s Speech at New York University</span></span></b></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">[N R Narayan Murthy, chief mentor and chairman of the board, Infosys Technologies, delivered a pre-commencement lecture at the New York University ( Stern School of Business) on May 9. It is a scintillating speech, Murthy speaks about the lessons he learnt from his life and career.]</span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><img align="left" alt="" height="150" src="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr044.jpg" width="195" /></span>Dean Cooley, faculty, staff, distinguished guests, and, most importantly, the graduating class of 2007, it is a great privilege to speak at your commencement ceremonies.</span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">I thank Dean Cooley and Prof Marti Subrahmanyam for their kind invitation. I am exhilarated to be part of such a joyous occasion. Congratulations to you, the class of 2007, on completing an important milestone in your life journey. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">After some thought, I have decided to share with you some of my life lessons. I learned these lessons in the context of my early career struggles, a life lived under the influence of sometimes unplanned events which were the crucibles that tempered my character and reshaped my future. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">I would like first to share some of these key life events with you, in the hope that these may help you understand my struggles and how chance events and unplanned encounters with influential persons shaped my life and career. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Later, I will share the deeper life lessons that I have learned. My sincere hope is that this sharing will help you see your own trials and tribulations for the hidden blessings they can be .</span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img align="left" alt="" src="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr045.jpg" /><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span>The first event occurred when I was a graduate student in Control Theory at IIT, Kanpur , in India . At breakfast on a bright Sunday morning in 1968, I had a chance encounter with a famous computer scientist on sabbatical from a well-known US university.</span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">He was discussing exciting new developments in the field of computer science with a large group of students and how such developments would alter our future. He was articulate, passionate and quite convincing. I was hooked. I went straight from breakfast to the library, read four or five papers he had suggested, and left the library determined to study computer<br /> science.</span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img align="left" alt="" src="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr046.jpg" /><span style="font-size: x-small;"> <br /> </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Friends, when I look back today at that pivotal meeting, I marvel at how one role model can alter for the better the future of a young student. This experience taught me that valuable advice can sometimes come from an unexpected source, and chance events can sometimes open new doors. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The next event that left an indelible mark on me occurred in 1974. The location: Nis , a border town between former Yugoslavia, now Serbia, and Bulgaria. I was hitchhiking from Paris back to Mysore , India , my home town. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">By the time a kind driver dropped me at Nis railway station at 9 p.m. on a Saturday night, the restaurant was closed. So was the bank the next morning, and I could not eat because I had no local money. I slept on the railway platform until 8.30 pm in the night when the Sofia Express pulled in.</span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The only passengers in my compartment were a girl and a boy. I struck a conversation in French with the young girl. She talked about the travails of living in an iron curtain country, until we were roughly interrupted by some policemen who, I later gathered, were summoned by the young man who thought we were criticizing the communist government of Bulgaria . </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The girl was led away; my backpack and sleeping bag were confiscated. I was dragged along the platform into a small 8×8 foot room with a cold stone floor and a hole in one corner by way of toilet facilities. I was held in that bitterly cold room without food or water for over 72 hours. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">I had lost all hope of ever seeing the outside world again, when the door opened. I was again dragged out unceremoniously, locked up in the guard’s compartment on a departing freight train and told that I would be released 20 hours later upon reaching Istanbul. The guard’s final words still ring in my ears — ” You are from a friendly country called India and that is why we are letting you go!”</span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The journey to Istanbul was lonely, and I was starving. This long, lonely, cold journey forced me to deeply rethink my convictions about Communism. Early on a dark Thursday morning, after being hungry for 108 hours, I was purged of any last vestiges of affinity for the Left. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">I concluded that entrepreneurship, resulting in large-scale job creation, was the only viable mechanism for eradicating poverty in societies.</span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Deep in my heart, I always thank the Bulgarian guards for transforming me from a confused Leftist into a determined, compassionate capitalist! </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Inevitably, this sequence of events led to the eventual founding of Infosys in 1981.</span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img align="left" alt="" height="150" src="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr047.jpg" width="195" /><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span>While these first two events were rather fortuitous, the next two, both concerning the Infosys journey, were more planned and profoundly influenced my career trajectory.</span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">On a chilly Saturday morning in winter 1990, five of the seven founders of Infosys met in our small office in a leafy Bangalore suburb. The decision at hand was the possible sale of Infosys for the enticing sum of $1 million. After nine years of toil in the then business-unfriendly India , we were quite happy at the prospect of seeing at least some money. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">I let my younger colleagues talk about their future plans. Discussions about the travails of our journey thus far and our future challenges went on for about four hours. I had not yet spoken a word. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Finally, it was my turn. I spoke about our journey from a small Mumbai apartment in 1981 that had been beset with many challenges, but also of how I believed we were at the darkest hour before the dawn. I then took an audacious step. If they were all bent upon selling the company, I said, I would buy out all my colleagues, though I did not have a cent in my pocket.</span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">There was a stunned silence in the room. My colleagues wondered aloud about my foolhardiness. But I remained silent. However, after an hour of my arguments, my colleagues changed their minds to my way of thinking. I urged them that if we wanted to create a great company, we should be optimistic and confident. They have more than lived up to their promise of that day.</span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">In the seventeen years since that day, Infosys has grown to revenues in excess of $3.0 billion, a net income of more than $800 million and a market capitalisation of more than $28 billion, 28,000 times richer than the offer of $1 million on that day. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">In the process, Infosys has created more than 70,000 well-paying jobs, 2,000-plus dollar-millionaires and 20,000-plus rupee millionaires. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">A final story: On a hot summer morning in 1995, a Fortune-10 corporation had sequestered all their Indian software vendors, including Infosys, in different rooms at the Taj Residency hotel in Bangalore so that the vendors could not communicate with one another. This customer’s propensity for tough negotiations was well-known. Our team was very nervous.</span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">First of all, with revenues of only around $5 million, we were minnows compared to the customer. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Second, this customer contributed fully 25% of our revenues. The loss of this business would potentially devastate our recently-listed company. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Third, the customer’s negotiation style was very aggressive. The customer team would go from room to room, get the best terms out of each vendor and then pit one vendor against the other. This went on for several rounds. Our various arguments why a fair price — one that allowed us to invest in good people, R&D, infrastructure, technology and training — was actually in their interest failed to cut any ice with the customer. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">By 5 p.m. on the last day, we had to make a decision right on the spot whether to accept the customer’s terms or to walk out.</span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">All eyes were on me as I mulled over the decision. I closed my eyes, and reflected upon our journey until then. Through many a tough call, we had always thought about the long-term interests of Infosys. I communicated clearly to the customer team that we could not accept their terms, since it could well lead us to letting them down later. But I promised a smooth, professional transition to a vendor of customer’s choice.</span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">This was a turning point for Infosys. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Subsequently, we created a Risk Mitigation Council which ensured that we would never again depend too much on any one client, technology, country, application area or key employee. The crisis was a blessing in disguise. Today, Infosys has a sound de-risking strategy that has stabilized its revenues and profits. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">I want to share with you, next, the life lessons these events have taught me.</span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">1.</span></span></b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> I will begin with the importance of learning from experience. It is less important, I believe, where you start. It is more important how and what you learn. If the quality of the learning is high, the development gradient is steep, and, given time, you can find yourself in a previously unattainable place. I believe the Infosys story is living proof of this.</span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Learning from experience, however, can be complicated. It can be much more difficult to learn from success than from failure. If we fail, we think carefully about the precise cause. Success can indiscriminately reinforce all our prior actions. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">2.</span></span></b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> A second theme concerns the power of chance events. As I think across a wide variety of settings in my life, I am struck by the incredible role played by the interplay of chance events with intentional choices. While the turning points themselves are indeed often fortuitous, how we respond to them is anything but so. It is this very quality of how we respond systematically to chance events that is crucial.</span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">3.</span></span></b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Of course, the mindset one works with is also quite critical. As recent work by the psychologist, Carol Dweck, has shown, it matters greatly whether one believes in ability as inherent or that it can be developed. Put simply, the former view, a fixed mindset, creates a tendency to avoid challenges, to ignore useful negative feedback and leads such people to plateau early and not achieve their full potential.</span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The latter view, a growth mindset, leads to a tendency to embrace<br /> challenges, to learn from criticism and such people reach ever higher levels of achievement (Krakovsky, 2007: page 48). </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">4.</span></span></b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> The fourth theme is a cornerstone of the Indian spiritual tradition: self-knowledge. Indeed, the highest form of knowledge, it is said, is self-knowledge. I believe this greater awareness and knowledge of oneself is what ultimately helps develop a more grounded belief in oneself, courage, determination, and, above all, humility, all qualities which enable one to wear one’s success with dignity and grace. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Based on my life experiences, I can assert that it is this belief in<br /> learning from experience, a growth mindset, the power of chance events, and self-reflection that have helped me grow to the present. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Back in the 1960s, the odds of my being in front of you today would have been zero. Yet here I stand before you! With every successive step, the odds kept changing in my favor, and it is these life lessons that made all the difference. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">My young friends, I would like to end with some words of advice. Do you believe that your future is pre-ordained, and is already set? Or, do you believe that your future is yet to be written and that it will depend upon the sometimes fortuitous events?<br /> </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Do you believe that these events can provide turning points to which you will respond with your energy and enthusiasm? Do you believe that you will learn from these events and that you will reflect on your setbacks ? Do you believe that you will examine your successes with even greater care? </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">I hope you believe that the future will be shaped by several turning points with great learning opportunities. In fact, this is the path I have walked to much advantage. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">A final word: When, one day, you have made your mark on the world, remember that, in the ultimate analysis, we are all mere temporary custodians of the wealth we generate, whether it be financial, intellectual, or emotional. The best use of all your wealth is to share it with those less fortunate. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">I believe that we have all at some time eaten the fruit from trees that we did not plant. In the fullness of time, when it is our turn to give, it behooves us in turn to plant gardens that we may never eat the fruit of, which will largely benefit generations to come. I believe this is our sacred responsibility, one that I hope you will shoulder in time.</span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Thank you for your patience. Go forth and embrace your future with open arms, and pursue enthusiastically your own life journey of discovery! </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> <img alt="" height="107" src="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr048.jpg" width="611" /></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">  <img alt="" border="0" height="20" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><br /> <span style="line-height: 12pt;"><i>Known as "The Bill Gates of Asia," N.R. Narayana Murthy is a founder and now Chairman and Chief Mentor of Infosys Technologies Ltd., a global consulting and IT services company based in India which employs more than 17,000 people worldwide. A billionaire who lives simply in a modest apartment, Murthy frequently speaks out on his belief in the need for corporate social responsibility. <br /> <br /> India is the fastest growing domestic IT market in the world and is increasingly being used as the "back office" of some of the world's largest companies. Gartner Fellow, Bob Hayward, spoke with Mr. Murthy in Mumbai about India's current and future position in the global IT marketplace.</i></span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><img alt="" border="0" height="12" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /></span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><b><span class="resourceGrayHead"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Interview conducted 17 July 2003</span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img alt="" border="0" height="2" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /></span></b><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></div> <div class="dottedLine"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="530" /></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img alt="" border="0" height="15" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><span class="fellowText">Bob Hayward:</span><br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="4" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><br /> Mr. Murthy, you have likened India to a family of two children: one gifted and the other less privileged. Would you expand on that? <br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="25" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><b><span class="interviewText">N.R. Narayana Murthy:</span></b><br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="4" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><br /> There are two Indias — urban India where the child is informed about what's happening in the world and rural India, where the child is hapless, undernourished and uneducated. If we want to solve the problem of poverty in this country, then we have to encourage the gifted child to make the whole family better. Then it becomes the responsibility of the privileged to make sure the rural child also gets benefits. That's what the politicians must understand both here and in the world. <br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="25" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><b><span class="fellowText">Hayward:</span></b><br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="4" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><br /> To extend on that, does the government need to be market-driven, or should it be control-driven?<br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="25" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><br /> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> <table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width: 190px;"> <tbody> <tr> <td width="180"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><img align="left" alt="" border="0" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/fellow_pullquote1.gif" /></span></td> <td width="10"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><img alt="" border="0" height="10" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /></span></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><b><span class="interviewText">Murthy:</span></b><br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="4" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><br /> I firmly believe that the role of government will have to be limited to areas that affect citizens: defense, monetary policies, external affairs, internal security. Most areas of economic activity must be left to the citizens. However, in rural areas where the market is not developed, the government should provide subsidy to the rural masses by way vouchers which can be used in the marketplace. That way, there will be no corruption. Citizens will have a choice to go to the best player whether it is primary education or healthcare, and this will bring fairness to the system.<br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="25" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><br /> <b><span class="fellowText">Hayward:</span></b><br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="4" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><br /> Which are the technologies and companies in the rich India that can have a beneficial impact on the rural India?<br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="25" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><b><span class="interviewText">Murthy:</span></b><br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="4" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><br /> I won't name any specific company because that is not fair. I think every company, big or small, has a responsibility to make sure that the benefits of IT percolate down to the masses. This could be done by foundation activities or by helping government develop better infrastructure and facilities. We need to create case studies to show how technology can benefit the masses.</span></div> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> <table align="right" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width: 235px;"> <tbody> <tr> <td width="20"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="20" /></span></td> <td width="190"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><img align="right" alt="" border="0" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/fellow_pullquote2.gif" /></span></td> <td><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" /></span></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">For example, Nasscom (India's National Association of Software and Service Companies) conducted an experiment seven years ago when they put a taxi driver in Bombay in touch with his family in Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh via videoconferencing. The joy on the faces of his family seeing their relative on TV was something that is worth a million dollars. We need to bring the power of IT, by way of new case studies to the attention of people, politicians and bureaucrats alike. <br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="25" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><b><span class="fellowText">Hayward:</span></b><br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="4" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><br /> Why don't we see tangible benefits from the advancements made in IT by India translating into better infrastructure?<br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="25" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><b><span class="interviewText">Murthy:</span></b><br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="4" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><br /> I have often said that while portfolio investments are good, they leverage the power of the Indian entrepreneur. We need that, but more important is foreign direct investment which comes as equity or long-term goals. If you want to let FDI into India in a significant way, our people will have to create visible signs of progress to create confidence in our foreign investors, something that China is doing. <br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="25" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><b><span class="fellowText">Hayward:</span></b><br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="4" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><br /> How important is IT right now in India's development?<br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="25" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /></span></div> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> <table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width: 181px;"> <tbody> <tr> <td width="156"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><img alt="" border="0" height="150" src="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr049.jpg" width="195" /></span></td> <td width="104"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><img alt="" border="0" height="20" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /></span></td> </tr> <tr> <td style="text-align: left;" width="156"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><b><span class="resourceText">Infosys</span></b></span></td> <td width="104"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><img alt="" border="0" height="20" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /></span></td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="bottom" width="156"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><b><span class="resourceGrayHead">Bill Gates and N.R. Narayana Murthy at Infosys in Bangalore, India.</span></b><br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="25" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /></span></td> <td width="104"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><img alt="" border="0" height="20" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /></span></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><b><span class="interviewText">Murthy:</span></b><br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="4" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><br /> We all agree that IT reduces cost and time-to-market and improves productivity. Once that is agreed to, there is no doubt that IT has a very important role to play in nation building. We've seen how IT has contributed significantly to improving productivity in the US from 1.4 percent a couple of decades ago to 2.5 percent now. Now, what should get more priority, IT or other instruments of growth? <br /> <br /> My view is, let the government not put money into this. Let it, instead, make it very easy for FDI to enter the country. As long as we control and are suspicious of what comes in, as we still are, then it's unlikely we will get what we want. The bottom line is, make it easy for those investments to enter India, in whatever sector there is. <br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="25" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><b><span class="fellowText">Hayward:</span></b><br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="4" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><br /> Why is the issue of whether foreign direct investment is good for India or not still debated here? Why is it still not resolved?<br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="25" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><b><span class="interviewText">Murthy:</span></b><br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="4" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><br /> Actually, there are two hilarious concepts in India. One is called MAFA—"Mistaking Articulation For Accomplishment." The second is that when we say, "All is said and done," what we really mean is, "Everything is said and nothing is done." Like it or not, we are a debating society. <br /> <br /> But just as other countries like Brazil and China have done, we must say enough is enough, and now is time for action. Otherwise, we will continue to a MAFA society. <br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="25" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><b><span class="fellowText">Hayward:</span></b><br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="4" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><br /> Do you believe in the school of thought that domestic industry is not supported enough and all attention is given to exports? What is your advice to the domestic IT industry in India?<br /> <b><img alt="" border="0" height="25" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><span class="interviewText">Murthy:</span></b><br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="4" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><br /> Every company tries to maximize its profits and revenue. In the G-8 countries, the opportunity for revenue and profits is much higher than in India, so perhaps the top few IT company here may focus primarily on the export market. But it doesn't matter. <br /> <br /> I say, let somebody else look at the opportunity in India. We don't have to say that we will focus on the domestic market to the exclusion of the export market. Let a thousand flowers bloom. The right approach would be to let all competent people succeed in all markets, domestic or global. <br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="25" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><b><span class="fellowText">Hayward:</span></b><br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="4" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><br /> What can "India, Inc." do to embrace IT, something that has not happened as much as in countries such as China?<br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="25" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /></span></div> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> <table align="right" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width: 222px;"> <tbody> <tr> <td width="10"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="10" /></span></td> <td width="212"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><img align="right" alt="" border="0" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/fellow_pullquote4.gif" /></span></td> <td></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><b><span class="interviewText">Murthy:</span></b><br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="4" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><br /> I think it is happening in the last ten years. The Indian enterprises and even the government are embracing IT much more warmly than ever before, and the reason is, competition is increasing. There is a focus on productivity and secondly, democracy is demanding more transparency and accountability from the government. <br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="25" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><b><span class="fellowText">Hayward:</span></b><br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="4" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><br /> But the difference is that in India, there has to be a different justification for IT-induced automation that reduces the number of jobs in a country with such a large a population.<br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="25" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><b><span class="interviewText">Murthy:</span></b><br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="4" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><br /> I am of the opinion that every enterprise must operate at the highest level of productivity, which means fewer and fewer people can produce more and more wealth. With better productivity, salaries will increase, workers will have more disposable income that they will spend in the market. In the end, by enhancing productivity, you are actually creating more jobs. <br /> <br /> It's a myth here that in employing more people and resourcing productivity per worker, we are making the economy better for our citizens. The right way would be to improve productivity. <br /> <br /> <b><span class="fellowText">Hayward:</span></b><br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="4" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><br /> Is the contribution of IT in improving the living standard of a large chunk of the Indian people being recognized as it should be?<br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="25" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><b><span class="interviewText">Murthy:</span></b><br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="4" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><br /> In the last couple of years, India has done a very good job in IT. But we are still a nation of one billion people, so a million or so working in IT or related areas doesn't get much notice. That's where we need to create better enthusiasm by creating visible signs of growth such as world-class airports and highways. We owe it to our children because we want them to be much more confident about their country. <br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="25" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><b><span class="fellowText">Hayward:</span></b><br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="4" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><br /> In your interaction with politicians, what do you see are the major challenges in making them aware of the potential of this sector in India?<br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="25" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><b><span class="interviewText">Murthy:</span></b><br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="4" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><br /> Leadership is first of all about courage. Courage to dream big. Courage to take tough decisions. Second, it is the ability to raise the aspirations of people. Third, it is to be open-minded and accepting of great ideas from different countries and cultures across the world. And fourth, like I earlier said, it is to recognize that there are two Indias — rural and urban — and to work toward the growth of both of them. <br /> <b><img alt="" border="0" height="25" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><span class="fellowText">Hayward:</span></b><br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="4" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><br /> What needs to be done to bring out that change?<br /> <b><img alt="" border="0" height="25" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><span class="interviewText">Murthy:</span></b><br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="4" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><br /> Once again, that takes me to what I mentioned earlier — the visible signs of growth. Let me give you an example: When Baby Noor, the two-year-old Pakistani child came to India (for successful open-heart surgery in July 2003), I was happy to see the news splashed across the newspapers. I think we need a few more examples like that. Not only will it change our leaders mindset, it will create confidence in Pakistan. <br /> <br /> The point is, we need more such signs of growth, like that Nasscom experiment and the fishermen of Pondicherry using data from U.S. satellites to enhance their catch. In every movie theater, if we can show a few of these examples, the common citizen will have confidence in India and will say that India is on the move now. <br /> <b><img alt="" border="0" height="25" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><span class="fellowText">Hayward:</span></b><br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="4" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><br /> I may be a little pessimistic, but there is a negativism and cynicism in the Indian media that if the IT industry is growing, there must be some problem? <br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="25" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /></span></div> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> <table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width: 260px;"> <tbody> <tr> <td width="240"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><img align="left" alt="" border="0" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/fellow_pullquote3.gif" /></span></td> <td width="20"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><b><img alt="" border="0" height="20" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /></b></span></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><b> <span class="interviewText">Murthy:</span></b><br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="4" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><br /> You have information I do not, so I can't argue with you. But let me tell you, I was in Delhi and my friend Prannoy Roy (president of NDTV — New Delhi Television — which will soon launch English-language and Hindi news channels in India) took me to his studio. I saw these enthusiastic guys and I was highly impressed. If we use that enthusiasm, we can beat anybody in the world. <br /> <br /> When a lot of my friends went to IBM, when they set up in India, people said it would be the end for my company. But I said that if I can't fight multinational corporations in India, how can we fight them in their own backyard? These multinationals bring a lot of value to India. With their human resources and other policies, we have to play the game their way. I am very hopeful. <br /> <b><img alt="" border="0" height="25" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><span class="fellowText">Hayward:</span></b><br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="4" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><br /> Recently, politicians and labor representatives in developed economies are proposing "backlash" laws against Indian IT-based services companies meant to limit the use of offshore development and business process outsourcing. What do you think should be the strategy of the IT industry to address that right now?<br /> <b><img alt="" border="0" height="25" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><span class="interviewText">Murthy:</span></b><br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="4" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><br /> Globalization is about producing where it is most cost effective, about sourcing capital from where it is cheapest and about selling it where it is most profitable. We should not be constrained by international backlash. <br /> <br /> A smart journalist in Australia asked me a question at a press conference: "You guys are taking all our jobs to India. You should be thrown out." I told him that I use an LG refrigerator at home in India. I drink Pepsi and Coke though we have our own Indian drinks. I use a GM car when we have a vibrant automobile industry. I use Cisco routers and a Toshiba tablet PC which are imported. So do you think we should throw all these companies out? I gave him the positive side of all this. <br /> <br /> Prior to 1991, we all felt exactly the same way as that young journalist. Initially, it was a very painful phase for our Indian companies, but at the end of it, we became stronger. At the end of the day, the consumers benefited the most, and even the minority that suffer in the short run will benefit at the end of the day. <br /> <b><img alt="" border="0" height="25" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><span class="fellowText">Hayward:</span></b><br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="4" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><br /> Where do you see global IT going in the next five years?<br /> <b><img alt="" border="0" height="25" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><span class="interviewText">Murthy:</span></b><br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="4" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><br /> I think IT will focus more on enhancing productivity in the home. So far we've limited ourselves to enhancing productivity in the workplace. Thanks to increasing computing power, I believe IT will move to ubiquitous computing. <br /> <b><img alt="" border="0" height="25" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><span class="fellowText">Hayward:</span></b><br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="4" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><br /> Do you think India will move from using existing technology to inventing new technologies?<br /> <b><img alt="" border="0" height="25" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><span class="interviewText">Murthy:</span></b><br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="4" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><br /> It will happen. Let's remember that the concept of a free market is still new in India. We are not accustomed to leading from the front. We have just 15 years compared to 200 years elsewhere in terms of an industrial revolution. You need to have a little more patience with India, but it will happen.<br /> <b><img alt="" border="0" height="25" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><span class="fellowText">Hayward:</span></b><br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="4" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><br /> There are indications that IT will be a driving force taking India into the league of developed nations by 2020. What's your vision of what India will be like then?<br /> <b><img alt="" border="0" height="25" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><span class="interviewText">Murthy:</span></b><br /> <img alt="" border="0" height="4" src="http://www.gartner.com/images/trans_pixel.gif;pvb183c515a9564118" width="1" /><br /> I have great respect for our president, Abdul Kalam, and his vision of making India a developed nation by 2020 is a great one. My view is, IT alone will not be able to do that. We need world-class manufacturing. We need world-class financial services, healthcare, education, etc. Only then can we make progress and become a great nation. IT alone cannot do that. It will definitely be a driver, a case study of India's potential. <br /> <br /> Whenever I am down, I remember what the late Robert Kennedy once said, which he borrowed from George Bernard Shaw: "Most people see things as they are and wonder why. I see things that never were and say, why not." <br /> <br /> Once our leaders start with this mindset, the solution is very simple. We have to see beyond the constraint, using it as an opportunity. It's all in the mind. </span></span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <b><span style="font-size: x-small;">A leader for an equitable India — N.R. Narayana Murthy</span></b></div> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">We live in extraordinary times. Never before in the last three centuries has India received the kind of attention that she is getting today. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <br /> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Whichever conference I attend in the world, India’s growth is always talked about and the country mentioned along with China. There are umpteen books written about India. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <br /> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">People ask me about the secret sauce for India’s success in software and BPO. Taxi drivers in places like New York, London and Sao Paulo ask me about how India has managed to attract the attention of the world.</span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <br /> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><b><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">N.R.Narayana Murthy</span></span></b></span></div> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The figures substantiate these perceptions. We have become a trillion-dollar economy. Our exports have doubled in the last three years. Rupee is becoming stronger by the day. </span> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: left;"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">In July, we added 8.4 million new mobile telephone subscribers. Our FDI this year will be around $25 billion, five times of what it was two years ago. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <br /> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> </div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img align="left" alt="" border="0" height="150" hspace="0" src="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr050.jpg" vspace="0" width="195" /></span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <br /> <div style="text-align: left;"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">New airports are being built in major cities. In Delhi, one sees work on the expansion of metro wherever one goes. An Indian, Mukesh Ambani, was the richest person in the world for a week, and remains among the top five in the world. The list is endless.</span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <br /> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">This is the time for us to consolidate this progress, work harder and smarter, and bring about an inclusive growth. We have to bring the benefits of our economic growth to make life better for all Indians, not just the elite as it has happened so far. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <br /> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">This is possible if we focus on improving infrastructure and agricultural productivity and moving people away from agriculture to low-tech manufacturing in rural and semi-urban areas. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <br /> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">All of these are possible if we break away from our traditional mindset, stop denying that we have problems, become open to new ideas and possibilities, and create a culture of high performance.</span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <br /> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">In my opinion, openness to new ideas, ability to learn from people who have performed better than us, openness to admit problems and to accept that there is room for improvement are important attributes of an effective leader. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <br /> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Every year, I write on various aspects of leadership. This time, I will write about how such changes in mindset are taking place in the country from the top to the bottom. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <br /> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> </span> <br /> <div style="width: 150px;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">I will give some examples of how openness to new ideas is enhancing the image of this country. I will describe a few examples of how rigidity and adherence to the old mindset at certain levels of bureaucracy is blurring that image.</span> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The mindset to accept that we have problems is crucial to our progress. In my opinion, this change in the mindset is more important than the progress we see in our economy, in our physical infrastructure or in our stock markets. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <br /> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> </div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img align="left" alt="We must accept our problems" border="0" hspace="0" src="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr051.jpg" title="We must accept our problems" valign="top" vspace="0" /></span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">This openn</span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">ess stems from self-confidence. This openness is what will help us to accept challenges and solve the problems rather than being in a state of denial that our leaders were traditionally used to. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <br /> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">For the first time in the last 40 years, I see a few of our leaders confident enough to accept that we indeed have problems in basic areas of education, healthcare and nutrition, that other nations have performed better than us and that we will solve our problems by working hard and smart. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <br /> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">At the recently-concluded Asia Business Council (ABC) meeting in New Delhi, my foreign CEO friends from Asia, Europe and the US were very impressed with the openness of the Prime Minister, Rahul Gandhi, Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Kamal Nath. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <br /> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">In every one of these meetings, our leaders were gracious, modest, confident, used data to argue their points, and did not use superlatives to describe India’s progress. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <br /> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">They admitted that we have problems of income disparity, lack of basic infrastructure and that we have a big job to do in primary education, healthcare, nutrition and shelter.</span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img align="left" alt="Lack of basic infrastructure" src="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr052.jpg" title="Lack of basic infrastructure" valign="top" /></span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><b>The mindset to accept new ideas is important</b></div> <br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">My interactions with our Central ministers indicate that this change is becoming pervasive and that one no longer sees the ghost of the argumentative Indian in our leaders as often as one did earlier. This is the start of a great journey.</span> </span></span></div> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">While I see this mindset of openness taking root at the Central level, I still see a challenge at the state levels. However, there are several good examples of progressive and open mindset among ministers at the state level too. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <br /> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">These include Vasundhara Raje, Chief Minister of Rajasthan; Uma Bharati when she was the CM of Madhya Pradesh; and Buddhadev Bhattacharjee, the CM of West Bengal. D. B. Inamdar and H. D. Revanna come to mind when I talk of open mindsets among ministers in Karnataka. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <br /> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Inamdar was the Information Technology Minister several years ago when the board of governors of the Indian Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore (IIITB) was solving the difficult problem of finding a permanent home for IIITB. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <br /> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">But for his proactive and open mindset to solve problems quickly using new paradigms, I do not think we could have got such a beautiful home for IIITB as it has today. Similarly, Revanna’s progressive policies and quick decision-making helped Electronic City get the much-needed substation to handle its power problems.</span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <br /> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Raghunath Mashelkar, former Director General of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), often says that we fight a constant battle between our mind, which is the engine of problem solving, and our mindset, which is a set of beliefs and dogmas. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <br /> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">He notes that the mindset prevents the mind from taking bold and innovative decisions based on openness to data and facts. He believes that only those minds that win the battle will make progress. I see a slow movement towards winning this battle among our leaders.</span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <br /> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">While I see a fundamental shift towards openness among most of our senior bureaucrats, I do not see that percolating downwards. I will demonstrate this with two examples. The first pertains to my experiences with Shiv Shankar Menon, our current Foreign Secretary. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <br /> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Menon is one of the finest bureaucrats this country has produced. He is a fine gentleman, courteous, always willing to help and is constantly on the move to improve efficiency of his department. A couple of years ago, the government had issued a 64-page passport but quickly stopped that practice. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img align="left" alt="Openness lacks in govt bodies" border="0" hspace="0" src="http://sparks.wisdomjobs.com/images/spark_images/nr053.jpg" title="Openness lacks in govt bodies" valign="top" vspace="0" /></span></span>Last year, I requested Menon to provide a 200-page passport to frequent travellers like us so that we did not have to get new passports every few months.</span></div> <div align="justify"> </div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> <br /> </span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">This would also increase the validity of our visas, since many countries require us to obtain new visas whenever we change the passport, New Zealand being an example of this policy. I told him the 64-page passport was not very convenient, as the frequency of travel abroad was high in our industr</span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">y and that we would be happy to pay the expenses needed for a 200-page passport. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <br /> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Being an extraordinarily openminded leader, he readily agreed and promised me that we would have such a passport. He obviously and rightly expected people in his department to handle this task.</span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <br /> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">A few months later, I was informed that there would be a ceremony in Bangalore where the minister of state for external affairs would give me the first new jumbo passport. I was thrilled. But, when I received the passport, I found that it was the same old 64-page passport! </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <br /> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The officials present explained that it was not possible to produce a 200-page passport since the ministry press did not have a machine that could stitch 200-pages! It is surprising that at a time when India plans to land a satellite on the moon, we cannot import, if not produce, a machine that can stitch 200 passport pages. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <br /> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The problem is just in the mindset of the other people within the same department. This example shows how an extraordinary leader’s initiatives can be derailed by the old mindset of a few people working under the leader. This has to change.</span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <br /> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">I will give you another example of our old mindset. A CEO of a very famous Fortune 500 US company wanted to get an Indian visa to participate in the Asia Business Council (ABC) meeting in New Delhi. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <br /> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">When his office contacted the Indian Consulate General’s office in his area, his secretary was told that he would have to leave his passport with the Indian Consulate for 30 days to get a visa! </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <br /> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">He informed the ABC secretariat that his frequent travels would not allow him to leave his passport for 30 days with the Indian Consulate, and that he would not be able to attend the ABC conference. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <br /> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Ronen Sen, our ambassador in the US, came to know about this through a Cabinet Minister in Delhi. He picked up the phone, called the CEO, apologised and requested his staff to expedite the process. His department immediately carried out the mandatory checks and issued a five-year, multiple-entry visa, gratis, the same day. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <br /> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">I heard endless praise for India from the CEO publicly that made the country look good in front of ABC members whose companies have a total market capitalisation of more than a trillion dollars. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <br /> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">This is another powerful example of how some people within our government institutions have still not adapted to the changed circumstances and blur the good image of the country even though the top-level bureaucrats have made tremendous efforts to bring about a new mindset in their functioning. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <br /> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">If we want more FDI, as the PM has indicated several times, we have to make it comfortable for business leaders from abroad to visit India. We cannot take refuge under the reciprocity issue, which is the argument used by some junior bureaucrats to justify our procedures.</span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <br /> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">While I am worried that the desire for openness has still not become pervasive across all levels in our government institutions, I have come across several examples of positive change among them. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <br /> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The proactiveness of the income tax department people at Bangalore in introducing IT systems for filing income tax returns by our employees electronically, the extraordinary work of the Software Technology Park in being a catalyst to the IT industry all over the country, the efficient officials of the customs department at Bangalore, and the “under-promise-over-deliver” mindset of Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Orissa government officials are all good examples of such an open mindset that accepts that we can improve and takes steps to improve.</span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <br /> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">How does one instill in our people the openness to accept that one could be wrong and somebody else may have a better idea? </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <br /> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">At Infosys, we realised early enough that the best way to focus on the solutions and to solve problems quickly is to start every new transaction on a zero base, without any bias from previous transaction, and to use data and facts to argue our case. </span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span> <br /> <div style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div> <div align="justify"> <br /></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br /> <div align="justify"> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Such an approach enhances the confidence of our youngsters in meritocracy, in our fairness and in our desire to be inclusive. That is why, the famous adage, “In God we trust, everybody else brings data to the table,” is very popular at Infosys.</span></span></span></div> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span></div>

N.R Narayana Murthy Founder-Chairman, Infosys Technologies Limited

N. R. Narayana Murthy   Nagavara Ramarao Narayana Murthybetter known as  N. R. Narayana Murthy, is an Indian businessman and a ...

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