Will Infosys Become The IT Bellwether?

Vishal Sikka took charge of Infosys nearly 19 months ago and has introduced fundamental changes to the company’s structure, its work culture and its performance. An inside account of how the new Infosys CEO is trying to bring back the company into the high-growth mode. 

- Rajeev Dubey

If you have been to the Bangalore-based Electronics City headquarters of Infosys over years, there’s something reflective about this visit. The corner room from where you half expect founder and former chairman N.R. Narayana Murthy to walk out, is now occupied by the company’s first non-founder CEO, 48-year old Vishal Sikka. Nandan Nilekani’s – and later Kris Gopalakrishnan and S.D. Shibulal’s – room next door now has the Buddhaesque calmness of COO U.V. Pravin Rao.

Neither the interiors nor the rust-coloured upholstery in these haloed corridors has changed in more than a decade, but the $8.7 billion Infosys is being forced to change – rather RAPIDLY. First, by the widespread disruption of the IT services model by digital, cloud and Internet of Things that is debilitating Indian majors; and second, by the burly CEO & MD of 19 months, Vishal Sikka himself.

Splitting his time between San Francisco (where he continues to live), Bangalore and the rest of the world, Sikka has given Infosys a new 2020 goal and introduced fundamental changes to the company’s structure, its work culture and its performance. Freshly promoted executive vice presidents have infused a new sense of urgency and informality. For a change, you can wear jeans on the campus, though only on Fridays. For the first time in five years, Infosys may have a realistic shot at regaining its bellwether status in the Indian IT services industry. And the stock market values Infosys 46 per cent higher than it did on the day Sikka’s appointment was announced.

Shaking Up Infosys