India’s second-largest IT service provider, Infosys celebrated completing 40 years in the business on December 14. Nilekani returned to the company in 2017 to set his sights firmly on looking to formulate a succession plan for the company.
The Co-founder and Chairman Nandan Nilekani said that his eventual exit is in place. Adding to this Nandan Nilekani said that the next Infosys Chairman will be a Non-Founder and there is “No Plan B” for this.
Nandan Nilekani said the primary criteria while selecting a successor is to ensure the vision of co-founders. He has admitted he was wrong in keeping the next generation of promoters away from Infosys.
Nilekani at an event said, “I’ll be handing over to a chairman at whatever point that I exit from the scene, who’ll be a… non-founder.”
There cannot be a “Plan B” regarding his succession, as “if I hand over to someone and it doesn’t work, I cannot come back at 75”.
He said, “I think I was depriving this organisation of legitimate talent… I think every individual must have the same opportunity as every other individual if he or she is considered the best person for that job.”
“Today, my view is that you should not worry… as long as you have the best competence for a job,” Murthy said.
Talking about the relationship between the CEO and the Chairman, he said, “… the CEO’s job is running, executing, managing, motivating people, and being very customer-focused. One of the things I like about Salil (CEO) is he will drop everything and catch a flight to Greenland if necessary if he has to close a deal.”
Additionally, Infosys is opening four new offices in tier-II cities like Coimbatore, Noida, and Vizag. The move is aimed to empower local talent.
Infosys currently employs 3,45,218 employees as of September 30, 2022. The company is also planning to increase its hiring target ahead.
Earlier, Infosys also communicated its plan for work from office. The company said to its employees that it is going to adopt a ‘three-phase work from office plan’.
