Chandra Shekar Kakal may not be known widely to the outside world, but at Infosys Technologies, he is the leader of 12,000 people bringing in business worth over $1 billion. But there is a more important reason why this vice president of enterprise solutions must be watched. He is among the handful of future leaders who will shape the new Infosys in the next decade or so. He is one of the faces the world must get used to once the company’s iconic founders bow out in deference to age and change. But Kakal should do just fine. His mentor? Narayana Murthy himself!
Subhash Dhar, Ashok Vemuri, V. Balakrishnan and B.G. Srinivas, all Kakal’s peers, are now coming under the same limelight. These five are among a band of leaders being groomed to take over from the founding team of Murthy, Nandan Nilekani and S. “Kris” Gopalakrishnan.
Imagine being asked to lead the Roman Empire after Augustus. Infosys is no ordinary company; its reputation is globally enviable. Its leaders enjoy an iconic status. Inside the company, they virtually have a demi-god status. “They are brands and personalities of their own. It will be extremely difficult for anyone to replace them,” says Sudin Apte, country head of research firm Forrester.
As if that wasn’t tough enough, the new leaders would be required to develop their own script for running Infosys. If that means overturning the precepts under which Infosys has been run until now, so be it. This new band of boys is already tweaking the so-called Murthy Doctrine — a financial model that has invariably helped the software giant beat market forecasts over and over again.
It will be one of the most keenly watched corporate transitions in recent times — and one that is fraught with huge risk. Not without reason. No other promoter group perhaps has caught the public imagination in Indian corporate history in quite the same way as Infy has. The story of how seven middle class engineers created Infosys in Pune in 1981 with a modest seed capital of Rs. 10,000 is now part of business folklore. Yet, in five to seven years, practically all the promoters will no longer be involved in the day-to-day running of the company. That’s something Murthy had scripted back in 1998. He ordained that all founders would step down from operational roles when they turn 60 and leave the board at the age of 65.
Starting August 20, 2011, when Murthy will retire, the old guard will start putting more and more of Infosys in the hands of the new leadership. Within the next decade the remaining founders, who are now in their mid-50s, will start retiring too. The bench of leaders is already deep. Infosys Leadership Institute (ILI) has helped the company’s board to identify 50 senior executives. The founders as well as Infosys veterans Mohandas Pai and Srinath Batni each will groom a few of them. Kakal is one of the eight people being mentored by Murthy. “The key that we look at is consistent performance, because that gives a good indication of his ability to run a long-term marathon. The second, is he building something which is of long-term value?” says Girish Vaidya, who heads ILI.
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