The retirement of Kris Gopalakrishnan, the last of the seven co-founders of Infosys — N.R. Narayana Murthy, Nandan Nilekani, S.D. Shibulal, N.S. Raghavan, K. Dinesh and Ashok Arora are the others — is a nostalgic occasion for Infosys. It was a shining beacon of leadership that made waves in the world of information technology since it started in 1981.
It set standards of honesty, fair play and corporate governance (CG) long before CG became a buzz word. Though Infosys had smoothly transitioned into a new era some months ago thanks to the vision of Mr Murthy, with the installation of its first globally renowned professional CEO from the US, Vishal Sikka, Mr Gopalakrishnan was still the remaining link to the founders.
Infosys is always spoken about in superlatives, but it had its ups and downs. One of the founders even quit as he thought Infosys would not make it after its first joint venture failed. Another founder joined a bigger IT firm in the US but later returned.
Infosys remains one of its kind in the country in that the founders took the company to heady heights and had the spiritual and emotional strength to hand it over to a professional. Most promoters in India find it difficult to give up what they gave birth to, and put their sons and daughters as successors. The way Mr Murthy and his band of six stalwarts took turns to head the company, and give way to the next CEO, in their prime, is admirable and unmatched in India. There is so much that India Inc. can learn from it.V
