Three years ago, Nandan Nilekani was expected to return to Infosys but just about managed to stave off pressure from his friends and co-founders as he didn’t feel the pressing need to come back.
Today, there is no one who is more suitable than Nilekani, 62, to rescue Infosys as the IT major faces its biggest crisis in its 36 years of existence. No one will be happier than NR Narayana Murthy, his mentor and co-founder of Infosys, to see him back.
Murthy, who calls Infosys as his middle child, had repeatedly questioned the company’s governance practices since he stepped down.
He set the cat among the pigeons by sending a series of letters to the board questioning them about issues ranging from severance pay to a former CFO to the acquisition of Israeli company Panaya.
The nervousness was quite evident as the board under R Seshasayee kept denying any wrong doings but had to yield under intense scrutiny from the founders as well as media.
The first to go was Vishal Sikka himself, the CEO and MD of the company, and on Thursday, almost the entire board quit including the chairman, R Seshasayee and co-chairman, Ravi Venkatesan.
Nilekani will have to do much more than getting answers for these issues. Firstly, he will have to restore confidence among the 2-lakh-odd employees.
Next, he will have to meet clients to assure them that the company will honour its commitments and is willing to partner them in their quest for growth. He will also have to push the transformation agenda, an exercise which Sikka tried in vain to get going.
His second innings unlike his first will be full of challenges and Nilekani knows that failure is not an option.
There won’t be another chance for him to come good. But he has far better skills now and is better equipped in handling the crisis at Infosys.
His tenure as the UIDAI Chairman which rolled out Aadhaar and then as a candidate for the Lok Sabha elections in which he gave a stiff fight to the NDA candidate are experiences which should come in handy.
Nilekani’s commitment to IndiaStack will have to wait for a while as he sets about bringing back the bellwether status of Infosys.
Sikka said, “Last week I said that my remaining on the Infosys Board was to primarily enable a smooth transition. In Nilekani, we have found an ideal leader to manage this transition.”
“Under Nandan, Infosys will build a cohesive management team that will no doubt take the company to a leadership position in the industry. I believe these changes will infuse further confidence to the stakeholders in executing the transition plan and in reinforcing the strategy for the future,” said Seshasayee.