Lasting impressions. Unheard stories of Infosys: When Murthy recognized his co-founders

The founder of the IT major Infosys, N.R. Narayana Murthy at the company’s 40-year anniversary celebration shared anecdotes about each of his co-founders from the pre-Infosys period that left the first ever-lasting impression of them and depicted their passion. Here’s a compilation: 

When Murthy met Nandan Nilekani 

Murthy met Nandan Nilekani when he was working as the head of software at Patni Computer Systems. Nilekani walked into Murthy’s room on February 18, 1979 - which Murthy remembers vividly - to ask for a job. When asked why he wanted a job in February,  Nilekani said he wanted it as he had “free time” till September before he gets into a business school in the US. 

Although Nilekani was only looking at a short stint, Murthy gave him a learnability test because he believed that “It is better to have an intelligent man with you. No matter how short that period because that intelligence will add tremendous value.” 

Nilekani was the only candidate to get 50 out of 50 marks on the test and also went on to pass the next level of test - an IQ test called Matrix Rotation that was formed by Murthy, which he completed in a minute and a half. 

Kris Gopalakrishnan: The 23 year old project leader 

Kris Gopalakrishnan made an impression on Murthy when he was working on a project with him at Patni Computer Systems. Murthy said that Gopalakrishnan who joined with two others was the quiet one in the room, who never asked questions but perfectly executed the tasks. 

“A 23-year-old kid was being assisted by an IIT graduate and was a project leader,” Murthy proudly said. 

S.D Shibulal: The committed employee 

Murthy’s ever-lasting impression of Shibulal is also from the time when he was working at Patni Computer Systems. Murthy had instructed Shibulal to not leave the office until he finishes a project, when he was in a bad mood and completely forgot about it. But, two days later, when he was swinging by the office at night, he found out that Shibulal hadn’t gone back home and had been relentlessly working.

Murthy recalls when asked why, Shibulal had said, “You asked me not to go home until I finished this task, therefore I haven’t. The only thing is without your permission I have used the office bathroom to take a shower.” 

K Dinesh: The man who chose curiosity over job security

Dinesh, who used to work at a new government electric factory, in Bengaluru, a rather successful program, travelled to Bombay after he saw an advertisement about PCS. He went through the regular drills of Murthy’s tests and asked when he could know if he was selected or not. 

Murthy called him in the same evening but kept wondering why a man would leave a safe public sector job and shift to Bombay to live in cramped spaces. Murthy recalls that when he asked him why, Dinesh had said, “Sir, I want to learn new technology, I want to learn UI/UX.”

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