Infosys Sees A Change of Guard: Vishal Sikka Appointed as CEO
Infosys Sees A Change of Guard: Vishal Sikka Appointed as CEO
Indian software and tech giant Infosys has appointed Vishal Sikka as the new chief executive. Co-founder Narayana Murthy will leave the firm. Murthy emerged from retirement to become the chairman for 5 years and revive the flagging fortunes of the firm. But his return was the period during which there was a mass exodus of senior executives from top positions in the firm.
In a move that is a change from the precedence at Infosys, Sikka will now look to mint better fortunes for the company. Growth and productivity are two sides of the same coin and Sikka should hope to channelise both when he aims at reviving the software industry. He will be taking charge of the company from the 1st of August. Indian software firms have experienced a growth rate slowdown in recent times.
Economic downturns in EU and the US have impacted India's IT industry. Infosys has been losing market share to TCS in recent times though a jump in revenue and profit was noted for the year ending 31st March. Sikka now looks to tap new areas of growth. Computing technology has advanced and Infosys is looking to keep pace with the progress while delivering top of the line solutions to clients.
Infosys had launched an executive search to find a new CEO for their firm. The former executive of German IT major SAP Dr. Vishal Sikka was the chosen one. With over $8 billion in revenue, Infosys has now acquired its first non-founder CEO. 47 year old Sikka's entry as the CEO and executive chairman of the board of directors of Infosys on June 14th, will see the exit of company founder N R Narayana Murthy, co-founder Kris Gopalkrishnan and founder CEO S D Shibulal.
Dr. Rohan Murthy who holds a PhD in computer science from Harvard University will also exit the company on the same date as his father. Infosys has also promoted U. B. Pravin Rao from its president and whole time director to the COO. Infosys founder Murthy said he was confident of Sikka's “valuable experience” which would make him an “ideal choice to lead Infosys”.
Dr. Sikka also spoke of how he was honoured to work with “talented Infoscions from around the world”. Sikka is a PhD in computer science from Stanford University. At SAP, he managed everything from traditional and cloud-based applications to technology and platform products. This includes analytics, mobile and middleware. Sikka has led numerous initiatives for innovation and research according to a statement issued by Infosys about its CEO-designate. The IT bellwether has seen quite a few highs and lows.
The latest hiring decisions will bring about a generational change of leadership at the company. Original founders of this IT major will now move to non-executive roles. TCS remains the winner when it comes to the IT sector. To pose a strong challenge to it, Infosys needs to be steered to production oriented growth strategies and fend of competitions from younger players such as HCL, Tech Mahindra and Cognizant.
