[hserus]

And meanwhile Sikka joins HP as it’s CTO

http://www.asianage.com/business/com...rd-as-cto.html

Meanwhile, let this euphoria persist at Infy till such time as the reality check takes to clear.

[NPV]

Originally Posted by hserus

And meanwhile Sikka joins HP as it’s CTO

This will reinforce what the infy side was saying last week - that he is CTO material.

[hserus]

Originally Posted by NPV

This will reinforce what the infy side was saying last week - that he is CTO material.

In a much larger company

I was in a small company that was acquired about a decade back. The company CEO became a mere director and the CTO became a senior manager. I was reporting to the CTO before the acquisition, and suddenly became a mere band 8 minnow in a very large ocean.

[AMG Power]

Originally Posted by catchjyoti

Now with Nandan back and Sesh and some others out, can we hope to see the three Panaya investigation reports to be made public?

I think a decision on this will be taken after they assess the impact of making / not making it public. Too early to decide as they've probably got a lot to digest at this point.

Originally Posted by hserus

In a much larger company

It still is a CTO.

[catchjyoti]

The two investor calls by Nandan today are now available in the below link.

https://www.infosys.com/investors/ne...-aug-2017.aspx

[catchjyoti]

Though Nandan had positive things to say about Ravi Venkatesan in today's con-calls, former CFO's Bala and Pai want Ravi out.

https://www.bloombergquint.com/busin...lekani-returns

Some excerpts from the above article are below.

"Ravi has run with the hare and hunted with the hound. He has played both sides very badly. He has met me personally and said he wanted to get rid of Vishal. He wanted time to say Vishal is not working. And then he made a public statement that Murthy should come back in open. Two days back he changed it because a letter was leaked from the company. And I know who has leaked the letter, I don’t want to say the name. He has played both sides and his conduct has been disgraceful. I want to put it on the public record. And I think he must go, and that we have no trust or confidence in him."
Mohandas Pai, Former CFO, Infosys

"Personally if you ask me, Ravi has been a big let down. He should not have allowed that press release on Murthy to go to the stock exchanges and belittle him. Murthy is iconic and the best business leader this company has ever produced. Belittling him in public by sending such a press release is a big let down. Ravi should not have been in the board. Nandan has to take the call now in the best interest of the company."
V Balakrishnan, Former CFO, Infosys

I guess Ravi may be safe for now but may not be able to stay much longer.

[catchjyoti]

Originally Posted by hserus

And meanwhile Sikka joins HP as it’s CTO

Just watched Sikka speaking to Shireen Bhan on CNBC. He denied the news that he is joining HP as CTO.

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by catchjyoti

Just watched Sikka speaking to Shireen Bhan on CNBC. He denied the news that he is joining HP as CTO.

Oh, that sounds better. I was wondering how HP could decide on a new CTO in less than a week. CXO level hires at large companies take months to finalize. Sikka became available only this week.

[V.Narayan]

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/i...1/1032710.html

Interesting full narrative of the saga from before Sikka's hiring. NRN's insistence that wrong doing must be located despite two independent law firms of repute investigating and saying there is none says something about his mind set.

Questions for our members - (1) would NRN be placated if Rohan Murty is made CEO!!! (2) Will NRN now turn his vindictiveness on NN and insist NN must find integrity cases against Sikka regardless of Amarchand Mangaldas and Gibson Dunn's findings (3) I suspect at least some large clients would think of de-risking by having some of their work transferred to another vendor.

This makes a great HBS case study. A 0.38% shareholder using his larger than life status to oust a CEO, publicly accuse a Board, cause the Chairman & 2 other directors to resign and lead to a market loss of $ 4bn in a day. A 0.38% shareholder! This case will help corporate India mature and understand that institutions are larger than the individual even when that individual is a NRN.

Clients are shifting investments to digital technologies such as social, mobile, analytics and cloud -- or smac as the IT folks call it. Contracts for large enterprise resource planning software are shrinking amid brutal price competition. Even brick & mortar guys like me know this. Instead of marching at double quick Infosys has just lost a year or two in rejig and get back to base one.

Board room and senior management disagreements are thrashed out behind closed doors. With the doors locked you can yell at each other but once you step out into the public glare you speak as one. NRN violated the first principle of a cabinet. The damage he has caused in destroying the Board and the CEO in one stroke is like your virginity - you can lose it only once. No offense meant to any employees or supporters of NRN here.

[C300]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

This case will help corporate India mature and understand that institutions are larger than the individual even when that individual is a NRN.

Thats what NRN has been saying all along
Dont see anything wrong in what he has raised so far. He has also clarified on role for his family going fwd. NN ang UB at the helm will bring much needed stability. Dont think there will be significant impact on contracts with key clients. These are multi year contracts and difficult for clients to replace large vendor overnight. With Sikka gone, we can probably see bottomline improving.

[AMG Power]

What would be even more interesting for a HBR case study would be a review of the first instance in corporate history that share prices have risen after resignation of Board members.

If Infosys were to lose a year or two no one would have dared remove the CEO or the Board. Right now they wouldn't be losing even a day in regular operations as it would be business as usual at the operational level. A year or two?? Haha !!

NRN is neither Board nor senior management. So let's look elsewhere for virgins.

[V.Narayan]

Now that Team BHPians have thrashed the Infosys story to death with both sides convinced they are the indomitable Gauls and the other the dastardly Romans let's wish NN all luck and Godspeed to rehabilitate the company and make it great again for the sake of its 200,000 employees and 200,000 crore+ market capitalization. For the moment NN is absolutely the best man to turn the tide.

Coming back to the original title - the question remains a daunting one for each promoter of what next after me especially if the next generation want to pursue other careers. For a founder shareholder his/her whole being, whole life, every waking moment for xx decades has been devoted to the business he/she built. As I am realizing it is not just how will the business cope without "(self-declared) indispensable little me" but also (sub-consciously) how the hell will I survive without the business and all the sense of being, importance, stimulation, authority, status it has brought. I have told my Board that I will retire on XXX date a little over 5 years out. I had set this date 2 years ago. I am trying to groom succession from amongst my senior and loyal staff. It is a task but can be done. Should I continue on the Board after that date and constantly be a mother in law hanging around? should I abandon all ties and say farewell I don't care - and how does one do that with the company's logo etched on each cell inside. My conclusion is to develop a second career outside the corporate world in areas that interest me and invest serious time and money into it. The successor is best an internal candidate - not ideal but the best balance.

[androdev]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/i...1/1032710.html
Questions for our members - (1) would NRN be placated if Rohan Murty is made CEO!!! (2) Will NRN now turn his vindictiveness on NN and insist NN must find integrity cases against Sikka regardless of Amarchand Mangaldas and Gibson Dunn's findings (3) I suspect at least some large clients would think of de-risking by having some of their work transferred to another vendor.

Being a fellow founder Narayan, I would have thought you would be more sympathetic I don't think NRN is doing it for personal/family reasons. Some people approached him with genuine concerns and he went to war in a way that made sense to him.

This makes a great HBS case study. A 0.38% shareholder using his larger than life status to oust a CEO, publicly accuse a Board, cause the Chairman & 2 other directors to resign and lead to a market loss of $ 4bn in a day. A 0.38% shareholder! This case will help corporate India mature and understand that institutions are larger than the individual even when that individual is a NRN.

Even a shareholder with a single stock is entitled to take the entire team to task if things look goofy. There are plenty of activist shareholder stories to learn from. If NRN was merely a shareholder and not a founder, he would not have received such a backlash. The current mood in the country is against founders/promoters abusing their position for self-interest. But NRN is not Vijay Mallya or Ratan Tata. The concerns he raised are genuine and not frivolous/political.

Clients are shifting investments to digital technologies such as social, mobile, analytics and cloud -- or smac as the IT folks call it. Contracts for large enterprise resource planning software are shrinking amid brutal price competition...

I fail to understand why Sikka gets so much credit for this "writing on the wall" strategy. But did he go and hire specialists of this "smac"? No, he sent a lifeboat to SAP which itself is a sinking large ERP software company. Why? To surround himself with yes men. If he is considered "silicon valley material", why didn't he do acquihires or targeted poaching that is very much valley like. Name one person he has hired to give credit to his smac strategy.

If you feel his strategy was through large M&A, what experience did he have in this? And who in the board had any M&A experience. Why are people so optimistic that an outsider first-time CEO (who works from home) and random inorganic M&A is the ticket to a bright future?

To his credit, Sikka timed his exit exceptionally well. In a year or two his report card would be so bad that he would have been asked to go.

Board room and senior management disagreements are thrashed out behind closed doors...

These days anything of significance makes it to the press.

You know what Sundar Pichai, Satya Nadella, etc. consciously avoid? They would not want to be seen as pro India CEOs. I bet they consciously avoid doing anything that raises the suspension that they have a bias towards India. If they do some India friendly stuff and someone raises a stink (someone would always) and their entire credibility would be undermined. They can hire lawyers, auditors, etc. to clear their names but they would still be staring at the exit door.

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Should I continue on the Board after that date and constantly be a mother in law hanging around?.

If you sell all your equity, you will have little reason to hang around. But if you retain decent amount of equity and then the people you have mentored and respect look up to you to fix the problems, you would find it very hard to look the other way.

[chinkara]

Interesting debate. Very strong positions on both sides.

For what it is worth, a batchmate who was in a reasonably senior role feels that Sikka has done a good job in cleaning up the Aegean stables (in his view there were many non-performing middle managers around our batches through the next few years i.e. 1998-2007) but the strategic re-positioning is more marketing than substance.

He agrees though that Sikka brought back some enthusiasm in the organization (he left Infy during Murthy's second stint which he says was a disaster, so not sure of his impartiality here).

[sgiitk]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Oh, that sounds better. I was wondering how HP could decide on a new CTO in less than a week. CXO level hires at large companies take months to finalize. Sikka became available only this week.

In other words, things were brewing on the backburner. i do not think at Sikka's level there will be backup offers per se.