Infy mentor: Murthy pitches for oldest founder

Come August 2011, N R Narayana Murthy -- the chairman and chief mentor of India's second-largest IT services firm Infosys Technologies -- will sport the designation of chairman emeritus. It is a position which Infoscions and the senior management team have decided to confer on the person who co-founded the company with six others almost 29 years ago.

"After August 2011, I will have no role. I will be called the chairman emeritus -- at least that's what they have decided. I will have this office, if I want to come. Other than that, I won't have any role. I will not be on the board," says Murthy, sitting in his sprawling office which appears more like a library, lacking the decorative features of any modern day CEO's office.

The dissociation with the 'child', born in 1982 at a time when the Indian private sector was reeling from darkness owing to the "licence raj", won't be easy for the 64-year-old founder chairman. He draws a parallel with the "pain" caused by his daughter's absence after she got married.

"It is not easy to walk away from your daughter, but then, you realise that the daughter has to get married and go with a young man," says Murthy. Similarly, his professional life will come to an end in August 2011 when he retires from the board of the company on reaching the age of 65.

The longest-serving CEO of Infosys Technologies (Murthy had a tenure of 21 years as the CEO and MD), who retired from the company (from any kind of executive role) in 2006, he is still very particular about his office timings. Even though age has caught up with him (he does not reach office at 6.30 am as he used to do earlier), he still ensures that he is in his chamber daily by 8.30-8.45 am.

"I actually retired from the company in 2006 when I turned 60. So now, I don't need to swipe when I come in. I have no employee number. I don't get any salary... but I come. From 2011, I won't even do that," he says.

Will his exit from the company not create a void at a time when the Bangalore-based firm is trying to cope with the recent exit of another co-founder, Nandan Nilekani, who now heads the government's unique identity project?

Murthy believes the company has created a long pipeline of co-founders and non-founders in the senior management, who are capable of taking new roles to steer the company in the next phase of growth.

"It's eight years since I stepped down in 2002 (as CEO), but the company has gone on from strength to strength. The company will continue to grow and become stronger and stronger with the new set of people in the driving seat," said Murthy, who has now set up his venture capital fund, Catamaran Ventures. It is expected to keep him occupied, post-retirement.

At the same time, he also makes it clear about his availability for suggestions whenever the company needs it. "This company is like my child. If the senior people in the company want me to add value to the company, I am not going to say 'No'." But he is clear he will not take the first step in this regard.

While discussing about the broad strategy on leadership issues, he reiterates: "It won't be proper on my part to make any comment, as I won't be associated with the company at that time." But he adds that the company will obviously have a mentor, hinting that the new chief mentor should ideally be one among the senior-most founding members.

"Everyone of these (founding team members) individuals has had a wonderful value system. They have demonstrated a lot of sacrifice. They work very hard... and they have built up large teams. There is no doubt at all in the minds of anybody in the company that these people have made tremendous contribution to the company. So it's only natural that somebody from the founding team, who is the oldest in the company, occupies that position," he says.

Among the seven co-founders, three have left. Ashok Arora quit the company in 1989 when Infosys was still in its infancy, to pursue interests in the US. The second to leave was N S Raghavan, who voluntarily retired in 2000 to promote his vision of entrepreneurship by setting up Nadathur Holdings. After his retirement from Infosys, Raghavan funded a centre for entrepreneurship studies called NSRCEL at IIM-Bangalore. Nilekani who became the CEO in 2002 for a period of five years, is so far the last among the co-founders to quit the company, to head the Centre's ambitious UID project.

Murthy says it's like children leaving home for higher studies and do exciting things in life. "When children grow up, and once they complete their studies, they are not going to stay in your house. They have to go out, they have to do more exciting things, they have to do bigger things or they retire. So, it is natural and normal."

In its almost 29 years of existence, Infosys, the company founded by first generation entrepreneurs, has seen three CEOs, including Murthy, Nilekani and Kris Gopalakrishnan, who were all from the founding team. While Murthy has held the office of CEO and MD for 21 years, Nilekani took up the mantle in 2002 at the age of 49. Murthy says that after him, the company realised that all other co-founders were of the same age and it's only fair that they got some opportunities, unless someone is not interested or not well.

However, Murthy is categorical that the CEO's position should be held by someone who has the chance of serving the company at least for a period of five years. Besides, it also depends on whether the person concerned is keen for the position or not, says Murthy taking the example of N S Raghavan who did not want to occupy the position.

"We will not have a person who is reaching 60. I mean you can't give one or two years if the person is reaching 60. It won't happen. So there are a lot of factors. In my case, I had a run of 21 years. When Nilekani took over in 2002, he was just 49. Kris was 51 in 2007 when he became the CEO. So it all depends on all those factors," says Murthy.

The founder chairman of the company, however, reiterates that it is the nominations committee of the company that has to deliberate on matters like future leadership, and it is for the board of directors to take a final call. "That time, I won't be here... so it's not proper for me to talk about that."