The incredible success story of Vishal Sikka

From humble beginnings in Baroda to a PhD from Stanford University and leading a turnaround at tech giant SAP, Vishal Sikka's zest for knowledge guided his decision to join India's second-largest software services firm Infosys as its next CEO and MD.

It could be one of the toughest assignments for the 47-year-old industry expert as he takes on the mantle on August 1.

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Infosys, founded by N R Narayana Murthy in 1981, has been facing senior-level exits and competition from TCS and HCL Technologies.

"I'm very happy and humbled to take up this responsibility. I have always been amazed at how Infosys always put emphasis on education and learning," said Vishal Sikka. "Like Narayana Murthy, I am also the son of a teacher. My mother was a teacher in Rajkot, Gujarat, and my father was an engineer in the Indian Railways." 

Sikka complimented Infosys for its "deep understanding of value, learning and learnability".

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Born into a Punjabi family, Sikka studied at  the Rosary High School in Vadodara.

He graduated in computer engineering from MS University, Vadodara, from where Prime Minister Narendra Modi contested the recent Lok Sabha election.

Sikka is an avid reader and blogger. Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha one of his favourite books.

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Sikka graduated in computer science from Syracuse University and got his doctorate in artificial intelligence from Stanford University.

He worked at Xerox's research lab at Palo Alto and later started his first company, iBrain, with his brother, which was acquired by PatternRX, Inc.

His second start-up, Bodha.com, was bought by Peregrine Systems, where Sikka worked as vice president for platform technologies after the acquisition.

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Sikka joined German enterprise solutions provider SAP in 2002 to head the advanced technology group, where he was responsible for strategic innovative projects.

Five years later, he was named the first CTO of the company, reporting directly to the CEO, and was responsible for all SAP products and innovation.

Sikka is credited as the brain behind the game-changing HANA platform, which converges database and application platform capabilities in-memory to transform transactions and analytics, helping clients to derive meaningful conclusions out of mountains of data faster and at lower costs.

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In addition, he led multiple initiatives to accelerate innovation and research at SAP, playing a key role in turning around the firm.

While Sikka maintains that Infosys did not approach him while he was working with SAP, his sudden departure from the ERP solutions provider last month had sparked rumours that he was headed for the top job at the Bangalore-based firm.

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Sikka will continue to be based out of California, where he stays with his wife and two children.

Sikka is excited and confident as he takes on a new role. "To me, there is no doubt that an incredible journey is in front of us. With fellow Infocians we can take Infosys to incredible heights," he said.

He added that over the next few weeks, he will engage with clients and employees to inspire them about the "great opportunity" ahead.