Destroying the office of the CEO and turnaround of Infosys: Vishal Sikka
Around noon on June 12, Vishal Sikka, named chief executive-designate by Infosys a couple of hours earlier, spoke in a town hall meeting, web cast across all of the company's development centers.An hour later, one employee at the Mysore facility who anxiously heard every word Sikka spoke, was a relieved man. "It was just so assuring hearing him," said the engineer, who joined the software company in 2011. "Not that he (Sikka) spoke of anything grand but whatever he spoke (including) digital transformations, on areas of cloud, etc, were in such a saint-like manner. That was it. That's all what we want here," said the engineer. It may be marked as the biggest resurrection at corporate India.
Just What the Doctor Had Ordered
Since his appointment, Sikka has taken five key steps, early signs of which seem to suggest that there has been a change in the mood from near-despondency to excitement. Note that on June 12, the day World Cup soccer kicked off, Vishal Sikka was the most discussed subject globally on Twitter.Sikka since then has tried to win the confidence of senior ranks at Infosys, instill confidence among the software engineers, and even reached out to former company executives, making many believe he has an "inclusive leadership style". Finally, in between making three trips to Bangalore, Sikka has also met with several clients and venture capitalists, leaving some to even suggest if Sikka is the new Murthy."From what we can tell through our contacts, the mood has changed...employees, clients and investors are definitely excited," said Ray Wang of Constellation Research. "There is a more can-do attitude than before," adding that "culture and people are key to success" in any services-focussed IT company.
On the day Sikka was named the CEO-designate, Infosys elevated 12 leaders to the position of executive vice-president with additional responsibilities. Experts then dubbed it as a good start by Sikka for it could help the company stop the exodus of senior talent. Since then, only one senior vice-president, K Murali Krishna, has left the company. This is heartening for Infosys which saw at least four senior vice-presidents quitting in the six months starting January this year.
To Change The Way You Look, Change The Way You Cook
Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka will launch an exhaustive survey to seek inputs of the employees, getting their thoughts on the ways to make the company better, while also enabling them to be trained under the concept of design-thinking. Vishal Sikka as the first non-founder CEO of Infosys is looking at ways to re-energize the company and he took his management team to Stanford University to get the first
hand feel of the latest technology trends. The Infosys CEO also remarked that tens of thousands of Infoscions will be trained on design-thinking over the next few quarters.