So it's confirmed! Mr. Vishal Sikka will be the new CMD of Infosys Technologies. And Mr. Murthy and Family has finally decided to bid adieu Infy. I am not sure which is better news of the two. As media and experts had mentioned time and again that any new CMD in the presence of Mr. Murthy would remain a puppet and might not be able to bring any transformational changes, it appears these two announcements are complementary to each other.
Infosys needed a new CMD as much as it needed him/her to perform independently. And with Mr. Morhty & Co. stepping down, it is now for the first time that Infosys fate lies completely in the hands of a non-founder and in this case a non-infoscion as well. Sikka is not only a non-infoscion, he is also a non-services background professional. His primary skills have predominately been in products space with SAP Labs where was the first CTO.
It will be interesting to watch how Infosys story unfolds in Non-founder driven era, however as an ex-infoscion and a careful observer of Infosys, i am now utilizing my rights to express my prediction:
Almost all non-performing Indian IT services outsourcing companies are claiming that line between services offerings and product offerings is blurring continuously and soon the market will be completely product driven. I completely disagree with this notion, this is a mere excuse to hide non-performance with self-prophecy of changing dynamic of outsourcing industry. Indian IT sector has grown on labour arbitrage and has to grow on the same unless we create Apple, Microsoft, Sun, Oracle and more recently Facebook and Whatsapp in India. Our strength lies in re-creation and not in creation and we must appreciate this fact and capitalize on it. China is not ashamed of cheap products it makes for the entire world, rather it has amassed trillion of US dollars as forex reserves with its core strength - Huge Scale, Cheap Labour. China has done it in Manufacturing, we have to do it in IT where we already have made some in-roads.
Being some one from a completely Product driven environment, it is likely for Sikka to focus more on product offerings than rely on bread-and-butter business of Application, Development and Maintenance (ADM) on which Indian outsourcing survives and thrives. He has to make a fine balance between these two, where with my prediction, I doubt he will succeed.
The other challenge he is going to face is his one-down line of managers, which will be a completely new set of Sr. VP's considering all those who grew with Infosys in past two decades have either left the company in the past one year or are on the verge of sending 'last day' emails.(Some will certainly leave in next 1-2 months citing differences with Sikka's working style).
Victory brings responsibilities - so claims Mr. Modi, and so should be motto of Mr. Sikka as well. My prediction goes against him with 30:70 of his success:failure in reviving Infosys. But may this be birth of a new biz star and brand new Infosys. Only time will tell!!
Infosys needed a new CMD as much as it needed him/her to perform independently. And with Mr. Morhty & Co. stepping down, it is now for the first time that Infosys fate lies completely in the hands of a non-founder and in this case a non-infoscion as well. Sikka is not only a non-infoscion, he is also a non-services background professional. His primary skills have predominately been in products space with SAP Labs where was the first CTO.
It will be interesting to watch how Infosys story unfolds in Non-founder driven era, however as an ex-infoscion and a careful observer of Infosys, i am now utilizing my rights to express my prediction:
Almost all non-performing Indian IT services outsourcing companies are claiming that line between services offerings and product offerings is blurring continuously and soon the market will be completely product driven. I completely disagree with this notion, this is a mere excuse to hide non-performance with self-prophecy of changing dynamic of outsourcing industry. Indian IT sector has grown on labour arbitrage and has to grow on the same unless we create Apple, Microsoft, Sun, Oracle and more recently Facebook and Whatsapp in India. Our strength lies in re-creation and not in creation and we must appreciate this fact and capitalize on it. China is not ashamed of cheap products it makes for the entire world, rather it has amassed trillion of US dollars as forex reserves with its core strength - Huge Scale, Cheap Labour. China has done it in Manufacturing, we have to do it in IT where we already have made some in-roads.
Being some one from a completely Product driven environment, it is likely for Sikka to focus more on product offerings than rely on bread-and-butter business of Application, Development and Maintenance (ADM) on which Indian outsourcing survives and thrives. He has to make a fine balance between these two, where with my prediction, I doubt he will succeed.
The other challenge he is going to face is his one-down line of managers, which will be a completely new set of Sr. VP's considering all those who grew with Infosys in past two decades have either left the company in the past one year or are on the verge of sending 'last day' emails.(Some will certainly leave in next 1-2 months citing differences with Sikka's working style).
Victory brings responsibilities - so claims Mr. Modi, and so should be motto of Mr. Sikka as well. My prediction goes against him with 30:70 of his success:failure in reviving Infosys. But may this be birth of a new biz star and brand new Infosys. Only time will tell!!
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