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We picked up on an interview in the Economic Times of India with Infosys chairman N R Narayana Murthy which, among other things, highlighted a management exit we had previously missed, that of ex-Infosys Consulting head Steve Pratt. It transpires that Pratt, who in essence cofounded and built Infosys’ consulting practice in 2004, left the company in November, not long after Murthy appointed Chandrasekhar Kakal as consulting and systems integration head. Pratt was moved to lead Infosys’ utilities and resources vertical in North America. Infosys has yet to remove Pratt from the management line-up on its website.
In the ET interview, Murthy mused about top management succession when current CEO SD Shibulal is scheduled to step down in March 2015. Apparently, insiders V Balakrishnan (ex-CFO and current India head) and B G Srinivas (see Infosys swaps Europe head’s day job) are in the running. Murthy mooted he may step down earlier than his planned 5-year tenure – or on the other hand he might not.
All I can see this doing is creating more uncertainty about the direction and leadership of what is now India’s third-largest offshore services player, Infosys having recently slipped behind US-headquartered but very firmly India-centric Cognizant in the rankings (check out the latest edition of OffshoreViews to see the relative positioning of the major players). Murthy is rightfully revered in the Indian IT sector – but as we have said before, we don’t think Infosys should look to the past for its future.