WC Fields famously proclaimed that you should never work with animals or children. Were he alive today he’d probably add ‘live video presentations from far away lands’ to the list. Not once, but twice, did Infosys run live video keynote presentations. And not once, but several times, were they beset by technical glitches. The first keynote was from the CIO of one of Infosys’ top CPG clients in Rome; the second was from outgoing CEO (and incoming co-chairman) ‘Kris’ Gopalakrishnan in Bangalore. Neither should have bothered. Indeed Kris seemed to set his sights on a spot some feet above the webcam as if seeking divine guidance – which was clearly not forthcoming.
All this merely set the scene for the final couple of days of the Infosys Connect conference in Las Vegas (see Infosys – Lost in innovation?). I am pleased to say, though, that for me at least, things improved dramatically after that.
As ever, it was the face-to-face meetings with Infosys top management that provided me with the most meaningful insight into the workings of India’s second largest global IT/BP services firm. My gentle – but very public – criticism of Infosys’ messaging mayhem generated spirited discussions with the likes of Paul Gottsegen (CMO), Steve Pratt (CS&I head) and many others in the Infosys top team (who were helpfully – and boldly – labelled LEADERSHIP on their name tags, I assume to differentiate them from the ‘followers’ that comprise the rest of the Infosys cadre).
A few personal highlights:
- Meeting Puneet Gill, CEO (and de facto ‘founder’) of Infosys Brazil, and finding that they really are doing things differently.
- Discussing our favourite Marx Brothers movies with Paul Gottsegen (mine – A Night at the Opera; his – Animal Crackers). We discussed serious stuff too!
- Learning how Infosys may indeed have finally ‘got’ consulting, from Steve Pratt and European consulting lead, Steve Kingston.
- Getting an update from Education & Research VP, Tan Moorty, about how Infosys recruits and trains tens of thousands of ‘freshers’ every year …
- … and from strategy head, Sanjay Purohit, about the couple of dozen bright young things from UK universities that participate in Infosys’ intern programme.
And, as I say, others besides.
All this confirmed to me the point I made in my prior UKHotViews post. Infosys actually does know what it needs to do to keep relevant. It just needs to tell the story a heck of a lot better and simpler. If I were Gottsegen, I would take my cue from Groucho himself, who also famously said, “A child of five would understand this. Send someone to fetch a child of five.”