We have leadership to handle mgt transition: Infosys

Allaying fears over changes in its top management, software major Infosys today said the company has the required leadership to manage transition and is in "safe hands".

"We have leadership required to handle transition. We have had transitions in the past...So these things are part and parcel of growth of corporations," Infosys CEO S Gopalakrishnan told reporters here talking about TV Mohandas Pai and K Dinesh's decision to step down from the Board.

In a surprise development, T V Mohandas Pai today resigned from Infosys and its Board of Directors, ending a 17-year association with the company.

The company also announced that K Dinesh, member of its Board and a co-founder, would retire by rotation at the Annual General Meeting to be held on June 11. Dinesh would not seek reappointment, it said.

Moreover, N R Narayana Murthy, chief mentor of the country's second largest IT firm, is scheduled to retire in August this year.

Gopalakrishnan further said: "I want to re-assure everybody that our goal is to provide the continuity required for Infosys and providing services to clients and a platform for our employees, to make sure that they learn, they have the right environment, they can excel and grow. We have confidence in leadership of the company. There are significant number of leaders in the company."

"You have to think about corporations living much longer than individuals. We have always believed that success of corporation is measured by its longevity, that means it has go much beyond individuals," he added.
     
The announcement comes on a day when Infosys reported a lower-than-expected consolidated net profit of Rs 1,818 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 2011, a nearly 14% jump from the same period last year.
     
Pai is the second top executive in Infosys to leave the organisation in two years after Nandan Nilekani, one of its founders, quit to join government to implement the ambitious project that will give identification number to each citizen.