Leadership rejig to pick next Infosys CEO: Murthy

Restructuring of the leadership in Indian IT bellwether Infosys would help in the selection of the next chief executive from inside, its co-founder and chairman N.R. Narayana Murthy said Friday.

"Appointment of two presidents is an important initiative to help the nomination committee create an internal place for selecting the next CEO," he told reporters in this Karnataka city, about 150 km from Bangalore.

The global software major Jan 3 appointed board directors B.G. Srinivas and Pravin Rao as twin presidents, reporting to chief executive S.D. Shibulal.

Noting that restructuring was a part of transformational changes in the large organisation, Murthy said in the event of considering an external candidate for the chief executive post, the rejig would have stability and ensure its growth trajectory.

"A lot of deliberation has gone into restructuring the leadership team from the executive council and to prevent any perturbation in our future growth trajectory,"he said.

The company has formed a three-tier leadership structure with 600 people to explore new opportunities and deal with more challenges.

"For a company that focuses on leadership, while it is sad to see many of excellent people leave the organisation for various professional and personal reasons, the beauty of the company is it has a large number of leaders to run and take it forward. Some are in their fifties and forties while many more are in sub-forties," Murthy said.

Since Murthy returned as chairman June 1 after retiring in August 2011, eight executives, including senior director V. Balakrishnan left the company during the last two quarters.

Following the creation of two presidents, the company has decided to dissolve the executive council as a forum from April 1.

Recalling that he was brought up to aspire for better things, Murthy said in his case, the board had asked him to add value to the company by rejoining as its executive company for a five-year term.

"As I have said at the AGM (annual general meeting) in June 2013 in Bangalore, I am sure the board will allow me to retire earlier than the five-year term I had been appointed, as I have set a 36-month timeframe to rebuild the company's fortunes," Murthy added.