Narayana Murthy cuts short speech as Amazon event starts after delay

Murthy, whose Catamaran Ventures is Amazon's partner in India, was speaking at the e-tailer's SMB event in presence of CEO Jeff Bezos

N R Narayana Murthy is known for his punctuality. So when his speaking engagement was delayed, the Infosys co-founder cut short his speech to 5 minutes from 20 minutes to help organisers get a grip on the schedule. 

“We are delayed by more than an hour and a half. I should have finished my talk at 11:45 am. But it is 11:53 am. Therefore, I will try and paraphrase my talk,” Murthy said at Amazon event in New Delhi on Wednesday. 

The two-day event, where the e-tailer announced a host of measures for small businesses selling on Amazon, coincides with the visit of its global chief Jeff Bezos. 

Amazon could have been spared of the embarrassment had it not been for Murthy, who expressed displeasure at the delay. 

“I was supposed to speak for 20 minutes, but will now try to finish it in five minutes because I am not used to delays,” said Murthy, to an audience of thousands, including small and medium businessess, start-ups and top corporate executives. 

Swiftly finishing his address, he promptly left to allow Bezos to take the stage. 

Murthy is an important partner of Amazon. His firm Catamaran Ventures, now run by ex-Infosys CFO Ranganath Mavinakere, part-owns Cloudtail, one of the largest sellers on Amazon.