Vishal Sikka blames Narayana Murthy's 'sniping' for his exit

In an interview with FT, says he learnt the lesson that the founder had strong influence at Infosys

Former Infosys chief executive Vishal Sikka has hit out at his predecessor, N R Narayana Murthy, blaming “sniping” from the co-founder of India’s second-largest information technology (IT) services company for his abrupt resignation. 

In an interview with the Financial Times (FT), Sikka said his efforts to reshape the company would have been “difficult if everybody was supporting it, but if the founder goes up against that then it becomes impossible”.

The FT quoted Sikka as saying that he felt undermined by criticism from Murthy, who had complained of an erosion in Infosys’ values of transparency and humility. Sikka wondered what one could do if an iconic founder was questioning governance and questioning the value system in the wrong way. He added that the lesson he learnt at Infosys was that the founder’s influence was very strong.