Infosys stands tall

It’s all happening for Infosys. I was watching ‘Business Leader Awards’ in NDTV profit followed by 25th year celebrations of Infosys. Infosys got the ‘Most respected IT company award’ from NDTV profit. Also during their 25th anniversary celebration they have announced 126 crore bonus for their employees. Yesterday was another memorable day for Infosys when they rang the NASDAQ opening bell remotely from Mysore. It’s all happening for Infosys and it is standing tall among its customers, employees and shareholders. My mind started thinking about this company and its founders and thought of penning down my thoughts.

According to me Infosys has broken huge numbers of barriers and myths of Indian businesses:

To start with Indian businesses are mainly ‘family driven’ business where the promoter’s family holds the maximum amount of stake in the company. Also when the promoter retires their son or daughter takes over as the next chief executive of the company. Infosys is the FIRST company to break this tradition and made it a point that by ‘Design’ the company is not any individual or their family’s property but it is for the people by the people.

Second Infosys has demonstrated the ‘Wealth Sharing’ concept to Indians. Employees and shareholders have benefited tremendously from their stock options. On Sunday finance minister Chidambaram explained the same in his own words: ‘If your father or grandfather had invested in Infosys 25 years back today they would be multi millionaires today and I am sure if you invest today you can become the same in another 3-5 years”. I couldn’t agree more with Mr. Chidambaram.

Third it is always believed in India that educated, working middle class people cannot start and run their businesses and business is only for the ‘S0-called-rich’. Among Infosys founder’s no-one is from the ‘So-called-rich’ category and they are demonstrating today that in the Knowledge era it is not the background but the knowledge that matters more than anything else.

Fourth and most important point is Infosys explains the real meaning for ‘Values and Vision’. According to me this is the most inspiring because in 1981 when they started no-one would have even thought software can be developed from ‘So-called-third-world’ country called India. But the vision they had for the company and the value system that binds them together has brought them to where they are today. I remember Mr.Murthy telling he had to pay 120% import duty to import a single computer and he made about ten trips between Mumbai and Delhi to get the customs clearance. I thought what would have driven him so hard which made him to do what he believed. The answer I got it ‘Values and Vision’.


I can go on and on when it comes to Infosys but want to conclude this blog with my favorite lines from the LAGAAN song:

‘Har santh kahe sadhu kahe, sach aur saahas hai jiske man main anth mein jeeth uniki hai’

LONG LIVE INFOSYS!!