Contact Your Financial Adviser Money Making MC
4 December 2017
 |
| Infosys (The Total Investment & Insurance Solutions) |
After
well over a decade with Capgemini, Salil Parekh is
returning home to head unsettled Indian software services firm Infosys, where
he will seek to replicate his success in notching up record growth at the
divisions he ran.
Alongside, Parekh has
to help the bellwether of India`s $154 billion software services sector recover
from a nasty public spat between its board and founders that led to the
dramatic exit of the previous CEO, Vishal Sikka, in August.
Parekh joins Bengaluru-based Infosys in
January from Paris-headquartered Capgemini, where he headed their core
application services business in key markets like North America and the United
Kingdom, and their cloud services and cloud infrastructure businesses. He also
managed Sogeti - a unit of Capgemini focused on digital transformation. The Total Investment & Insurance
Solutions
As the CEO, Parekh will have to achieve
growth while being careful not to antagonize Infosys` founders, who own about
12 percent of the company, but command an outsized say in its direction.
His priority will be to assure clients and
employees of "business continuity without rocking the boat," Harit
Shah of brokerage Reliance Securities wrote in a note to clients after Infosys
announced the appointment on Saturday,
The founders, led by Narayana Murthy, the
doyen of India`s IT services sector, engaged in a lengthy public feud with
Sikka on issues ranging from flights on private jets, to over-spending on a
takeover, and on the pricey rent for his U.S. office, to the largesse of
payouts given to certain executives following their exits.
Sikka, widely known as an innovator in the
global software industry, joined Infosys from German software maker SAP in
2014. He was the first outsider to be made CEO of Infosys. The Total Investment & Insurance
Solutions
The spat culminated with the exit of both
Sikka and Infosys` then chairman R. Seshasayee in August, and the return of one
of its founders, Nandan Nilekani, as chairman. Nilekani, a highly regarded
industry veteran, had remained silent throughout the public confrontation led
by Murthy.
For Parekh, the discord that led to Sikka`s
departure could prove to be beneficial, although he may have to work to
convince Murthy.
"Sometimes coming on the back of a
controversial exit is easy, because expectations would be realistic," a
tech industry consultant said.
Being hand-picked by Nilekani should give
Parekh some cover. Two weeks ago, Murthy endorsed Nilekani, saying
"absolutely, all is well," with Nilekani at the helm. The Total Investment & Insurance
Solutions
In a statement on Saturday, Murthy wrote,
"I am happy that Infosys has appointed Mr. Salil Parekh as the CEO. My
best wishes to him."
In Parekh, India`s No. 2 IT firm gets an
executive with vast experience in some of its biggest Western markets and one
who has led high-margin businesses like cloud services, where it is keen to
accelerate growth.
His Capgemini colleagues say Parekh pushes
people to work hard, believes in sharing information and cutting across
hierarchy to deliver on projects.
"IT services is a very different
business from products and someone like Sikka who came with a mindset of doing
new things constantly may not have been a good idea for a firm like
Infosys," a senior executive at Capgemini said, declining to be named. The Total Investment & Insurance
Solutions
"Parekh, though, is a core services
executive who knows how to deliver projects within tight deadlines, with the
resources at hand."The Total Investment
& Insurance Solutions
No comments:
Post a Comment