Leadership in Crisis- Infosys

Infosys has been best known for its true to the core tagline: Powered by intellect, driven by values.

The way it all started off as a venture by 7 friends and the phenomenal growth it achieved was through sheer determination and direction. Everything was happy and booming until the recent exodus of top management officials.

Infosys suddenly lost its stakes and became notorious for its highest attrition rates across all segments of management. For the first time, Infy reported a decrease in its workforce. The employee count came down by 1,823 in Dec quarter. Attrition rates rose to 18.1 per cent troubling one and all in Infosys as this was not a secular trend!

Leadership in Crisis :

Mr N R Narayana Murthy returned! He assured assured to leave no stone unturned to return back the fervour of INFOSYS in 5 years straight. He was equally ambitious and optimistic in welcoming the new bandwagon of leaders to form an ‘enthusiastic’ and ‘young’ new leadership team. He had unshakeable trust in his employees and its powerful cadre of leaders. He empowered them with a strong sense of belongingness and that is what helped the company turn- around.

MD, Mr shibulal played down the exits by stating that- “The organisation is definitely going through a transformation. This is a large corporation with 1.6 lakh employees. Even if I assume that we have 1 per cent of the people as leaders that is 1,600 people”.

In response to the challenging condition, they implemented a series of reforms and changes in the organizational structure and business strategies. They assured and convinced the stakeholders that the spate of exits will have no impact on market share or employee morale!

Result:

Overwhelmingly positive reactions of the brokerages! The recent triumphant scores in beating margin estimates and growth in its overall sales outlook for the year. ‘Success begets success’! Truly so! – With Infosys gaining on earnings announcement for the third straight quarter in a row.

Despite the assurances, there always exists some inconvenience at such stressing times of transitions. No wonder, there exists a room for improvement in succession planning much in advance. However, the way the organization quickly adapted in such a critical juncture left behind an example for all in days to come.