C
orporate sagas seem to come in twos. The
mega-fracas that erupted in 2016 between
Cyrus Mistry, then Chairman of Tata Sons, and the iconic
Ratan Tata, Chairman Emeritus at Tata Sons, was starting to come to a close by the second half of 2017 (though I fear the last words have yet to be written). Ratan Tata had annointed
N Chandrasekaran, CEO of
TCS, as thew Chairman of Tata Sons, and re-asserted his complete control over the sprawling Tata empire. Now comes the rather unexpected news that
Vishal Sikka (
@vsikka), CEO and MD of Indian IT behemoth
Infosys, had tendered in his resignation, apparently unable to tolerate any longer the constant "
drumbeat of distractions" from co-founder Mr. NRN Murthy, and, some
speculated, a lack of support from some members of the Infosys Board itself.
In particular, this is what Vishal Sikka wrote in his letter to the Board:
"Over the last many months and quarters, we have all been besieged by false, baseless, malicious and increasingly personal attacks. Allegations that have been repeatedly proven false and baseless by multiple, independent investigations. But despite this, the attacks continue, and worse still, amplified by the very people from whom we all expected the most steadfast support in this great transformation." [link]
In this perhaps altogether avoidable saga, no one has come out smelling of roses - not the Infosys board, not Vishal Sikka, and not Mr Murthy.
A Retrospect for Vishal Sikka
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| image credit: pexels.com |
Let me start off by revisiting what I had written in 2014 - "
A 'Vishal' opportunity awaits Infosys" - at the time of Mr Sikka's appointment as CEO and MD of Infosys.To summarize, I had made the following points:
Was Sikka a "
trophy CEO"? I had written, "
There will be more than one voice heard whispering that Sikka's appointment is more of a publicity gimmick meant to save face for its iconic co-founder, Narayan Murthy, who has been unable to right the floundering ship of the software services giant." This is still a pertinent question. Once the excitement of the "trophy CEO" wore out, did Mr Murthy's interest in Vishal Sikka also wane? Conversely, once the excitement of the CEO's crown wore off for Mr Sikka, did the thorns of leading and growing a company, with close to two-hundred thousand employees, in a difficult business environment, start to prick?
