Realizing the power of "All That You Can Be" @Infosys

In the last week, our Infosys Bangalore center was awarded the best center across Infosys at the annual awards for Excellence. What made this sweet was that this prize had remained elusive for over a decade. These are after all, the Oscars of Infosys, very keenly contested and the bar is held very high and raised every year. And this is, after all, Infosys, where it takes a lot to wear the name on your sleeve and live up to it each day.

While I felt very happy for myself and my wonderful team of people (hundreds!!) who made it possible, I also paused to think for a moment about what this meant. It has really never been about any award. More fulfilling and important to me is to be on journeys that serve a purpose, journeys that can make a true difference to myself and others, journeys that are relevant to the situation and journeys that can be fun and enjoyable regardless of the eventual outcome. And Infosys has always provided the opportunities for such awesome journeys to happen.

So, what has this journey really been about so far? It has been about discovering what the true power of good intent can be. It has been about building good teams with an all out inclusive approach. It has been about how good teams can rally to a great cause when they see the clarity of intent. It has been about slow but steady progress and self belief to chart a path and stick to it. It has been about the often understated power of influence as well as the power of good communication resulting in engagement. It has been about the power of execution as well as about how empowered individuals and teams can chart their course while still operating in harmony and finding their rhythm as a team. Last but not the least, it has been about audaciously trying to be “All That You Can Be” – finding and realizing one’s fullest potential.

The last 4 months of Covid have been crazy and brought in challenges that were never witnessed before. We couldn’t be prepared well enough to handle anything of this magnitude. I don’t know how to thank enough our wonderful teams that have been at the frontlines to keep our business running. The security teams who continued to welcome people back with a smile as always and ensured hygiene and distance were maintained, the transport teams who ensured people could move back and forth with ease and safety, the Facilities teams who dispatched thousands of assets like desktops, UPS, Laptops to people’s homes, the Infra teams who stayed up all night to monitor networks, attend to issues and to prepare the thousands of Laptops to send to people wherever they were across the country, the HR and communications teams who made sure people knew what was happening and could reach out to when in need, the delivery teams, many of who stayed back at the workplace to ensure that our customers, without whom we wouldn’t exist, could keep their operations running and thereby their end customers happy. And we are not talking about a small scale operation here but well over 40,000 people!!

This new journey has only begun. I truly believe the traditional definitions of centers, workplaces will change with Covid. Norms that were held sacrosanct for decades will now be questioned. We are collectively passing through a huge transition phase for our industry. But I am confident that our wonderful people and teams at Infosys will define the path boldly, keep adapting to the new normal and move ahead with confidence! Cheers!!