Infosys - Was Succession plan missing?

Great lines of my father "Controversy is always between 2 right points". From this view point, both Sikka and Narayana Murthy & team are right.

So, what has gone wrong?

The promoter group of Infosys, who were focusing their attention on building the business, culture, shareholders value, corporate governance etc. Probably they must have turned a blind-eye for the succession. Also they might have been were over confident that even if an outsider comes for the top job, the process and conservative culture that they have built can never be deviated. They have proved to be wrong.

They were completely clueless about how to build their successor. We need to give the benefit of doubt to them that they haven't done it before.

Here I recollect a whatsapp joke. "Married lady goes to a swamiji and ask him to bless that she gets the same husband for next 7 jenmas (births). Swamiji asks why? is he so good? She said "No Swamiji" "But I have spent quite a lot of time to tame him and hence does not wish to try any one else"

The grave mistake as a conservative company, Infosys done was to bring an outsider for the Top post. Infosys is a moving rocket, hence obviously the focus on quarter-to-quarter was 1. Customer acquisition & retention 2. Market expansion 3. Top-line and Bottom line 4. Share holders value 5. Employees satisfaction. After all Sikka can only do this in his own style, since he was never part of Infosys culture by himself. So the promoter team has no-right to point the fingers on Sikka.

For large corporate, the succession plan is a 15-20 years of work. Since I have worked in various TVS group companies, I have seen as to how the succession was built. The transition is like a flower blossom. No one can see it. It happens gradually over a period of 20 years of time. The current CEO and the top management team will be mentoring the successor (predominantly one from their family) for 15 to 20 years before he/she takeover the baton. It is so gradual and butter smooth.

There were several new articles and news channels talking about promoter team of Infosys is craving for power & money. Old Bishma is back and all. I completely disagree with that. They are clean & humble and have built a global business brick by brick on hard work, talent and integrity. They are the beacon of the Indian IT service industry. They are really not interested and it is too tiring for them at this age. But unfortunately, they have no choice. They are just coming back to finish the unfinished portion of their work.

I really encourage the promoter team of Infosys to see Bahubali 1 (it is now available in Netflix in many local languages), Lion King to understand what and how succession is built in large corporate before Mr. Narayana Murthy & team step into Infosys for the 3rd time. This could be their last chance.

It is the same case in TATA too. Finally they have to bring in Mr.Chandrasakher an insider of TATA group, who is now the torch bearer. The same way Rattan Tata has learnt his lesson on succession plan.

Business expansion is an aggressive job and succession plan is a humble job. Indian corporate need to learn their lesson quickly to balance between their productive working time & succession plan 20 years in advance.

Succession is purely build through heart, while the business is build through both mind. As the famous saying goes, "No one plans to fail, but they fail to plan". On this context even TATA and Infosys are not exceptions.