A poignant journey back in time, an inspiration for the future!

A few days ago, I experienced one of the most magical and profound moments of my working life. Infosys celebrated the 40th anniversary of its founding, and we had the privilege to listen to the Founders recount their early experiences. More than the nostalgia of meeting people and clicking pictures, what touched me the most was the peek into their minds as they set up and built Infosys.

Prof. Ranjay Gulati of Harvard talks of the concept of ‘organizational historicizing’– the process of digging into the past to chart future endeavors – and last week was a perfect opportunity to do that. We got a reinforcement of the founding ideals, purpose, and the values that informed the way the company was run in the early days. In a way, the past is a powerful catalyst to clarify our purpose going forward and becomes a strong source of inspiration. (You can read the article in the latest issue of HBR To See the Way Forward, Look Back (hbr.org))

I think the content of the interview with the Founders (When Nandan Nilekani aced a learnability test from Narayana Murthy in 1979 | Watch (moneycontrol.com)), Mr. Nandan Nilekani’s speech in the press conference and Mr. Narayana Murthy’s rousing speech late in the evening would be available to all (Infosys: Build companies on differentiated values, not pricing: Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy - The Economic Times) - and I won’t go into the specifics, but what came out strongly from all this were the ideals Mr. Murthy had in his mind when he founded Infosys. He looked at Infosys as a social experiment, on how to build an institution ‘for the professionals, by the professionals, through the professionals’, and he wanted to democratize wealth creation, spread it to more professionals based on their merit. As he grew up as a leader through various experiences, he became a conscious capitalist – from a left leaning person in his younger days. It was wonderful to see their thought process and how it had evolved – a magical medley of their family background, influences while growing up, the political and business context of the country, work influences, and the people they worked with.

One other aspect Mr Murthy focused upon was this concept of ‘respect’. His aim was to get ‘respect’ from all stakeholders – he felt that was the best objective for an organization to have, and to be acknowledged for. And to him, respect at an individual level would come from competence, commitment, and character (‘Infosys Was Born Out Of 3 Concepts I Learnt In Paris’ | Bengaluru News - Times of India). And that led to the focus on the culture of meritocracy, which the founding team was so passionate about. We could see the clarity of thinking that the founders had on various elements of culture at Infosys- and it became very clear to me on how C-LIFE, the values of Infosys, came about. (C-LIFE stands for Client Value, Leadership by Example, Integrity and Transparency, Fairness, and Striving for Excellence)

When you hear about the struggles that the Founders, and their spouses, went through in the early days, one realises how much effort goes into building an institution. The late nights, the struggles in the US winter with sparse warm clothing, the challenges the families went through – all these brought the team together and laid the foundation for the institution of Infosys.

As we look back into these stories and reflect on the founding ideals, it becomes clearer what our purpose is. To maximize the human potential and to help all our stakeholders find their next opportunity, and to gain their respect!

These two days were truly poignant- it gave us a peek into the past, into the ideals of the founders and has given renewed impetus and inspiration to many of us for our future directions.