For Sanjay Purohit, Being a Lifelong Infoscion Means Practicing the Values He Learned at Infosys

Although it’s certainly accurate to say that distinguished Infosys alum Sanjay Purohit held several leadership positions during his 16 years with Infosys, that description doesn’t do justice to his vital role in the company’s growth during his tenure from 2000 to 2016.

In his first ten years with the company, Sanjay headed up strategy, corporate planning, and business assurance. After that, he was a co-founder and CEO of EdgeVerve. In his last few years with Infosys, Sanjay led the company’s worldwide consulting business. And yet, when we spoke with him recently, Sanjay was most excited to talk about the present and the future. Namely, his ongoing work with the Infosys leadership team and why the company and its future are so important to him; and his work since 2016 in the development sector, leveraging technology to resolve complex societal challenges with speed, at scale, and sustainably.

In the following Q&A, Sanjay Purohit discusses a select few highlights of his career; the importance he ascribes to Infosys values; why he subscribes passionately to the idea that “Once an Infoscion, always an Infoscion”; and why he thinks so many other Infosys alums feel the same way.

What motivated you to join Infosys back in 2000?

My joining Infosys was a total accident. I met Nandan backstage at an event. He was the next speaker, and I was chit-chatting with him, and he said, “Why don’t you come and have a look at this company we’re building, Infosys?” This is the year 2000 when I was working for a division of Tata Sons.

I honestly didn’t know much about Infosys, although my colleague Satyendra Kumar, Head-Quality at that time was already here. But I went for a visit. And when I came to the campus for the first time, I could feel that this was a very different place — the ethos, the humility, the care, the warmth. I met Dinesh [K. Dinesh, one of the seven co-founders], we got along well, and he hired me. And I joined the Quality Department of Infosys.

When you think back on your 16 years at Infosys, what stands out the most to you?

There are many things I could talk about, but I think the most significant would be the joy of contributing to the building of an institution alongside the founders and the senior leadership.

For instance, I orchestrated the Management Council for 10 years and was concurrently a member of the corporate planning and business assurance team. In that role, I was part of the group that developed and executed the company’s plans for the short, medium, and long term. That meant looking one, three, and five years into the future, thinking about where we wanted to go and how to get there — and then making it happen — that was truly a joy for me.

One of the first few plans I built was focused on making Infosys a $1 billion enterprise in terms of annual revenues. When we started that plan, in the early 2000s, Infosys was about a $410 million company. By 2004, we had hit our goal. So, to put it in context, it took Infosys 23 years to become a $1 billion company, but it took only 24 months to then become a $2 billion company, and only 12 months to become a $3 billion company. As a part of operations and space planning, I planned the capacity of our amazing Development Centers, including Mysore, and the Education and Research centre. I co-founded EdgeVerve Systems , the product subsidiary of Infosys.

There were many facets of learning and answering the question, “What does it take to build an organization, an institution of the caliber of Infosys?” I think that’s what I learned as my most significant experience.

Technically speaking you may be an alum, but you’re still quite active at Infosys, right?

Yes! I’m still deeply invested in Infosys and its future. My experience hasn’t ended — it’s a present, continuous experience. There was a past where I was an employee, but now I volunteer my time to help Infosys think through its Live Enterprise platform as well as the way it’s shaping the digital future.

A big part of that is the concept of the Live Enterprise , which is something Nandan Nilekani, co-founder and Chairman of the Board, seeded a few years ago. Since then, I’ve been engaging with the leadership team every month to understand how the Live Enterprise journey is going. Also, I still run workshops at Infosys. Before COVID, you’d see me on the campus a few times every month, getting the teams together to think, design, and plan. Now of course we do it over Zoom. So even though I left in 2016, I’ve been in the middle of this learning and transformation, contributing in my own little way.

What is it about Infosys that makes you want to stay involved?

I think it comes back to a phrase we always used, which I think any alum will recognize: “Once an Infoscion, always an Infoscion.” And I think it is all rooted in the values practiced by the leadership and employees of Infosys. Infosys’ values permeate into policies, into processes, into decisions. Infosys has been through its share of ups and downs. And in all the downs, it’s been because we wobbled in our values; and then, when we came back fighting fit, it was because of our values.

I was with the company when the C-LIFE values were established and when they were upgraded too. As I said before, I’ve been deeply involved in the transformation of the vision of the company. So, in that sense, Infosys is a very integral part of my life. And that includes my professional relationships as well as the strong friendships I have across the company’s leadership team and with so many employees too.

My commitment to contribute to Infosys' growth is not limited by an employment contract; rather, it is a function of the dream that I have shared with the organization for many years. And the dream is not over! So, as long as I’m around, as long as the dream lives, there’s no reason for me to not contribute.

In 2016, you left Infosys for the development sector. Can you tell us about your work now, and how you came to it?

In 2009, Nandan decided to join the government of India to establish the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). I was very intrigued by that and drawn to the idea of doing something for the betterment of society at that level of complexity and scale. Seven years later, in 2016 I turned 50, and I was getting restless. So, I spoke to Nandan about how at this stage of my life I wanted to work at a much larger scale and serve the needs of the most vulnerable across the world.

Nandan and the team at his foundation, the EkStep Foundation , were building large-scale platforms to resolve complex societal challenges with speed, at scale, and sustainably, whether it’s education, healthcare, justice, or livelihoods.

So, I left Infosys to join the EkStep Foundation, and that’s where I work now to build platforms that can help people come together and solve very large social challenges at scale. I set up a small team at the foundation, which works with different organizations that are building national-scale platforms in India and all over the world. Our program is called Societal Platform . So that’s been the journey over the last five years. And I believe it’s only the first five years out of the next 25!

What’s your perspective on Infosys’ commitment to social responsibility? How is it important to employees and alums?

I look at it through three lenses. ?

The first is from the perspective of the development of India. Infosys has played and continues to play a seminal role by placing India on the world map. And that has implications for the development of society in terms of the kinds of investors that came into the country and the kinds of jobs that have been and are still being created.

I have always believed that Infosys is a society-developing movement and not only a company. Infosys changed the profile of the IT industry in the eyes of the world through corporate governance, quality, value add, the ability to build client relationships, the ability to innovate, and many other factors. In terms of Infosys’ profile on the world stage, I think that in itself is society-forming. The fact that Infosys was recognized as India’s Best Employers Among Nation-Builders 2021 is a testimony to that.

Second, there’s the dimension of Infosys and its employees serving the most vulnerable communities, which was and is done through the Infosys Foundation, through Infosys’ CSR practices, and, most importantly, by the fact that Infosys was instrumental in creating a generation of philanthropists in India.

It’s because Infosys and its employees created wealth that this generation of philanthropists could grow and thrive. That’s because most of the time, it’s only when someone has adequate financial resources to support themselves and their family that they can go out and serve. Otherwise, people are, naturally, too absorbed in building their own livelihoods to think about helping those around them.

Today, as I work in the development sector, I meet Infoscions every day, and they’re helping the most vulnerable in their communities and their societies because they have the foundation given to them by the company to be able to make a contribution. And the third dimension is, so many Infosys employees became socially conscious as individuals. We see it playing out at various levels — the country level, the organization level, and the Infosys foundation level. And that’s what it takes to build a socially conscious company that’s respected by the community, not only because of its revenues but because of what it stands for and what it does for society at large. ?

Now all this is also true at a global level and I know that because I’ve been to almost all the Infosys offices worldwide, and I see how people have involved themselves. Our employees have invested themselves deeply in their communities. There are so many things that always keep happening, and that’s the spirit in which all of us are engaging across the world. And that matters… that matters a lot.

What does the adage “Once an Infoscion, always an Infoscion” mean to you?

I think being an Infoscion means that wherever I am, whether it’s inside the company or outside the company, that I’m practicing the values I learned at Infosys.

I’m an Infoscion not because I carry the badge of an ex-Infosys employee, but rather because I carry those values and I practice those values. I propagate those values in the people I meet, even today. Because those values were time- and context-independent. They were taught to me at Infosys, but they are not limited by the boundaries of Infosys. And that is why I’m always an Infoscion: because I left the company with that value system.