BENGALURU: Infosys' chief operating officer
U B Pravin Rao, who has been with the company since 1986, has been appointed interim CEO till such time the company makes its final choice for the post. The big question is who that candidate would be. Infosys co-chairman Ravi Venkatesan noted that the company's “brand and magic and momentum“ have the potential to attract good candidates, but said the founder issue would be a hurdle.
“...The worry would be the founder issue, whether it is put to bed or not, it cannot continue in this fashion,“ he said at an analysts' conference, indicating that the founders' constant interventions in the company, as it happened during Vishal Sikka's tenure, would discourage promising candidates. He also ruled himself out of contention for the CEO's job.
There has been much speculation that Venkatesan, who was chairman of
Microsoft India
from 2004 to 2011, might be a candidate.“I stopped being an active CEO in 2011. It was a conscious decision to never again be in the hot seat. I was not in contention for this role (Infosys CEO) in 2014 and I have absolutely, on the record, no interest in and not in contention for the job now. Let me just emphatically clear things,“ he said at a press conference in Bengaluru on Friday.
In an investor call on Friday morning, Venkatesan said the CEO search was not going to be an easy one and the board will look for strong leaders coming from within the company, and also outside. Apart from
Pravin Rao
, the executive management includes Ravi Kumar, deputy COO,
Mohit Joshi
, president, and
Rajesh Krishnamurthy
, president, among others. Some sources said
Rao
is a strong internal contender for the top job.
Venkatesan said, “We have to get that right (CEO hiring), we need somebody who is transformational, the industry is changing at an accelerating rate, we cannot afford a reset on our strategy or go back on it, we need somebody with an incredible people connection, like Vishal, to take the complex system along.“
He said the company also has to look outside, but indicated it would be more challenging for an outsider to handle Infosys. “Infosys has a strong culture. The challenge for anybody coming from outside, as Vishal experienced, is to manage the cultural adaptation, and then transform it,“ he said
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