Infy swaps mfg, finance heads

BANGALORE: Infosys Technologies has effected a key leadership reshuffle wherein two of its “CEO-material” leaders, Ashok Vemuri and B G Srinivas, will interchange their current roles and swap their current operating domains. The changes are effective April 1, 2012.
B G Srinivas, global head of manufacturing and engineering services, will head the banking, financial services and insurance verticals, which is currently handled by Ashok Vemuri.In turn, Vemuri will lead the manufacturing practice.
Vemuri and Srinivas, both members of the Infosys Board of Directors, would continue with their existing regional leadership responsibilities for the Americas and Europe, respectively.
Kris Gopalakrishnan, executive co-chairman, Infosys Technologies told TOI that the reshuffle is aimed at giving a multi-domain exposure to these two leaders, because such experience is critical for top leaders. The change will bring cross-industry perspectives to accelerate transformation and innovation for our clients, he said.
“It is a positive move and it is not based on the individual performance of Ashok or Srinivas or the performance of the spaces they are handling. Senior executives should be much more than just domain experts. They are expected to be general managers with experience in multiple domains and exposure to a broadbase of client organisations,’’ said Gopalakrishnan.
“They have been doing the same job for over two years. If you dwell in the same space for long, the scope for innovation will be limited and the growth will also come down. It is a good culture to rotate the roles of senior people. It creates new energies in these leaders, people who work with them and customers who interact with them. Also, individually it is a real test for Ashok and Srinivas, as one of them would most likely be considered for the top job in the future,” said an insider.
A consultant at a global research and advisory firm said, it is a smart move from Infosys towards succession planning. Different verticals have different challenges and testing your potential CEOs with different clients and under different business challenges will help you assess whether they are suitable to take on the mantle of a bigger role.