Finally the power of founders and shareholding forced CEO & MD of India’s second largest software exporter to resigned. Vishal Sikka has resigned under pressure from founder Narayana murthy, as the latter was upset on corporate governance. Vishal Sikka, the outgoing Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer squarely put the blame for his resignation on N R Narayana Murthy’s relentless attacks undermining the work and causing distraction. The usually calm Vishal Sikka, who always seemed to be making efforts towards placating the founders through the entire period, today seemed to be making it plain that their campaign is only hurting the company and the work being done.
Narayana Murthy wrote an email to a few of his advisers where he claimed to have been told by ‘at least three independent directors of the company that Vishal Sikka was more chief technology officer (CTO) material than chief executive officer (CEO) material’.
He has recently gone public many times expressing concerns regarding the corporate governance of Infosys. In January 2017, Infosys founders N R Narayana Murthy, Kris Gopalakrishnan and Nandan Nilekani wrote to the board expressing their concerns over corporate governance with the board, including the quantum of salary hike given to the CEO Vishal Sikka and the size of the severance packages given to two former executives.
Narayana Murthy and other founding members, Kris Gopalakrishnan, Nandan Nilekani, S D Shibulal and K Dinesh have been planning to cut all their ties with Infosys, a company they founded back in 1981.
