DNA Edit: Ol’ boys’ club at Infy

After a long sabbatical of eight years, during which he was busy with the mammoth exercise of India’s 12-digit unique identification number, Nandan Nilekani is back on the saddle for at least a two-year term as the non-executive chairman of Infosys, a company he co-founded. His entry has led to a reshuffle of the board, leading four members, including Vishal Sikka, the executive chairman, to resign. The uncertainty at the top in Infy may have somewhat receded, but shareholders were miffed at the sudden turn of events that had plunged the company into a leadership crisis.

Clearly, Nilekani belongs to the Narayana Murthy camp, the other founder, whom he had called a visionary and an iconic figure. There is considerable merit in that lavish praise, but Sikka’s exit could have been a smooth affair, and not a tug-of-war played out in public, that also led to a loss of Rs 17,252 crore in market capitalisation for the company.

Nilekani has the unenviable task of restoring order amid chaos, inspire investors’ confidence, and look for a new CEO, who should pass muster on three counts: top academic credentials, a sterling record of driving global business with emphasis on innovation, and the gumption to turn things around. Sikka, too, had met similar criteria. What’s evident is Nilekani, like Narayana Murthy, comes from the same school of ethics that attaches utmost importance to transparency in corporate governance. This was the defining feature of the company that the founding fathers had built from scratch.