In an interview to The Hindu Business Line, N.R.Narayana Murthy has made a lot of interesting observations. He has said, inter alia, "There are many people who comment on founders versus professionals. Unfortunately, none of them knows the kind of sacrifice the founder professionals went through in the beginning. Their wives cooked food for the employees, their wives carried out secretarial jobs; they lived on $250 per month in the US and had to be away from their children. So, I think it is very easy to criticise and comment about founders and non-founders. If you are an entrepreneur, in the beginning, you have to make tremendous sacrifice. Only those who can indeed make that kind of sacrifice should become entrepreneurs."
Well, Murthy is partly right and mostly wrong. It is not clear whether the jibe is directed towards Mohandas Pai. No one denies that the seven promoters of Infosys and their family members had made enormous sacrifice while founding the company. The just reward for that is the handsome return they have got on their equity, sweat and otherwise. Let us not cheapen their sacrifice by allotting top management positions to promoters qua promoters.
Infosys is a company and not a partnership firm. Therefore, the company's management is accountable to the shareholders and is expected to abide by well-established canons of corporate governance. Infosys is expected to be managed by competent CXOs and not by founder-CXOs if non-founders are found to be more competent. A company is responsible to all its shareholders and not only to its founders and their families. Any contrary view even if expressed by the most famous exemplar of governance is unsound.
Well, Murthy is partly right and mostly wrong. It is not clear whether the jibe is directed towards Mohandas Pai. No one denies that the seven promoters of Infosys and their family members had made enormous sacrifice while founding the company. The just reward for that is the handsome return they have got on their equity, sweat and otherwise. Let us not cheapen their sacrifice by allotting top management positions to promoters qua promoters.
Infosys is a company and not a partnership firm. Therefore, the company's management is accountable to the shareholders and is expected to abide by well-established canons of corporate governance. Infosys is expected to be managed by competent CXOs and not by founder-CXOs if non-founders are found to be more competent. A company is responsible to all its shareholders and not only to its founders and their families. Any contrary view even if expressed by the most famous exemplar of governance is unsound.
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