On March 6, 2007, addressing close to 400 management grads passing out from MDI Guragon, Nilekani took a trip down memory lane and revisited the Infosys success story. MBAUniverse.com was present at the MDI Convocation Ceremony and here we bring you the highlights from an inspiring speech made by him.
Nandan Nilekani – an IIT-ian (class of 1978, IIT Mumbai) -- was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Infosys in March 2002. Prior to assuming his current position, he held the post of managing director, president and chief operating officer. He is one of the founders of Infosys and has served as a director on the company’s board since its inception in 1981. In January 2006, he became one of the youngest entrepreneurs to join the list of 20 Global Leaders on the prestigious World Economic Forum (WEF) Foundation Board. He was also listed as one of 2006’s 100 Most Influential People in the World by Time magazine.
In 2006, Nilekani was conferred the Padma Bhushan, one of the highest civilian honors awarded by the Government of India.
Excerpts from his speech:
“I am glad to be at this convocation ceremony at Management Development Institute (MDI). In the 34 years since its inception in 1973, MDI has rapidly grown to emerge as a premier business school in India. I have interacted with several MDI graduates over the last many years, and I can personally vouch for the quality of talent that MDI produces – it’s top class!
Today I want to share learnings and experiences that I have accumulated over the past 25 odd years since the inception of Infosys. I hope my experiences can inspire young graduates sitting here.
Seven of us founded Infosys in 1981. We were ordinary people with humble backgrounds. We didn’t have any capital or any linkages. However, we had a vision! A big vision – to be a global company with international acceptability where employees are treated with dignity, and transparency and corporate governance was a given. And it is this vision that has made Infosys what it is today.
India in 1981 was not what it is today. License Raj was rampant. Even to travel overseas for business development, we had take foreign exchange from government machinery. Everyone around us told us not to leave our jobs to turn entrepreneur. But inspite of all this, we went ahead and set up Infosys.
The first ten years of our going was tough. We had no capital. India wasn’t known as an IT destination. And business was difficult to come by. But we persisted. We stuck to our vision. We happily deferred instant gratification for later days.
Till the early 90s, we just managed to stay afloat without making much progress. Things took a turn in early 1990s. Economic liberalization was ushered in. Shackles were removed. India entered a brave new world. It opened a floodgate of opportunity, and also challenges. We realized that global IT companies will soon be in India in full strength and that would be competition of a different scale altogether. To be honest, initially we were apprehensive about the new regime. The core team at Infosys went into a huddle. After introspection and debate we came out with clear a thought – Let’s go for it! We decided to go the whole hog. We said this is a big chance and we must go for it. We decided to build Infosys into a global brand. This was a turning point for Infosys.
Many things helped. Government policies allowed us to use earth-stations to work for international clients from India, global customers like GE became interested in India and initiatives like Soft Technology Parks helped the Indian IT sector.
Given our vision to turnaround Infosys into a global brand, we decided to take bold steps. We were clear that the time for bold moves had come. In 1992, the government had decided to abolish Controller of Capital Issue which regulated and stipulated pricing of IPOs. We decided to raise money from an IPO to fund our plans. We were successful in our IPO and decided to invest into India’s first corporate campus in Banglore. This we thought was important to attract global customers and employees. This was a big bet, and it worked!
By mid-nineties while Infosys was doing well, we were thinking again. What were our aspirations? What were our dreams? The founders were clear – we wanted to continue our march and be a global company. In 1997-98 we decided that international listing, particularly in North America, would go a long way in positioning Infosys as a global company.
Infosys created history when it became the first company to be listed on US bourses. This got the international limelight on to Infosys.
Infosys continues to grow and build on its foundations. But we are not complacent. We have got into a ‘forward planning’ mode – we are thinking how will the market be in five years and ten years from now. And we are working to build competencies for the future.
Today, we are living in times of great change. Technology, businesses, and customer expectations – everything is changing so rapidly. Companies and individuals need to be in a ‘continuous learning’ mode. That is the only way to master change and thrive in future.
To end my speech let me reiterate that we are living in extraordinary times. India is attracting all the attention. Our economy is rapidly growing and our human talent is ideally placed to reap the ‘demographic dividends’. There are opportunities all around! My message to all of you is that: you can make the best out of this opportunity – all you need is a vision, and the tenacity to forego instant gratification for the future. We at Infosys have done it, and you too can!”
