Dec 05 2014 : The Times of India (Delhi)
`Indians don't speak up, just follow orders'
Sujit John & Boby Kurian
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Mumbai:
TNN
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We're Trained To Solve Problems, Not Find Them, Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka Tells TOI
Vishal Sikka, 47, took over as CEO of Infosys at a time when things looked dim for the once vaunted software company . It had gone through over two years of underperformance compared to some of its peers. Sikka's appointment was a surprise and a relief. Surprise because of his background in software products that was very different from the services space at Infosys.Relief because many wanted a fresh face at the helm. In the four months since Sikka's appointment, the Infosys stock has risen significantly. In an exclusive interview to TOI, Sikka says he feels a tremendous burden of expectation:What are your thoughts on the first four months at Infy?
The atmosphere is electric.People are so excited, there is so much positive energy that has been built up -it's difficult to describe. Never seen anything like this. Yes, may be in the trip to Australia with (PM Narendra) Modi. But that was little different. I walk into these rooms and people go crazy . There's a tremendous burden of expectation.
How different is it from SAP?
I have to think more about this.But the propensity to change, the desire to improve is awesome in Infosys. Over the last year there was this turmoil, people leaving. I created a team to look at simplification of processes, to deal with problems people have. Everybody in the team was so genuinely passionate about simplifying things. I was very impressed.Our development centre (DC) in Chennai told me they would be the best embracer of artificial intelligence among DCs in Infosys. You don't normally find large companies embrace change this way .
What makes it so?
Part of it comes from our education, which is at the heart of Infosys. Our Mysore training campus is so awesome. We can train on such a massive scale -16,000 trainees at a time for 23 weeks. Mr Murthy used to call it learnability. Education is in the mindset of employees, they are keen to learn.
What do you see as your big challenges?
One is that the company processes have not kept pace with its massive growth. Another is that we have to improve the confidence of the youngsters.This is true for all Indian IT companies. The consistent feedback from customers is that though Infosys is without comparison in quality and delivery and we follow orders dutifully, we don't speak up, we are not proactive. As an innovator, this made me very sad.We are trained to solve problems, not trained to find problems. We have this cultural thing -if I speak up, it is questioning of authority . This is totally counter to the Western mindset. We serve Western companies, and they expect us to speak up. John McCarthy , father of artificial intelligence and who was in my examination committee, once told me this unforgettable thing: Finding and articulating the problem is half the solution. The other half is to solve it.
Many of the solutions to yesterday's problems will be automated. But no matter how intelligent robots become, they will not tell us what the big problems are, they don't have the imagination of human beings. That's why I'm moving the company in that direction.
Do you think this will result in some confusion?
The results of the change will take a while. But the mindset change will happen instantaneously . The industry has been in a downward spiral, even the big western guys. They are hiring cheaper and cheaper, jamming people into projects faster and faster, hiring from more and more mediocre places. That is the wrong direction.That spiral goes to zero. We want to create an upward spiral, create more and more value. Turbo props were excellent planes, but they lost the battle to jet engines. There's a certain inevitability about going up the value chain.
The atmosphere is electric.People are so excited, there is so much positive energy that has been built up -it's difficult to describe. Never seen anything like this. Yes, may be in the trip to Australia with (PM Narendra) Modi. But that was little different. I walk into these rooms and people go crazy . There's a tremendous burden of expectation.
How different is it from SAP?
I have to think more about this.But the propensity to change, the desire to improve is awesome in Infosys. Over the last year there was this turmoil, people leaving. I created a team to look at simplification of processes, to deal with problems people have. Everybody in the team was so genuinely passionate about simplifying things. I was very impressed.Our development centre (DC) in Chennai told me they would be the best embracer of artificial intelligence among DCs in Infosys. You don't normally find large companies embrace change this way .
What makes it so?
Part of it comes from our education, which is at the heart of Infosys. Our Mysore training campus is so awesome. We can train on such a massive scale -16,000 trainees at a time for 23 weeks. Mr Murthy used to call it learnability. Education is in the mindset of employees, they are keen to learn.
What do you see as your big challenges?
One is that the company processes have not kept pace with its massive growth. Another is that we have to improve the confidence of the youngsters.This is true for all Indian IT companies. The consistent feedback from customers is that though Infosys is without comparison in quality and delivery and we follow orders dutifully, we don't speak up, we are not proactive. As an innovator, this made me very sad.We are trained to solve problems, not trained to find problems. We have this cultural thing -if I speak up, it is questioning of authority . This is totally counter to the Western mindset. We serve Western companies, and they expect us to speak up. John McCarthy , father of artificial intelligence and who was in my examination committee, once told me this unforgettable thing: Finding and articulating the problem is half the solution. The other half is to solve it.
Many of the solutions to yesterday's problems will be automated. But no matter how intelligent robots become, they will not tell us what the big problems are, they don't have the imagination of human beings. That's why I'm moving the company in that direction.
Do you think this will result in some confusion?
The results of the change will take a while. But the mindset change will happen instantaneously . The industry has been in a downward spiral, even the big western guys. They are hiring cheaper and cheaper, jamming people into projects faster and faster, hiring from more and more mediocre places. That is the wrong direction.That spiral goes to zero. We want to create an upward spiral, create more and more value. Turbo props were excellent planes, but they lost the battle to jet engines. There's a certain inevitability about going up the value chain.
