Narayana Murthy – Biggest Threat to Infosys

Success goes to the head

Everybody is showering praise and prizes on N.R. Narayana Murthy, who had just retired from Infosys. Everybody is praising his leadership, focus, simplicity, management style, honesty and so many other things. The media is either on one extreme or other. If will throw brickbats or present bouquets. It never takes a balanced view on anything. If M.S. Dhoni wins the World Cup for India, then the media will take him on their heads and shower flattery on his head. If Dhoni’s team loses the first three tests against England, for the media, Dhoni becomes the villain and deserves condemnation. Choicest abuses are hurled at him.

Why not legalise rape also?

Coming back to Narayana Murthy, no doubt he deserves the praises that were showered on him. Since so many people have done that, I am not going to repeat his virtues here. But what others failed to spot, I like to mention here. First of all, take his statement made a few weeks back. He stated that the government should legalise bribery in order to eliminate it. What a fantastic nonsense it is. It has come from the mouths of a person who is supposed to be an icon of honesty. When the entire India is boiling at the government’s corruption with one scam after another emerging, here was a person who is advocating a measure so sweet to Kapil Sibal, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Chidambaram and Manmohan Singh. But I don’t understand why Narayana Murthy has stopped with this nonsense alone. He could have suggested that in order to eradicate the evil of murders, murder should be legalised i.e. anybody can murder anybody else and no punishment will be awarded to him. That would have invited more appreciations for Narayana Murthy from his followers. Narayana Murthy also could have suggested that in order to eradicate rape from the society, rape can be made legal.

Kamath built ICICI to a top private bank

Secondly, take Narayana Murthy’s statement made on the last day of his retirement. He stated that he was totally against acquisitions and that he wanted to grow Infosys to grow without taking over any other company. He also said that he considered it silly to go for acquisitions. In fact, this statement was meant to be a warning to K.V. Kamath to mind his business. Kamath had built ICICI into top private sector bank in India by virtue of his aggressive strategies, which included acquisitions of many undertakings. Kamath was inducted into the top position of Infosys at a time when the company was facing a vacuum in top positions and its performance was sliding down. Kamath is already planning to go for acquisitions to shoot up revenues for Infosys. This will not only catapult Infosys’ position to the top in the IT sector, but will also inspire confidence and reward the company’s shareholders.