Narayana Murthy says he regrets quitting Infosys
18 Jul 2017
N R Narayana Murthy on Monday said he regretted quitting as chairman of Infosys in 2014 and should have listened to other co-founders of India's second largest software exporter firm and stayed on.
Murthy, who is involved in an acrimonious battle with the company's board and current management led by Vishal Sikka over corporate governance issues, however said he did not miss being in the campus daily.
In 2014 Murthy had retired as chairman of Infosys, the company he had set up with six co-founders, nearly 33 years after starting it.
On his biggest regrets - personal and professional - he told CNBC-TV18 that "a lot of my founder colleagues told me not to leave Infosys in 2014, to stay a few years".
"Generally, I find that I am a very emotional person. A lot of my decisions are based on idealism and probably, I should have listened to them."
Murthy had the longest run of about 21 years as CEO before passing on the baton to Nandan Nilekani and then S Gopalakrishnan and S D Shibulal. In October 2014, former SAP board member Vishal Sikka took over as chief executive and became the first non-founder CEO, selected by Murthy.
Murthy, by then, was serving a second stint at Infosys as chairman. He was appointed as chairman emeritus with effect from 11 October 2014.
Over the last few months, Murthy has been very vocal in criticising Infosys management on a slew of issues, including alleged lapses in corporate governance, CEO salary package and severance pay to former employees.
In the interview, the IT veteran termed the listing of the country's second largest software services firm on Nasdaq as his biggest success story.
"I think sitting on those high stools at Nasdaq when we got listed, when we became the first Indian company to be listed on Nasdaq, and borrowing the words of Neil Armstrong to say that it is a small step for Nasdaq, but a giant leap for Infosys and the Indian software industry. I think that was the best," he said.
