Friday morning came as a surprise to a number of industry folks along with the investors. On one hand, investors lost over ₹30,000 crores and the stock of Infosys traded at a one-year low mark, the other side kept people guessing about who could be the successor Vishal Sikka at the high-profile office, which has been making headlines for quite some time now.
With all such media coverage and a huge attention to this topic, Infosys board will have a hard time finding the replacement. Especially, after the fact that Vishal Sikka has publicly spoken about the increasing interference of the founders in his role and cited that as the primary reason for quitting. In such a scenario, no one will actually try to come front to take such responsibility.
According to people familiar with the matter, Vishal Sikka will continue to hold the office until March 31st, 2018 or until a new replacement is found, whichever is earlier. UB Pravin Rao has been appointed as the Interim CEO, but the task does not seem to get over. India’s second-biggest IT service provider company will have to look for a permanent replacement as soon as possible.
With the discussions going in the Infosys ranks, it seems that four names are being considered for the top job at Infosys. These four names include UB Pravin Rao, current interim CEO, Ranganath D Mavinakere (Chief FInancial Officer), Ravi Kumar S (President, deputy COO) and Mohit Joshi (BFSI).
According to the internal sources, at such a critical point, there will be very few outsiders willing to step in. Infosys will have to look for the replacement from inside and the above four names have been under consideration. Ravi Venkatesan (Co-Chairman, Infosys) is also said to be in contention, however, he ruled out his possibilities in a press conference yesterday.
On a call with analysts, Ravi Venkatesan yesterday said that the increasing interference by the founders needs to be controlled before appointing a new CEO. According to him, the new executive needs to freely implement his/her ideas and that will not be possible in the present situations.
In his statement yesterday, Infosys Chairman R Seshasayee said that the board will look to appoint an executive who does not endorse major cultural or strategical change. This has somewhat hinted towards a possibility of the interference continuing from the founders even after a replacement is found. In such scenarios, the speculations have risen that a veteran insider could be given the job.
Talking of the four probable names, Pravin Rao has been with Infosys for the longest time. He joined Infosys in 1986 and since then, he has held various senior leadership roles in the organisation. According to the company website, he manages strategy and operational responsibilities of the entire company. With over 30 years of industry experience, Pravin Rao has held roles such as Chief Operating Officer, Head of Infrastructure Management Services, Delivery Head for Europe, and Head of Retail, Consumer Packaged Goods, Logistics and Life Sciences.
Ranganath D Mavinakere, the current CFO has been with the company for over 15 years. Prior to that, he worked with ICICI Bank and has been responsible for managing funds and money related portfolios throughout his career. According to the company website, he has an experience of over 24 years in IT and financial services. With Infosys, he is currently working as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the company. His responsibilities include corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, corporate planning, risk management and investor relations.
Ravi Kumar S is a president and deputy chief operating officer at Infosys. His responsibilities include leading the Infosys global delivery organization across all global industry segments, driving digital transformation services, application development and maintenance; independent validation services, engineering services, emerging technology solutions, business intelligence & analytics, cloud and infrastructure, and enterprise package applications service lines. He is onboard Infosys BPO Ltd and overseas Japan operations of the company.
Mohit Joshi currently works as a President of Infosys. He heads BFSI (Business, Financial Services & Insurance), Health and Life Science divisions in the company. Mohit also manages sales operations and reporting processes, including large deal pursuits and top account growth across Infosys. He has over 18 years of industry experience and according to the company website, his area of expertise is to manage the intersection of technology and financial services.
A 36-year-old company, which has set itself as one of the pioneers in the IT industry will not be easy to manage. However, the above-mentioned professionals are well versed with the culture and processes of the company and can prove to be handy while managing the top job. However, it is still a bit far to see an announcement about the name. Hopefully, the new CEO will come with stability and zeal to take Infosys away from the controversies.