The Infosys board of directors have directly blamed founder N.R. Narayana Murthy's email to advisors yet again alleging corporate governance issues as the reason for the resignation of Vishal Sikka, the CEO and MD of the country's second largest software services exporter. They have also clearly stated that Murthy wouldn't be offered any formal role in governance.
“Given the commitment of the board to remain independent and pursue a chosen strategy, it currently has no intention of asking Murthy to play a formal role in the governance of the organisation,” the board informed on Friday.
In the recent mail sent to some of his advisors, Narayana Murthy had also claimed that at least three independent directors had told him that Sikka was not CEO material, but CTO material.
“Murthy's continuous assault, including this latest letter, is the primary reason that the CEO has resigned despite strong board support. Murthy’s letter contains factual inaccuracies, already-disproved rumours, and statements extracted out of context from his conversations with board members,” Infosys said.
Narayana Murthy has been critical of the board's corporate governance standards on several occasions, allegations the company has always denied. But this is probably the first time that the board has lashed out at Narayana Murthy directly blaming him for the current mess the company finds itself in as also refuting charges of any corporate governance issues.
“Murthy’s campaign against the board and the company has had the unfortunate effect to undermine the company’s efforts to transform itself.”
“For Murthy to imply, with no evidence whatsoever, that three well-respected international law firms, members of the Infosys board and certain employees are engaged in some grand global conspiracy to conceal information is not tenable on its face,” it further added.
To put records straight, Infosys said that under Sikka it had delivered “competitive financial performance through profitable revenue growth.” The company's revenue rose from $2.13 billion in the first quarter of fiscal 2015 to $2.65 billion in the first quarter of this year. Operating margins at 24.1 per cent also beat some of its competitors for the first time in many years, Infosys said.
The revenue per employee has gone up for six quarters in a row and attrition too had fallen to 16.9 per cent last quarter, from 23.4 per cent in the first quarter of FY15, it added.
