The Indian IT industry took off in the early 1990s. Before that, it was just a tiny industry with TCS being the Big Daddy, Infosys representing the future aspirations and Wipro being the challenger. During the 1990s, the IT sector grew by 60 per cent, and in the 2000s the growth rate touched 25 to 30 per cent. The 2010s saw the growth slowing down to about 10 to 12 per cent, but on a much larger base. Infosys had all the ingredients to be in the top two, in terms of growth, almost all through this period.
Although Infosys never overtook TCS, for over 20 years, it was seen as the flag-bearer of the Indian information technology industry, until TCS reclaimed the mantle. In the early 1990s, the value proposition of the Indian IT industry was attractive in terms of cost reduction. Customers made a beeline for Indian shores. The key criteria for vendor selection were good governance, ability to scale rapidly and strong processes to ensure quality delivery. TCS, Infosys and Wipro had all these in good measure and it is therefore not surprising that they pulled ahead of the others during the 1990s.
The X-factor of Infosys was its continuity, commitment and energy of a team of seven techpreneurs, and the leadership provided by N.R. Narayana Murthy. Infosys was the price leader for much of the period from 1999 to 2010. They were continuously testing the price envelope while the rest of us followed. The premium pricing for services which, in my view, were not too different from say TCS and Wipro, also gave them superior profitability.
One of the less glamorous and mostly thankless jobs is delivery. Business leaders invariably get the credit and the sales team will often point out the business they lost due to poor delivery. At Infosys, I only heard praise for their delivery, and the credit for this goes largely to Kris Gopalakrishnan, who handled delivery, and S.D. Shibulal, who looked after operations.
The finance function at Infosys, led by T.V. Mohandas Pai for the most part, laid a strong, data-based foundation. In the human resources department, they had an innovative leader in Hema Ravichandar. Infosys also created what was at that time the most generous employee stock ownership plan, largely driven by Murthy’s philosophy of sharing the wealth.
The IT industry is India’s first globally competitive industry. As the flag-bearer for the same, the importance of Infosys goes far beyond its impressive growth and financial results.
—As told to Abhinav Singh
Ashok Soota, executive chairman of Happiest Minds Technologies Limited, is one of the pioneering leaders of the Indian IT industry