Dr Vishal Sikka resigned today from the post of MD & CEO Infosys attributing unrelenting , baseless/malicious and increasingly personal attacks on him . The board of Infosys supported his reason and also named the founder of Infosys as the person Sikka was attributing in a statement to the shareholders , released to the Press. Not a happy ending to the stellar performance in all dimensions for a struggling bellwether IT Giant when Sikka took over command in 2014 . This blog is not to do a critique on the incident or its fall out but only to quote Mr Sikka from his farewell letter to ‘Infoscions ” which caught my attention from a Leadership perspective .
An extract from his letter –
Three years ago, I started this journey with a calling , to help reshape the company around innovation and entrepreneurship , to deliver breakthrough value for clients , and to help elevate our work , our standing , ourselves , on the basis of a dual strategy , bringing together duality of renew and new , automation and innovation , people and software, to show a new path forward in a time of unprecedented disruption within the industry and beyond . That time , around and before June 2014 , was a difficult time . Our growth rates were low and attrition was high. There was a sense of apprehension all around and I came here to help enable a great transformation as our core business faced intense pricing pressure , and clients looked increasingly to innovative partners to help shape their digital futures. Now,a bit more than three years later , I am happy to see the company doing better in every dimension I can think of .————
And I am proud of how we have upheld our values , our culture , our integrity ,whilst we have gone about this massive transformation .
—————- I was ,and remain, passionate about the massive transformation opportunity for this company and industry , but we all need to allow the company to move beyond the noise and distractions .———–
Together we have achieved a lot . —- We have laid the foundation for the next 30 years of Infosys , and I feel deeply proud to have worked alongside all of you in sowing the seeds that will return this company to the bellwether it once was. As you’ve all often reminded ,Infosys is no bigger and no smaller than any of us ,the people,the Infoscions. You are the ones that will take Infosys to the next 30 years and beyond. As I think about the time ahead, for all of us , I can only see us powered by a freedom from the known, of renewing ourselves to thrive in the time ahead. Each one of you has vindicated my deeply held belief that people are capable of doing more , achieving more, being more, than they ever imagined possible . So , keep pushing yourself to do better at whatever you are good at , but also learning to do things you have never done before ,indeed,nobody has ever done before —.
Advice and wise counsel to emulate for all leaders who would like to embrace change to grow their organization !