Vishal Sikka, CEO Infosys: 180 day report
- Summary:
- Vishal Sikka reflects upon six months in the job of CEO, Infosys and looks forward to new projects the company is undertaking.
I'm very fortunate to occasionally meet some of the leaders in the technology industry. Meeting Dr. Vishal Sikka, CEO Infosys is always enjoyable. His infectious laugh and easy manner can put the most nervy individual at ease. You can be sure that something will be 'incredible' and/or 'unbelievable.'
This was my first opportunity to record his thoughts. It comes at an opportune time since it is six months since he took up the CEO hot seat in a business he'd like to see transition into becoming a value add partner.
Much of what he had to say will be familiar to those who follow the company but towards the end there are a few nuggets that will likely get tongues wagging among the peanut gallery. He certainly left me with plenty to think about.
In the meantime, here are my brief show notes, along with the odd quotation from the six minute recording. I asked the basic question: 'What's on your mind?'
00.00-02:52 - How to innovate in a company pf 170,000 people; thinking about new 'whats' and new 'hows,' with open source software at the center of investments. "We already have 60 projects on the go...within three months."
02:53-03:40 - Getting away from simple being a low cost outsourcing provider to one where value gets added. "The mechanism to make all this happen is education...we're training people in artificial intelligence." As an aside, I was reminded that education isn't limited to the training schools Infosys operates. Immediately before we recorded this session, Sikka opened a package which included a book about design thinking.
03:41-04:27 - Managing the internal change. "The energy, it's difficult to describe...it gives me the energy to do what I have to"
04:28-05:59 - Looking to the future and the new kinds of project that customers want. "We're working on a very exciting project to rethink the experience of being in a store...why is digital something that is smaller than us? Why can't it be something that is bigger than us?"
Disclosure: Infosys is a personal consulting client.