Under fire from investors, Infy CEO rejigs top team

Sikka also wrote to employees expressing his disappointment with the company for not meeting targets

Under fire from investors on the less-than-expected first quarter results and a cut in the yearly forecast, Infosys Chief Executive Officer Vishal Sikka has done a rejig of his top team. The aim is to focus on larger deals and acquire niche companies, in line with his ‘Vision 2020’.

Sikka has expanded the role of former SAP executive Ritika Suri, heading the $500-million innovation fund, to lead the team for large deals. Veteran Deepak Padaki, chief risk officer and head of strategy, would lead the team for mergers and acquisitions. Sudhir Jha has been roped in from Google to help in product management and marketing for Mana — the artificial intelligence platform.

 

 

Suri’s elevation saw veteran Anup Uppadhayay exit the firm. A day before the results on Thursday, Samson David, who headed Mana, quit the firm. He joined a team of senior executives who have exited Infosys since Sikka took charge.

The changes were made by Sikka through an e-mail on Monday. “I am disappointed our revenue performance was not what we could have delivered, but even more so, this overshadowed the many strong strides we made on executing our strategy.”

The Times of India reported the development on Tuesday.

 

The firm’s scrip dropped eight per cent after it reported its first dip in four quarters. It also lowered the revenue projection for the year ahead, citing reasons such as customers reducing discretionary spending on software projects.

“We cannot take our eyes off any important aspect of our business, areas of our large and diverse portfolio of services, products and platforms. In the coming quarters, we must accelerate our work in all key strategic aspects of our work, and must address the weaknesses of Q1,” he wrote.

Sikka, the first non founder CEO of Infosys has set a revenue target of $ 20 billion, 30 per cent margins and $ 80,000 revenue per employee by 2020.