Mohandas Pai

Mohandas Pai

Infosys has always maintained that people are its real assets. Mohandas Pai , co-founder of Infosys, maintained the same stance while adressing the media after his resignation from the company's board. Pai said that Infosys has been built by '130,000 wonderful people' and there were at least 100 people who could be CEOs of small, medium and large companies. He further said that it was the talent pool that must be allowed to shape the company and lead it from the front as they are 'great people'.

Pai resigned from the IT bellwether in pursuit of future endeavours. He had been in a finance role as Chief Financial Officer of Infosys since 1994, and later took responsibility for the critical functions of human resources and education. He is also a well-known public face and has been part of various committees such as the Kelkar committee for reforming direct taxes and is currently on the SEBI board.

Pai further said that if he stayed back, these people will not take independent decisions. By his going, they will be forced to take decisions, may be fail sometimes but eventually learn and go on.

On K Dinesh's resignation Pai said that although his colleague has attributed his health for stepping down, the reason primarily remains that the new lot should now come in. He however stressed on the need of other co-founders staying to mentor and said, "Kris and Shibu will remain here till 60", so that they can restructure the company, help it imbibe a sharper focus and be one of the 'top three' software companies in the world.

Reminiscing about his 17-year long association with Infosys, Pai appeared a little emotional and said that he was very proud of Infosys and privileged to be associated with it. "It is an unbelievable experience. In 17 years, I have seen the rise of Infosys from a 500-person $10 million company to a $6 billion 130,000-person company working globally with over $40 billion of value. I do not know what is the value today but $40 billion have been created," he added.

Pai said that, "I have seen respect for the Indian passport globally because of this industry and, to me, that is the greatest satisfaction because I have personally participated in making sure that the Indian passport, in any part of the world you go... they look at you with respect."

Accepting that he was feeling devastated that he will not come to 'his Infy' Pai said that the feeling has only started to sink in and he was anguished that he will no longer be able to meet the 'wonderful people' to dine and to 'fight' everyday.

Pai has requested the board to relieve him of the responsibilities after the company's annual general meeting (AGM) to be held on June 11.
Sources: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com

Mohandas Pai