Mohandas Pai, chairman, Aarin Capital, and former board member of Infosys. In services companies, you can’t be bringing in CEOs from outside all the time," said T.V. It’s a question of spending time and grooming 2-3 people internally.
“When there is a sudden vacancy at the top, it creates a gap. Even after Sikka stepped down in 2017 citing “continuous distractions", after a year-long public spat with the company’s founders, Infosys brought in former-Capgemini executive Salil Parekh as its CEO in January 2018.Įxperts said IT companies need to groom insiders for the top job early on and create a pipeline of potential successors who are well acquainted with the culture and the business of the entity. In fact, industry insiders said at least three of them quit as their aspirations to be promoted as the CEO were not met. The company had appointed SAP veteran Vishal Sikka in 2014 as its first non-founding CEO and managing director, after the firm witnessed at least 13 top-level exits between 20. Infosys Ltd, too, had a leadership issue during founder-CEO S.D. It remains to be seen how seamlessly the new CEO fits into the Wipro culture and how active a role chairman Rishad Premji will play during the transition period. Though Wipro said in a statement that Neemuchwala will continue to hold office until a successor is appointed to ensure a smooth transition, analysts said it was not going to be easy.