1. N.R.NARAYAN MURTHY
Submitted for the First year of
Master of Management Studies
By
Mr. Tushar Meshram
Mr. Sameer Ghanekar
Mr. Vinod Karval
Under the Guidance of
Dr. Vyas
Yadavrav Tasgaonkar School of Business Management
Bhivpuri road (w), Mumbai 410201.
UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI
SEP 2009-2010
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2. N.R.NARAYAN MURTHY
MR. NARAYAN MURTHY, CHIEF MENTOR, INFOSYS TECHNOLOGIES
N. R. NARAYAN MURTHY, is an Indian industrialist, software engineer and
one of the seven founders of Infosys Technologies, a global consulting and IT services
company based in India. He is currently the non-executive Chairman and Chief Mentor of
Infosys. He was the CEO of the company for 21 years, from 1981 to 2002. NR Narayana
Murthy took Infosys to great heights. Infosys became the first company in India to make
its place in the American stock exchange in the year 1999.
EARLY LIFE OF N.R.NARAYAN MURTHY
He was born into a Kannada Madhva Brahmin family in Mysore, India on August
20, 1946.He completed his graduation in electrical engineering from the National
Institute of Engineering, University of Mysore in 1967.He completed his master’s degree
from IIT Kanpur in 1969.He worked at IIM Ahmedabad as chief system programmer on
a time-sharing system and designed and implemented a BASIC interpreter for
ECIL(Electronics Corporation of India Limited).
After IIM Ahmedabad, he joined Patni Computer Systems in pune. Before
moving to Mumbai, he met his wife Sudha Murthy in pune. She was an engineer working
at Tata Engineering and Locomotive Co. Ltd. (Telco, now known as Tata Motors) in
Pune. In 1981, he founded Infosys with six other software professionals. He was the
president of the National Association of Software and Service Companies, (NASSCOM)
India from 1992 to 1994. He is rated as the Global Leader of 2009.
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3. N.R.NARAYAN MURTHY
ACCOLADES
Murthy has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors. In 2008, he was
awarded the Padma Vibhushan, a second highest civilian award by India and Légion
d'honneur, the highest civilan award awarded by France. In 2000, he was awarded the
Padma Shri, a civilian award by the Government of India. He was voted the World
Entrepreneur of the Year - 2003 by Ernst & Young. He was one of the two people
named as Asia's Businessmen of the Year for 2003 by Fortune magazine. In 2001, he
was named by CNN as one of the twenty-five, most influential global executives, a group
selected for their lasting influence in creating new industries and reshaping markets. In
1996-97, he was awarded the JRD Tata Corporate Leadership Award.
The Economist ranked him 8th among the top 15 most admired global leaders. He
was ranked 28th among the world's most-respected business leaders by the Financial
Times (2005). He topped the Economic Times Corporate Dossier list of India's most
powerful CEOs for two consecutive years – 2004 and 2005.
His Contribution to organization and industry
Mr. Narayanamurthy is admired for being a socially responsible individual and is
being look up as a leader who was honest and passionate about his work. The consistency
in Mr. Narayanamurthy's personal branding and positioning seem to have been highly
effective for the last ten years.
A hard core professional, NR Narayana Murthy has set high standards for the
aspiring IT sector professionals who revere and follow him to make their dreams come
true. From the beginning, Narayana Murthy focused on the world’s most challenging
market - the US. He had two reasons for this. First, there was no market for software in
India at the time. He believed that Indian software companies should export products in
which they had a competitive advantage.
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4. N.R.NARAYAN MURTHY
In 1987, Infosys entered into a joint venture with Kurt Salmon Associates (KSA),
a leading global management consultancy firm. KSA-Infosys was the first Indo-
American joint venture in the US.
In August 2001, Narayana Murthy set up a Leadership Institute in Mysore, India,
to manage the future growth of Infosys. The institute aimed at preparing Infosys
employees to face the complexities of a rapidly changing marketplace and to bring about
a change in work culture by installing leadership qualities.
Narayana Murthy said,
 It is our vision at Infosys, to create world-class leaders who will be at the
forefront of business and technology in today's competitive marketplace...
 “Our assets walk out of the door each evening. We have to make sure that they
come back the next morning.”
 “Performance leads to recognition. Recognition brings respect. Respect enhances
power. Humility and grace in one's moments of power enhances dignity of an
organisation,”
 “I want Infosys to be a place where people of different genders, nationalities,
races and religious beliefs work together in an environment of intense competition but
utmost harmony, courtesy and dignity to add more and more value to our customers
day after day.”
 "Ships are safest in the harbor but they are not meant to be there. They have to
sail long and hard and face stormy seas to reach the comfort of a desirable
destination"
Narayana Murthy on leadership and values
Strategy is all about differentiating yourself in the marketplace to maximize your
margins. Differentiation could come through products and services. But your
stakeholders must feel you are more and more valuable to them, compared to
competitors.
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5. N.R.NARAYAN MURTHY
Stakeholders would mean society, customers, employees, government, investors; each
must say this company is adding more value to me than any other.
According to him, Ethics and Values transcend the legal framework and as a society
evolves ,Ethics and Values moves into Legality.
Ethics and values can be defined as anything that stands the test of golden behavior.
Ethics and values form the protocol for conduct and behavior in a community for each of
its members. So that it enhances the confidence, the enthusiasm, the energy, the joy of
everyone else in the community. If you want to become unique in the marketplace, then
you want all to work hard. If you want 67,500 people in Infosys to agree voluntarily to
commit to hard work, then they have to trust the leader.
A leader has to have followers to be a leader. If you want to enhance the trust of
employees in the leader, then the leadership of the company has to conduct itself in a
manner that enhances trust. Also, the CEO or the leader must definitely reap benefits
proportionate to the benefits derived by the company.
According to a US survey, corporate leaders are least trusted, as many of them
violated codes of ethics and even laws. For example, if you have analysed how salaries of
CEOs have increased in 15 years, they have gone up from Rs 7,000 and Rs 10,000 to Rs
70 lakh (Rs 7 million) on an average. N R NARAYAN MURTHY was one of those who
fought for it. He saw to it that the CEO of a company had a variable linked to output.
Indeed, salaries of the lowest paid persons have not correspondingly gone up. But after
getting the government to agree to limit on salaries, it is incumbent on our part to live up
to expectations and conduct ourselves in a manner that enhances trust of all stakeholders,
particularly the government and the society. If we have to continue to satisfy our
customers we have to conduct ourselves in a manner that is worthy for the simple reason
that customers today have a plethora of choices.
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6. N.R.NARAYAN MURTHY
PERSONAL EXPERIENCES OF NARAYAN MUTRHY
 When he was a graduate student in Control Theory at IIT, Kanpur, in India, at
breakfast on a bright Sunday morning in 1968, he had a chance encounter with a famous
computer scientist on sabbatical from a well-known US university. He was discussing
exciting new developments in the field of computer science with a large group of students
and how such developments would alter our future. He was articulate, passionate and
quite convincing. NR MURTHY went straight from breakfast to the library, read four or
five papers he had suggested, and left the library determined to study computer science.
This experience tells us that valuable advice can sometimes come from an unexpected
source, and chance events can sometimes open new doors.
 On a chilly Saturday morning in winter 1990, five of the seven founders of Infosys
met in a small office in a leafy Bangalore suburb. The decision at hand was the possible
sale of Infosys for the enticing sum of $1 million. After nine years of toil in the then
business-unfriendly India, they were quite happy at the prospect of seeing at least some
money. Nr murthy spoke about their journey from a small Mumbai apartment in 1981
that had been beset with many challenges, but also of how he believed that they were at
the darkest hour before the dawn. He then took an audacious step. If they were all bent
upon selling the company, he said, he would buy out all my colleagues, though he did not
have a cent in his pocket. After an hour of my arguments, his colleagues changed their
minds to his way of thinking. He urged them that if they wanted to create a great
company, they should be optimistic and confident. They have more than lived up to their
promise of that day. In the seventeen years since that day, Infosys has grown to revenues
in excess of $3.0 billion, a net income of more than $800 million and a market
capitalisation of more than $28 billion, 28,000 times richer than the offer of $1 million on
that day. In the process, Infosys has created more than 70,000 well-paying jobs, 2,000-
plus dollar-millionaires and 20,000-plus rupee millionaires.
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7. N.R.NARAYAN MURTHY
 In 1995, a Fortune-10 corporation had sequestered all their Indian software
vendors, including Infosys, in different rooms at the Taj Residency hotel in Bangalore
so that the vendors could not communicate with one another. This customer's
propensity for tough negotiations was well-known. Infosys team was very nervous.
First of all, with revenues of only around $5 million, they were minnows compared to
customer.
Second, this customer contributed fully 25% of their revenues. The loss of this
business would potentially devastate their recently-listed company.
Third, the customer's negotiation style was very aggressive. The customer team
would go from room to room, get the best terms out of each vendor and then pit one
vendor against the other. This went on for several rounds. Their various arguments
why a fair price -- one that allowed infosys to invest in good people, R&D,
infrastructure, technology and training -- was actually in their interest failed to cut
any ice with the customer.By 5 p.m. on the last day, they had to make a decision right
on the spot whether to accept the customer's terms or to walk out. All eyes were on
NR MURTHY as he mulled over the decision. Through many a tough call, he had
always thought about the long-term interests of Infosys. He communicated clearly to
the customer team that he could not accept their terms, since it could well lead to
letting them down later. But he promised a smooth, professional transition to a vendor
of customer's choice. This was a turning point for Infosys. Subsequently, he created a
Risk Mitigation Council which ensured that they would never again depend too much
on any one client, technology, country, application area or key employee. The crisis
was a blessing in disguise. Today, Infosys has a sound de-risking strategy that has
stabilised its revenues and profits.
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8. N.R.NARAYAN MURTHY
Leadership Style Adopted by NR MURTHY
TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP: Transformational leadership is a
leadership when one or more persons engage with others in such a way that leaders and
followers raise one another to higher levels of motivation and morality.
Murthy believes that by providing superior infrastructure to their staff, they can
get the best out of their programmers. Murthy became the CEO of Infosys and served the
company for 20 years. He resigned from his post in the year 2006 to be succeeded by
Nandan Nilekani who is a co-founder of the company.
Narayana Murthy distributed the company’s profits among the employees through
a stock-option program, and adopted the best corporate governance practices. All this
earned him praise and respect. In 1999, the company became the first Indian firm to be
listed on the NASDAQ Stock Market. In 2000, Infosys was poised to become a true
global company.
Narayana Murthy is not one of those typical corporate bosses. He does not flaunt
any costly suits, flashy automobiles, throw star-studded parties or have a high-flying
lifestyle. He is quiet, unassuming, humble, soft-spoken and much like the elderly man
living next door. But he is the the most admired business leader of India among business
schools across the country for the fifth year in a row.
We have a rule in our company that at the age of 60, people relinquish their
executive positions. If the board of directors, in their meeting , decide that I should
continue as non-executive chairman for whatever term, I will be thrilled and privileged to
continue in that capacity, he said in his interview.
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9. N.R.NARAYAN MURTHY
A man of few words and more of action, Murthy's name is synonymous with Infosys. He
dared to think big and differently and has succeeded where only a few have - as a true
mentor.
The only reason he is successful today because he dared to think different
and had forsaken a promising career to start an IT company. His strength was his
courage, his decisiveness, his will to take a decision quickly and face its consequences.
An honest and passionate leader, Narayana Murthy was a real communist in terms of
sharing his wealth with his co-workers. It was Murthy's business strategy to give
employees stock options as a means of retaining talent. . It was a gamble that has indeed
paid in real terms and has indeed benchmarked Infosys in corporate India.
Apart from being a chief of a company, Naryana Murthy is also admired for being
a socially responsible individual. This led to the birth of Infosys Foundation, a
philanthropic arm of the company in 1996. The foundation, run by his wife Sudha Naraya
Murthy, is focussed on supporting and encouraging the underprivileged sections of
society.
A man who "prefers action any time", Murthy has constantly courted trouble with
his strict adherence to value systems which he never compromises on. Committed to
cause of education, Murthy rejects the idea of job reservation in private sector and feels
that caste should not a criterion for a job.
He once said, When, one day, you have made your mark on the world, remember that, in
the ultimate analysis, we are all mere temporary custodians of the wealth we generate,
whether it be financial, intellectual, or emotional. The best use of all your wealth is to
share it with those less fortunate.
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