Former Infosys CFOs Cheer Return Of Nandan Nilekani But Want Ravi Venkatesan Gone
Why former Infoscions Mohandas Pai and V Balakrishnan want Ravi Venkatesan to step down from the Infosys board.
The purging of the Infosys Ltd. board may not be over yet. On a day when four board members, including co-chairman R Seshasayee, stepped down there were calls for one more director to go. Ravi Venkatesan.
And the demand came from none other than two former chief financial officers of Infosys, Mohandas Pai and V Balakrishnan.
The former chairman of Microsoft India, Venkatesan was serving as independent director on the Infosys board when in April he was given the additional role of co-chairman. This was ostensibly in reaction to corporate governance concerns raised by Infosys co-founder NR Narayana Murthy regarding the acquisition of Panaya by then chief executive officer and managing director Vishal Sikka. Sikka resigned last week triggering the latest leadership crisis at the information technology services exporter. The Infosys board in a strongly-worded statement blamed Sikka’s resignation on Murthy’s “continuous assault”.
In an interview to BloombergQuint Pai said he believes Venkatesan played both sides - Sikka and the co-founders - against each other.
Ravi has run with the hare and hunted with the hound. He has played both sides very badly. He has met me personally and said he wanted to get rid of Vishal. He wanted time to say Vishal is not working. And then he made a public statement that Murthy should come back in open. Two days back he changed it because a letter was leaked from the company. And I know who has leaked the letter, I don’t want to say the name. He has played both sides and his conduct has been disgraceful. I want to put it on the public record. And I think he must go, and that we have no trust or confidence in him.Mohandas Pai, Former CFO, Infosys
Bala expressed similar disappointment with Venkatesan.
Personally if you ask me, Ravi has been a big let down. He should not have allowed that press release on Murthy to go to the stock exchanges and belittle him. Murthy is iconic and the best business leader this company has ever produced. Belittling him in public by sending such a press release is a big let down. Ravi should not have been in the board. Nandan has to take the call now in the best interest of the company.V Balakrishnan, Former CFO, Infosys
BloombergQuint reached Venkatesan for his account of events but he refused to comment.
Other board members should also be held accountable for the Infosys media statement blaming Murthy, said Pai. “Murthy's health has taken a turn for the worse, he is very sensitive to his reputation and is extremely hurt, and is extremely upset over what has happened. Nandan didn't want to come back, but different people spoke to him. That has tilted the balance for Nandan to come back and save the legacy.”
Both Pai and Bala argued in favour of a bigger board reshuffle. “ Nandan should stay on for at least 2-3 years. He has to re-shuffle the board, get a new CEO and help with the transition, and get the next chairman going in terms of getting management right. There are a lot of governance issues raised, he has to take a fresh look at all those and give all the information to stakeholders so they are assured,” Bala added.
Pai expressed confidence that Nilekani would make public the investigation reports on the Panaya acquisition, a demand that Murthy has been making but one the board has so far refused to meet saying the investigations found no wrong-doing.
...it is up to Murthy and the board to decide what is to be done. Because they are the promoters of the company, they have a legal liability. And being 13 percent shareholders I think they should sit and discuss and decide and finish it. Please remember, Nandan is not an independent director, he is a promoter director. The promoter group’s views will be articulated through Nandan.Mohandas Pai, Former CFO, Infosys
Stating that Infosys’ first effort to professionalise failed, Bala pointed out that this time round succession planning should be much more robust.
One of the experiments that happened in 2014 was the transformation from the founder-driven company to a succession driven one. That experiment failed because of the failure of the board, that should not happen again. He (Nilekani) should also focus on succession planning, on getting a good chairman for the future.V Balakrishnan, Former CFO, Infosys