MUMBAI, INDIA: At the second day of the NASSCOM India Leadership Forum 2009 here today, N R Narayana Murthy, the chief mentor of Infosys, opened the curtains with some practical mantras to fight slowdown.

These are resilient focus on price to performance, net income margins, variable costs and training.

He started his mantras by admitting the impact of the slowdown.

"We are definitely in difficult times, but we have seen such times earlier also, like the recession in 1989-93, or the tech bubble burst in 1999-2002. Perhaps now is the mother of all recession. But this is also a time when best quality leadership is called for. We also have to tell our youngsters not to lose heart."

He the mentioned how important it is in today's time to agg greater business value for customers and move from price to performance while we enhance productivity with greater usability of our resources.

"Let's come back to net income margins from operating margins and try our best to move from fixed cost to variable cost and from indirect cost to direct cost. Let's look above the gross margins and allocate with specific cost and accountability to project."

Mutrhy also highlighted the need for training in today's time by mentioning how Infosys increased the training weeks at the Mysore facility.

"We have to enable our youngsters even better to face the world today," he pointed out.

Speaking about global recession and its longevity, Murthy agreed to John Chambers that the recession may last for another nine to 18 months, and advised the industry to hope for the best; but be prepared to face the worst.

In such tough times, companies need to control or reduce its expense including salary and leverage debts.

Sharing Infosys' experience, Murthy said, "During early 90s when the company faced similar situation, right from top management and directors, everyone had accepted salary cuts of 8 per cent. And, the company didn't delay the joining dates of trainees, hence this raised moral values in the company."

Further he said the Infosys has followed the analysis of data both at mirco and macro level that has helped to take better decision.

"Creat an open channel for decision and debate to help decision within the organization to motivate and over come tough times," he said.

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