N R Narayan Murthy: Being Humble is Big

INDIA: When you read a letter from an IT company's boss chiding its ‘bachelor' employees to not stay late in office, it's certainly a moment for surprise. Why would any boss scold its employees to not spend time staring at computers and instead pushing them to go learn a foreign language or have a boy friend or girl friend in the evenings? Who minds an employee who does over time for late hours?

Well, that's exactly the difference between just any boss and a really smart boss. For the latter one knows that short term benefits depreciate over the long term. Also, he knows that it's important that everyone has a life, even the employees.

That's exactly the difference between just any company and a company that has been built with great passion, vision and from scratch.

That's why legends like N R Narayan Murthy never need an introduction.

To give a primer on them is like writing a bio graphy itself. But it does not take much time to smell the juice and comprehend why such legends stay signatures in themselves always, long after they have retired (as some term it).

The answer is simple. Such minds always carry a heart in what they do. They always leave a scene with some change made, no matter how small but significant. They may silently disappear from the scene but they leave after setting the stage for louder things ahead.

Only a big mind and a big heart can dream as big to huddle up with six engineers in a small city like Pune with as meager a capital as Rs 10,000.

Only a mind trained for foresight can quickly jump to the right certifications and big markets like in a span of a few years.

He has made Infosys the icon it is today but in the process struck many other changes for the industry. His catalytic role accounts for India's emergence as the global destination for software services talent by completing more than 20,000 projects with a 99% error-free record.

It was his efforts that concepts like a Global Delivery Model were pioneered.

Or that an Company from India went on to be listed on NASDAQ with revenues touching US $100 million. More models like Core Banking System called BANCS 2000, the recognition of being 21st company in the world to achieve a CMM Level 5 certification came in rolling thanks to his leadership. Finacle universal banking solution holds a notable place even today.

The models he has designed and put forth have become archetypal for the IT services outsourcing space at many levels. But like we said, it's about a mind with a heart. This catalyst also counts among other milestones the effort to initiate Indian industry to ethics, business values and many key corporate governance initiatives, making it loud and clear that good values do not always translate into bad business.

No doubt that he is an IT advisor to several Asian countries and serves on the boards of Ford Foundation, Rhodes Trust, the Indian School of Business and the UN Foundation. This co-founder and chairman emeritus was recently honoured in the US with the James C. Morgan Global Humanitarian Award, sponsored by the Silicon Valley-based software major Applied Materials.

Listed as one among the "12 greatest entrepreneurs of our time" by the Fortune magazine in 2012, or ranked by The Economist among the ten most-admired global business leaders in 2005 or being honoured the Padma Vibhushan by the Government of India, or the Legion d'honneur by the Government of France, or the CBE by the British government; examples keep going on to confirm the respect and ardour he has been earning over the years. 

The answer is simple. Only a change agent like him could count in philanthropy as a priority and not as a retirement after thought. Charity begun at home at a very early stage for him and his family and he used this avenue too to making big and long-due changes in the society. The company established Infosys Foundation in 1996 to help underprivileged communities in India, focusing on healthcare, education and rural development.

He has always urged for economic empowerment that offers a path out of poverty through such endeavours. Building a multi-billion dollar software and IT services firm must have never been easy, more so when it comes to proving that India can compete with the world by taking on work that had previously been done in much richer countries. Sparking an outsourcing revolution he has been a catalyst for attracting billions into the local economy and morphing India into the world's back office.

Taking risks, pioneering unthought-of things, jumping for big strides and making a journey exemplary for other entrepreneurs is something he has done almost effortlessly.

With stones of struggles in his way and milestones of big changes in hisradar, he continues to being the agent of greatness.

One place where no one minds a boss working over time.