In a move that took everybody by surprise on Friday, Infosys Technologies announced that its long serving CFO TV Mohandas Pai would step down from the position effective April 30 and take over the functions of human resource development, education & research and administration. He will continue to be both on the board of the company and as chairman of the BPO arm, Progeon.
Mr Pai was the CFO for the past 12 years and this position will now be taken over by V Balakrishan, currently senior vice president (finance) and company secretary but will not be a board member.
Considering that CFO’s position is seen as a more powerful one than a HR chief’s in most company set-ups, this move has indeed raised eyebrows. The industry thinks it is a positive move. Said a senior industry executive, “He has been handling two functions, finance and HR for some time now and that is not tenable in the long run.
In fact, by putting a director level guy directly in charge of HR, Infosys has upgraded the HR function.”
The former HR chief of Infosys, Hema Ravichandar used to report to Infosys COO, Kris Gopalakrishnan. Mr Pai, will directly report to the CEO. Said another senior HR professional in the IT industry, “HR chief’s plays a very important role in people centric organisations like Infosys. One needs personalities like Mr Pai in this sector.”
The change comes at a time when Infosys is looking at making a gross addition of 25,000 people during the current fiscal which will include 18,000 in the parent company and the remaining in its various subsidiaries. The software giant’s current employee strength stands at 52,715.
Mr Pai, has increasingly emerged as the public face of Infosys and the guy to quote on Infosys’ expansion plans, especially its vexed land acquisition issue in Bangalore.
Infosys chairman and chief mentor NR Narayana Murthy said the decision of Mr Pai to voluntarily step down from the CFO position, paving the way for younger people to take up more responsibility was a very rare in any company.
He said that Mr Pai would moving into a more important role and is expected to be “busier than ever.”
Commenting on the transition, Infosys managing director Nandan Nilekani said, the movement is just from “finance capital to human capital,” and comes at a time when the future challenge for the company would be ensuring adequate human capital.
On the recent reports that Infosys lacked the depth in the middle management, Mr Pai said this has been a debate for the industry as a whole, but Infosys had got the depth and width to manage any activity. Quoting an example, he said Infosys annually does around 4,000-5,000 projects a year and only 6-7 fall in the default list. Infosys during the fourth quarter of ’05-06 fiscal, made a lateral addition of 1,620 people.
He said Infosys would go on with its expansion activity both within India and outside. This would mean expansion in places like Jaipur, Kolkata and Hyderabad and will also include in its operations in China and Australia. Mr Murthy said Infosys as a corporation needs to take decision fast and Andhra Pradesh government offered land earlier so it went ahead with its Hyderabad plans.
On the expansion plans in Karnataka, Mr Pai said it has received a letter from the government and it has yet to begin discussion with KIADB on the actual land acquisition process.
Mr Pai was the CFO for the past 12 years and this position will now be taken over by V Balakrishan, currently senior vice president (finance) and company secretary but will not be a board member.
Considering that CFO’s position is seen as a more powerful one than a HR chief’s in most company set-ups, this move has indeed raised eyebrows. The industry thinks it is a positive move. Said a senior industry executive, “He has been handling two functions, finance and HR for some time now and that is not tenable in the long run.
In fact, by putting a director level guy directly in charge of HR, Infosys has upgraded the HR function.”
The former HR chief of Infosys, Hema Ravichandar used to report to Infosys COO, Kris Gopalakrishnan. Mr Pai, will directly report to the CEO. Said another senior HR professional in the IT industry, “HR chief’s plays a very important role in people centric organisations like Infosys. One needs personalities like Mr Pai in this sector.”
The change comes at a time when Infosys is looking at making a gross addition of 25,000 people during the current fiscal which will include 18,000 in the parent company and the remaining in its various subsidiaries. The software giant’s current employee strength stands at 52,715.
Mr Pai, has increasingly emerged as the public face of Infosys and the guy to quote on Infosys’ expansion plans, especially its vexed land acquisition issue in Bangalore.
Infosys chairman and chief mentor NR Narayana Murthy said the decision of Mr Pai to voluntarily step down from the CFO position, paving the way for younger people to take up more responsibility was a very rare in any company.
He said that Mr Pai would moving into a more important role and is expected to be “busier than ever.”
Commenting on the transition, Infosys managing director Nandan Nilekani said, the movement is just from “finance capital to human capital,” and comes at a time when the future challenge for the company would be ensuring adequate human capital.
On the recent reports that Infosys lacked the depth in the middle management, Mr Pai said this has been a debate for the industry as a whole, but Infosys had got the depth and width to manage any activity. Quoting an example, he said Infosys annually does around 4,000-5,000 projects a year and only 6-7 fall in the default list. Infosys during the fourth quarter of ’05-06 fiscal, made a lateral addition of 1,620 people.
He said Infosys would go on with its expansion activity both within India and outside. This would mean expansion in places like Jaipur, Kolkata and Hyderabad and will also include in its operations in China and Australia. Mr Murthy said Infosys as a corporation needs to take decision fast and Andhra Pradesh government offered land earlier so it went ahead with its Hyderabad plans.
On the expansion plans in Karnataka, Mr Pai said it has received a letter from the government and it has yet to begin discussion with KIADB on the actual land acquisition process.
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