Narayana Murthy, a true Karam yogi

India Inc.’s corporate leaders provide a strange melange of diverse personalities - flamboyant Vijay Mallya, mild Narayana Murthy, disciplined Azim Premji, visionary Ratan Tata, astute Ambanis, focussed Kumar Mangalam Birla - to name a few. But one thing they have in common is that they are world-beating leaders whose reputations precede them wherever they go. Very soon, on August 20th to be precise, one of the most respected among the Indian business leaders, Mr. Narayana Murthy will be embarking on a 'Corporate Vanaprastha' (if at all there is any such phrase). Mr. Murthy belongs to that rare breed of entrepreneurs who have an unflinching faith in their vision and pursue it with dogged perseverance. No wonder that his brainchild, Infosys, is today one of the leading companies in its field of expertise. Under his able stewardship, Infosys has grown from its humble beginnings quarter century ago into a $2 billion plus software giant. At its inception Infosys had only 6 employees and has now more than 58,000 on its payrolls.

Mr. Murthy served as CEO of Infosys for twenty years, and was succeeded by co-founder Nandan Nilekani in March 2002. He is the chairman of the governing body of the IIIT, Bangalore and the IIM, Ahmedabad. He is a member of the Board of Overseers of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School; Cornell University Board of Trustees; Singapore Management University Board of Trustees; INSEAD's Board of Directors and the Asian Institute of Management's Board of Governors. He is also a member of the Advisory Boards and Councils of the William F. Achtmeyer Center for Global Leadership at the Tuck School of Business, the Corporate Governance initiative at the Harvard Business School, and the Yale University President's Council on International Activities.

Mr. Murthy is an independent director on the board of the DBS Bank, Singapore. He also serves as a director on the Central Board of the RBI, as the co-chairman of the Indo-British Partnership, as a member of the Prime Minister's council on trade and industry. He is an IT advisor to several Asian countries. The list of awards and honors conferred upon him are endless.

Mr. Murthy is known not just for building one of the biggest IT empires in India but also for his Gandhian simplicity. He has voiced concerns about corporate governance in India. He was the Chairman of the Committee on Corporate Governance appointed by the SEBI in 2003. He once suggested, if my memory serves me right, that the highest-paid executive of a company should not earn more than 15 times the salary of the lowest-paid employee of that company. That's a very noble idea, but I wonder if it has been implemented within his own company.

Now that he has decided to quit active management role in his company, he has also ruled out the possibility of venturing into other sectors like pharma/biotechnology. But the Board of Directors at Infosys has resolved to appoint him as an Additional Director of the company from August 21, as also the Non-Executive Chairman and Chief Mentor. So, his association with his company continues.

Wish Indian politicians were as visionary, altruistic and dedicated as Mr. Murthy is.