Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka has remained tight lipped on the high-level exits that have of late dogged the IT firm. While much was said about how the CEO was having a tough time retaining talent, especially at a time when the IT industry has been having a rough ride, he chose not to comment. Well, until now.
Sikka has finally opened up about the senior level exits in the company and has suggested that it is not really a cause for concern. He explained that the exits are "far lower" when compared to other companies.
When CNBCTV asked Sikka if he was worried about the attrition rate at Infosys, he said: "Not at all. This is a complete nonsensical myth that has been propagated in some parts," reported PTI.
"It happens in every company. We actually did an analysis, both in terms of our own past as well as in terms of the other companies in our industry. And there are far more executives who have left every other company that we could think of," he added.
Sikka, who recently completed three years as the CEO of Infosys, also said that there is some kind of "fixation" with Infosys and the company is eternally on the radar when it comes to these high-level exits.
He was also asked what he thought about co-founder Narayana Murthy's recent statement in which he said that he regretted leaving the firm in 2014, he said that the firm intended to have a separate board and a management.
"This was something that we had very consciously established as an independent board and a professional management taking over from a founder-led board and a founder-led management. So, that is a big change," Sikka explained.
Infosys had been in the news with its senior executives leaving the firm one after the other. July itself saw the resignation of Anirban Dey, the global head and chief business officer of Edge products at EdgeVerve, Ritika Suri, who was in-charge of mergers and acquisitions and Yusuf Bashir, MD of the $500-million Infosys Innovation Fund.
While the firm earlier saw the exit of Sandeep Dadlani, president and head - MRCL, who quit to pursue other interests, Infosys lost senior executives such as Rajiv Bansal, Samson David, Manish Tandon and Anup Upadhyay before that.
In light of the exits, Sikka's longevity at Infosys too came into question. However, Infosys Co-Chairman Ravi Venkatesan said that he hoped that Sikka achieves the targets for the firm and stays on. Venkatesan too had said that the resignations make him sad, "but when the industry is changing so fast, boss, if people have an opportunity to become a CEO somewhere else and become number 2 somewhere else, we cannot stop them."
