Vishal Sikka -- once known for cracking jokes and smiling away at company meetings -- took a sombre tone when he tendered his resignation as Infosys chief executive officer (CEO) and managing director (MD) on Friday, August 18.
He said in his public letter -- the full text of which is available here -- after resignation: "...I cannot carry out my job as CEO and continue to create value, while also constantly defending against unrelenting, baseless/malicious and increasingly personal attacks."
Under him, Infosys has continued to post profits despite a new H1-B visa regime by the US earlier this year. Even the Q1 result for FY18 showed only a marginal fall in profits. However that did not dim his enthusiasm when it came to the promise of the targeted $20-billion sales for Infosys by 2020.
Signs all along
However, despite all the sunshine, there have been several clouds over Sikka's tenure in Infosys, which ultimately led to Friday's watershed moment. Chief among them is the continued disagreement between the Infosys Board of Directors and its co-founders, which Sikka has had to address quite often.
One such instance of mollifying the co-founders was when a whistleblower in February this year put out a letter saying former chief financial officer Rajiv Bansal was given a severance package of Rs 17.4 crore to buy his silence on some accounting practice and an overseas acquisition of Infosys.
As if this was not enough, Sikka's time at the helm of Infosys for three years also saw at least a dozen top-level executives exiting the company, which reflected badly on both him and the firm.
Foreboding in email?
However, possibly the biggest sign Sikka could have given about quitting is hidden in an email he had sent to employess in the company just after completing three years there. This was the same email where he had urged his colleagues to look forward instead of back.
He said in the email: "As I write this, on my flight back one more time around the world (turns out that traveling east saves about five hours of flying time on a round trip from San Francisco to Bangalore, and so roughly once a month I go around the world!), and I think about the three trips our little world has made around its sun since I started, it is clear once again that we should work towards the future, instead of only holding on to the past."
Sikka then went on to add: "Recently, when I turned 50, another anniversary, a great teacher of my life gave me a rare book of reflections by Hermann Hesse. In it, I found this one gem: 'Some of us think holding on makes us strong, but sometimes it is letting go'."
Many people at that time had thought he was talking about Infosys co-founder NR Narayana Murthy, who had making signalling his return to the company in a full-fledged role. Sikka's resignation on Friday paints that statement in new light: He may have been talking about himself all along!
New salary: Just $1!
With his resignation, Sikka also said he would now assume the position of executive vice-chairman of Infosys, which entails an annual salary of $1.
This is a significant drop from the base salary of $1 million Sikka had received in FY17, and $900,000 in FY16. With variable pay, the salaries had gone up much higher in both cases.
Now, however, Sikka may have no variable pay, but will earn from the Infosys stocks that were given to him earlier.
