Life Lessons from Narayana Murthy - 3

[Guest guest]

While these first two events were rather fortuitous, the next two,

both concerning the Infosys journey, were more planned and profoundly

influenced my career trajectory.

 

On a chilly Saturday morning in winter 1990, five of the seven

founders of Infosys met in our small office in a leafy Bangalore

suburb. The decision at hand was the possible sale of Infosys for the

enticing sum of $1 million. After nine years of toil in the then

businessunfriendly India, we were quite happy at the prospect of

seeing at least some money.

 

I let my younger colleagues talk about their future plans.

Discussions about the travails of our journey thus far and our future

challenges went on for about four hours. I had not yet spoken a word.

 

Finally, it was my turn. I spoke about our journey from a small

Mumbai apartment in 1981 that had been beset with many challenges,

but also of how I believed we were at the darkest hour before the

dawn. I then took an audacious step. If they were all bent upon

selling the company, I said, I would buy out all my colleagues,

though I did not have a cent in my pocket.

 

There was a stunned silence in the room. My colleagues wondered aloud

about my foolhardiness. But I remained silent. However, after an hour

of my arguments, my colleagues changed their minds to my way of

thinking. I urged them that if we wanted to create a great company,

we should be optimistic and confident. They have more than lived up

to their promise of that day.

 

In the seventeen years since that day, Infosys has grown to revenues

in excess of $3.0 billion, a net income of more than $800 million and

a market capitalisation of more than $28 billion, 28,000 times richer

than the offer of $1 million on that day.

 

In the process, Infosys has created more than 70,000 well-paying

jobs, 2,000-plus dollar-millionaires and 20,000-plus rupee

millionaires.