V
V.Balasubramani
Guest
[h=1]Excerpts from the article ‘Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka: Indians don't speak up, just follow orders’ appeared in the TOI.[/h]MUMBAI: Vishal Sikka, 47, took over as CEO of Infosys at a time when things looked dim for the once vaunted software company. It had gone through over two years of underperformance compared to some of its peers. Sikka's appointment was a surprise and a relief. .....................................
What do you see as your big challenges?
One is that the company processes have not kept pace with its massive growth. Another is that we have to improve the confidence of the youngsters. This is true for all Indian IT companies. The consistent feedback from customers is that though Infosys is without comparison in quality and delivery and we follow orders dutifully, we don't speak up, we are not proactive. As an innovator, this made me very sad. We are trained to solve problems, not trained to find problems. We have this cultural thing — if I speak up, it is questioning of authority. This is totally counter to the Western mindset. We serve Western companies, and they expect us to speak up. John McCarthy, father of artificial intelligence and who was in my examination committee, once told me this unforgettable thing: Finding and articulating the problem is half the solution. The other half is to solve it.
Many of the solutions to yesterday's problems will be automated. But no matter how intelligent robots become, they will not tell us what the big problems are, they don't have the imagination of human beings. That's why I'm moving the company in that direction.
Read more at : Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka: Indians don't speak up, just follow orders - The Times of India
What do you see as your big challenges?
One is that the company processes have not kept pace with its massive growth. Another is that we have to improve the confidence of the youngsters. This is true for all Indian IT companies. The consistent feedback from customers is that though Infosys is without comparison in quality and delivery and we follow orders dutifully, we don't speak up, we are not proactive. As an innovator, this made me very sad. We are trained to solve problems, not trained to find problems. We have this cultural thing — if I speak up, it is questioning of authority. This is totally counter to the Western mindset. We serve Western companies, and they expect us to speak up. John McCarthy, father of artificial intelligence and who was in my examination committee, once told me this unforgettable thing: Finding and articulating the problem is half the solution. The other half is to solve it.
Many of the solutions to yesterday's problems will be automated. But no matter how intelligent robots become, they will not tell us what the big problems are, they don't have the imagination of human beings. That's why I'm moving the company in that direction.
Read more at : Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka: Indians don't speak up, just follow orders - The Times of India