{"id":1230,"date":"2013-08-14T09:37:00","date_gmt":"2013-08-14T09:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/projects\/horsesforsources\/infy-mojo-081313\/"},"modified":"2013-08-14T09:37:00","modified_gmt":"2013-08-14T09:37:00","slug":"infy-mojo-081313","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsesforsources.com\/infy-mojo-081313\/","title":{"rendered":"Has Infy got its mojo back? Let’s ask Shibu…"},"content":{"rendered":"
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S D Sibalal a.k.a. 'Shibu', Co-Founder and CEO, Infosys<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
A lot has changed in the outsourcing world since seven engineers started Infosys with $250 in 1981. \u00a0Or has it? \u00a0We got a few minutes with S D Sibalal, Co-Founder and CEO of Infosys, who goes by ‘Shibu’, during Infosys’ recent analyst day in Boston, to find out what’s going on under the Infosys hood these days..<\/em>..<\/p>\n
Phil Fersht, HfS Research:<\/strong> Shibu, in the next three years what do you see as the driving force behind this new look and spirit of Infosys we’re seeing?<\/span><\/p>\n
S D Sibalal (‘Shibu’), Co-Founder and CEO, Infosys:<\/strong> I don\u2019t think the fundamental platforms have changed. However, I would like to be more diversified in Mexico, China and other parts of the world. One of the key aspects of our vision is to be global. Today 94 percent of our workforce is in India. That needs to shift.\u00a0We will become a more local player, especially in the non-English speaking markets like Germany and France. We will expand our business in Europe and the rest of the world.<\/p>\n
Phil:<\/strong> The type of skills you need are quickly changing as you evolve the business. Now it\u2019s not just the technology skills that were the classic underpinnings of the company. Today you need people who understand processes and marketing. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
Shibu:<\/strong>\u00a0Today everyone must be an expert. It\u2019s all about business knowledge. We must have employees who are business process experts in specific areas like retailing or risk management. We are in the process of adding those kinds of people. Right now they comprise just 10 percent of our employees if you take out BPO. But that percentage is constantly\u00a0 increasing, especially in the non-English speaking markets. Eventually the balance will be 70\/30, with just 70 percent of our people having a high tech background.<\/p>\n
Phil:<\/strong>\u00a0Does that mean you are going to enter the consulting space more aggressively?<\/span><\/p>\n
Shibu:<\/strong>\u00a0We are not trying to become a consulting company like Deloitte or McKinsey. Our model is our strength. We don\u2019t want to become anybody. But from a capability standpoint consulting will enhance our offerings.<\/p>\n
Phil:<\/strong>\u00a0When you look at the next wave of innovation over the next five years, where do you think the business will go?<\/span><\/p>\n
Shibu:<\/strong>\u00a0When I began this career, I started in electronic data processing. Then we worked in the connected world. Now there is a huge shift in the industry toward prediction. We are going from data to information to intelligence. It\u2019s all about creating intelligence and insights. I see that as a huge part of our job.<\/p>\n
Phil:<\/strong>\u00a0Is this kind of innovation a new opportunity for Infosys?<\/span><\/p>\n
Shibu:<\/strong>\u00a0This opens up a lot of opportunities. There is no doubt. There\u2019s a lot of innovation there: statistic modeling, heuristic learning, speech recognition, and so on. They are all opportunities. However, we will need to develop a lot of new skills to do this.<\/p>\n
Phil:<\/strong>\u00a0And how about the “old” IT capabilities?<\/span><\/p>\n
Shibu:<\/strong>\u00a0I still believe we will be doing Cobol programming and mainframe work. Outsourcing is a continuum. We still have people working on mainframe while the evolution is happening at the same time.<\/p>\n
Phil:<\/strong>\u00a0How important is intellectual property in the long game?<\/span><\/p>\n
Shibu:<\/strong>\u00a0I believe it will be important to have patents and intellectual property. In the last four years we have filed 548 patents. That is the journey we are taking. An intellectual-property-based business will be big a part of our model in the next four years. And I think this journey to this new model will be accelerated. It took 15 years to get here but probably only four to get there.<\/p>\n