On 18 August 2017 the CEO of one of the biggest IT and Business Consultancy firm’s Mr. Vishal Sikka unexpectedly resigned, while the company appointed U B Pravin Rao as the Interim Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director.But why did Vishal Sikka resign?
On April 15 Infosys named Venkatesan as co-chairman and also appointed a three-member panel for the support and advice Sikka in strategy planning and execution. This is when the problem started. Sikka was extremely unhappy with Venkatesan’s appointment. Sikka priorly informed executives close to him that he wished to leave the company. The day Ravi was appointed co-chairman, Vishal decided to leave. On 23 June, a report was submitted to the board on the law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, proving there was no evidence of Infosys making aprofit from the decision of buying Panaya in February 2015.Though later, at the company’s annual general meeting, Sikka was overjoyed at the feedback from some stakeholders.
But the joy was short-lived. N.R. Narayana Murthy, also a large shareholder, asked to disclose the full report on the Panaya acquisition. After considering over things, Sikka decided to leave and this is how Infosys’s first non-founder CEO finally ended his three-year journey.
Thus we can say culmination of an unending tussle between the company board and founder-shareholders, especially N.R. Narayana Murthy, over issues of governance led to Sikka’s resignation.
