Media should ignore Narayana Murthy, he should stop tarnishing Infosys’ image: Anil Singhvi, Ican Investment
In a chat with ET Now, Anil Singhvi, Founder & Chairman, Ican Investment Advisors, says was pained actually to see Murthy’s email. He has used I, me and myself 23 times. Is this becoming of a leadership that you keep on talking about?
Edited excerpts:
What has been your reading of this mudslinging battle in Infosys and NR Narayana Murthy firing a fresh salvo against the promoters currently?
It is highly uncalled for. He is making a mountain out of mole. If we compare the hike in salary of Praveen Rao with the industry peers, it is not very high. So, I do not think he is making any valid point. To say now that we always took very low salaries and all that is all humbug. Those were the different days and he had huge amount of shares in the company. So it suited them to not to debit profit and loss account with high salaries. But things have changed, Praveen is not a founder, Praveen is a professional who is being paid based on his professional competencies and what peer compensation packages would be. This is a very uncalled for debate and mudslinging which Mr Murthy has unnecessarily got himself entangled in.
My follow-up point here would be that despite Mr Murthy publicly saying that he will have no business whatsoever with Infosys and remain like a silent shareholder, time and again he is picking up points which are raising concerns about the company he founded. If he wants to remain in the public domain as an activist, then you should acknowledge that role and be out in the open?
I agree with you. I think in India we have seen often times it is very difficult to say bye to a company which you have founded. You always want to remain engaged with the company, you can never say that I am moving on in life. I am pained actually to see his email. He has used I, me and myself 23 times. Is this becoming of a leadership that you keep on talking about? I did this, I did that, it was me, it was my decision, what is it? Where are we on this? You have done your good job, you are leaving legacy behind. Leave it and go ahead in life and look at many more things than engaging yourself into Praveen’s salary. Why does he go on saying we do not like this kind of salary to be paid? Leave it to Vishal Sikka, leave it to Seshasayee, leave it to the company. They will decide what has to be done. You have done your job for almost close to 30 years, you came back, you were there for one year, you again went back, you again engaged. In February you called truce and said “I will not go into public and talk about it, if there is any differences we will settle within”. Then what happens? Just Praveen’s salary has become a big issue for you to write a huge mail to the media and saying that I am not approving it. This is completely, highly unbecoming of a leader like Mr Narayana Murthy. I hope and pray wisdom will prevail and he will not again engage into these kind of things. If he is putting the pressure on the company to come out with a buyback, I can agree. I am completely with Mr Narayana Murthy on this. If he wants to really force Vishal and his team to go for a buyback but attacking Praveen’s salary is uncalled for and a very ugly debate and mudslinging has started.
At a time when the IT sector per se is going through a big change of model and disruption, the last thing you want as a minority shareholder are noises and irritants like this. What Mr Murthy perhaps should do here is come out and lend his experience and lend his connections to Infosys board and help them grow?
Only two points; one and foremost is that he himself writes in his mail that this has nothing to do with Praveen and then everything is about Praveen. What is it? And the second point and is I blame media as well. I request all of you to just ignore Mr Murthy. You are paying too much of attention to Mr Murthy’s disruptive practices which is really belittling Infosys, which was an icon, which really we all looked up to.
So my request to media will be to ignore Mr Murthy’s mails mudslinging and tarnishing of Infosys’s image, a company which he created. It is like is his own daughter, and why is he tarnishing the image of his own daughter?
Edited excerpts:
What has been your reading of this mudslinging battle in Infosys and NR Narayana Murthy firing a fresh salvo against the promoters currently?
It is highly uncalled for. He is making a mountain out of mole. If we compare the hike in salary of Praveen Rao with the industry peers, it is not very high. So, I do not think he is making any valid point. To say now that we always took very low salaries and all that is all humbug. Those were the different days and he had huge amount of shares in the company. So it suited them to not to debit profit and loss account with high salaries. But things have changed, Praveen is not a founder, Praveen is a professional who is being paid based on his professional competencies and what peer compensation packages would be. This is a very uncalled for debate and mudslinging which Mr Murthy has unnecessarily got himself entangled in.
My follow-up point here would be that despite Mr Murthy publicly saying that he will have no business whatsoever with Infosys and remain like a silent shareholder, time and again he is picking up points which are raising concerns about the company he founded. If he wants to remain in the public domain as an activist, then you should acknowledge that role and be out in the open?
I agree with you. I think in India we have seen often times it is very difficult to say bye to a company which you have founded. You always want to remain engaged with the company, you can never say that I am moving on in life. I am pained actually to see his email. He has used I, me and myself 23 times. Is this becoming of a leadership that you keep on talking about? I did this, I did that, it was me, it was my decision, what is it? Where are we on this? You have done your good job, you are leaving legacy behind. Leave it and go ahead in life and look at many more things than engaging yourself into Praveen’s salary. Why does he go on saying we do not like this kind of salary to be paid? Leave it to Vishal Sikka, leave it to Seshasayee, leave it to the company. They will decide what has to be done. You have done your job for almost close to 30 years, you came back, you were there for one year, you again went back, you again engaged. In February you called truce and said “I will not go into public and talk about it, if there is any differences we will settle within”. Then what happens? Just Praveen’s salary has become a big issue for you to write a huge mail to the media and saying that I am not approving it. This is completely, highly unbecoming of a leader like Mr Narayana Murthy. I hope and pray wisdom will prevail and he will not again engage into these kind of things. If he is putting the pressure on the company to come out with a buyback, I can agree. I am completely with Mr Narayana Murthy on this. If he wants to really force Vishal and his team to go for a buyback but attacking Praveen’s salary is uncalled for and a very ugly debate and mudslinging has started.
At a time when the IT sector per se is going through a big change of model and disruption, the last thing you want as a minority shareholder are noises and irritants like this. What Mr Murthy perhaps should do here is come out and lend his experience and lend his connections to Infosys board and help them grow?
Only two points; one and foremost is that he himself writes in his mail that this has nothing to do with Praveen and then everything is about Praveen. What is it? And the second point and is I blame media as well. I request all of you to just ignore Mr Murthy. You are paying too much of attention to Mr Murthy’s disruptive practices which is really belittling Infosys, which was an icon, which really we all looked up to.
So my request to media will be to ignore Mr Murthy’s mails mudslinging and tarnishing of Infosys’s image, a company which he created. It is like is his own daughter, and why is he tarnishing the image of his own daughter?
