Its unusual for a leader of a multi-billion dollar company to describe himself as a student

and express a desire to learn the basics of his trade all over again. But thats what Vishal
Sikka, the CEO-designate of Infosys, said soon after the announcement of his appointment
to steer Indias second-largest IT services company.

With seven weeks left to take up his new role, Sikka says all he wants to do during this
period is to learn, learn and learn.

The first thing I see ahead is to learn about the company, about every aspects of the
business. Im also looking forward to taking some classes at the
incomparable Infosys University in Mysore, said the former SAP executive board member,
who has been widely credited for developing SAP HANA. (NEW STRUCTURE)

A PhD in artificial intelligence from Stanford University, Sikka was born in Madhya Pradesh
to Punjabi parents and spent his formative years in Gujarat, where his father was working
with Indian Railways as an engineer. His mother was a teacher at Rajkot. My wife calls me
a fake Punjabi, he joked, while talking about his connection with Gujarat.

After finishing his degree in computer engineering from MS University in Baroda, Sikka went
to the US, where he first did his BS in computer science from Syracuse University.

I am the son of a teacher and in our family, the highest honour is reserved for scholars. If
there is only one chair, there are three people including a billionaire, a very powerful officer
and a scholar, that chair is first given to the scholar, said Infosys Executive Chairman N R
Narayana Murthy, praising the credentials of the CEO-designate who has still kept the
ambition of teaching at his alma-mater as a visiting faculty. Therefore, Vishal is something
special for me. He is a PhD in computer science from Stanford. Getting a Ph.D degree from
a university like Stanford is perhaps the highest recognition you can get as an intellectual.
Therefore, I am so honoured and so pleased that Vishal has agreed to join Infosys as
the CEO.

Sikka, who joined SAP in 2002, is widely considered to be an exceptional technocrat. In

March 2007, German software major appointed him as the first chief technology officer.
Since 2010, he had been in the executive board of the company, managing $7-8 billion of
revenues globally that comes through the partners.
When Infosys announced its search for the new CEO in April this year, Sikkas name was
nowhere in the list of probables that was speculated widely. Most of the industry experts
were of the opinion that the company would prefer to have an insider for the top job over an
outsider who may take time to gel with its culture.

Picking an outsider was the right thing to do as Infosys needed a fresh leader, said Peter
Bendor-Samuel, founder and CEO of Everest Group. He added that Sikka's leadership style
may be different from leaders that Infosys has seen in the past and he may also have little
experience of running a services company, but it is hardly a disadvantage as it all depends
on his lieutenants.

What matters is a CEO's vision and the strong lieutenants that he brings to take the
agenda ahead. Sikka can get the right people to drive the sales side of things, in case he
lacks that expertise, added Bendor-Samuel.

As Sikka starts his new innings, one of the biggest challenges before him will be that he
needs to spend a significant amount of time in Bangalore, where Infosys is headquartered.
Sikka, a US-citizen, stays in California with family. I will be here in Bangalore almost once
every month, he said.

Improving health
One of the key challenges for Sikka after he took charge as the CEO
on August 01, 2014 was to curtail the rising rate of employee
attrition. Unhappy with the companys poor financial results and
tepid salary increments, employees were moving out of Infosys in big
numbers to look for better opportunities.
The company had seen at least 13 top-level exits between 2013 and
2014.
However, Sikka spearheaded several initiatives to make Infosys a
desirable place to work at.
To boost the morale of the top performers at the company, Sikka had
rolled out 5,000 promotions within his first week at the job. Over the
following months, he engaged with employees through initiatives
such as Murmurationa programme to crowdsource ideas from
employees. He also allowed all employees to wear denims and
casual clothes to work throughout the week.
The efforts are reflected in the low attrition rate of 19.2% (on an
annualised consolidated basis) during the quarter ended June 30,
far lower than 26.4% from a year ago.
Among other signs that indicate that Infosys is getting its act
together is the strong rise in business volume.
Infosys order growth rose 5.4% sequentiallyits highest growth in
nearly five years. The increase in business volume for Infosys is higher
than the 4.8% booked by larger peer Tata Consultancy Services during the
same period.
When asked by a TV channel about how he appraises his
performance at Infosys during the last year, Sikka said, I think the
only metric that matters is, are you having fun and are the people
around you having fun. Thats happening. All the other metrics are
for others to check.
A year ago, InfosysIndias second largest information technology
(IT) services companyhad surprised many by announcing the
appointment of Vishal Sikka as its chief executive officer. This was the
first time since 1981the year the company was foundedthat the
CEO role went to a non-founder.
Sikka was an outsider not just to Infosys but also to the Indian IT
services industry. In his last role, he had served as an executive
board member at software major SAP in California.
At the time, many people had raised doubts over Infosys choice for
CEO, as Sikkas experience of leading software products at SAP was
far from Infosys bread-and-butter business of IT services.
However, four quarters later, there are enough reasons for the
sceptics to put all doubts to rest.
Infosyswhich provides IT services to clients like Apple Inc, Wal-
mart Stores Inc and Volkswagen AGtoday posted a 7% rise in
quarterly revenue. This is the highest sequential growth in 15
quarters. Net profit for the quarter rose 5% compared to a year ago.
The companys performance during the first quarter of the current
financial year was aided by its focus on automation and operational
efficiencytwo of Sikkas pet areas since he joined the company.
Under his leadership, Infosys has also started making bets on high-
margin services such as artificial intelligence and digital technology.
Efforts in redesigning our clients experience and our widespread
adoption of innovation, both in grassroots and breakthroughs, are
starting to bear fruit in large deal wins and in the growth of large
clients, Sikka said today (July 21) in a statement.
We have our eyes set to meet our revenue target of $20 billion by
2020, and this quarters performance is a great step in that
journey, he told television channels earlier today after the company
announced its financial performance for April-June 2015. We are
excited and very confident about the path we are on in the longer
term.
Reacting to the good earnings, Infosys shares rose as much as 15%
during the day on the National Stock Exchange.
Heres how Infosys revenues and net profit have fared during the
last five quarters. Sikka joined as the companys CEO in the middle
of the July-September 2014 quarter

Dr. Vishal Sikka is Chief Executive Officer of Infosys.

Dr. Sikka joined Infosys in 2014 to help transform the company during a time of significant
change in the services industry, change that was brought on by the cost imperatives of clients
on the one hand, and significant and rapid advancements in technology on the other hand.
Since joining Infosys, Dr. Sikka has implemented a strategy of helping clients renew their
existing landscapes to fundamentally drive down costs using automation and artificial
intelligence, and at the same time bring breakthrough innovation that transforms user and
consumer experiences, opens new business opportunities and new business models, and
leverages data in entirely new ways. Key initiatives such as Zero Distance, which focuses on
finding innovation in every project for every client, on an ongoing basis, has set a precedent
in the industry for driving grassroots innovation. Similarly, the notion of looking at
technology as an amplifier of human potential has enabled the company to bring together
services, software and platforms in a way that drives unprecedented value for companies
across every industry.
In addition, Dr. Sikka has created a strong focus on learning and education within Infosys, a
culture which not only drives value for clients and the entire Infosys ecosystem, but extends
outside the company as well. Infosys is helping clients in their efforts to create learning and
collaborative cultures helping them to find the most important problems to solve using
Design Thinking as the framework, to rethink existing processes leveraging technology, to
find new ways of working as teams and as individuals, and to build incredible talent, skills
and passion across teams.
Prior to joining Infosys, Dr. Sikka was a member of the Executive Board of SAP SE, leading
all products and technologies, including all of product development, and driving innovation
globally. In his 12 years at SAP, Dr. Sikka held several senior leadership roles including
becoming SAPs first-ever CTO in 2007. As CTO, Dr. Sikka was responsible for overall
technology architecture and ensuring coherence in SAPs product strategy. During that time
and later when he joined the Executive Board of SAP, Dr. Sikka brought a strong focus on
delivering innovation non-disruptively, simplifying customers landscapes, and delivering
new and delightful user experiences.
When Dr. Sikka joined the SAP Executive Board in February 2010, he brought this same
focus to all of product development and was instrumental in building a culture of innovation
at SAP; innovation became the focus and was at the heart of everything the company
developed and delivered to customers. Among other things, Dr. Sikka is credited with
creating SAPs breakthrough in-memory data platform SAP HANA, the fastest growing
product in SAPs history. He also accelerated SAPs development processes, bringing a deep
focus on design and user experience, creating a culture of innovation, initiating for the first
time in company history a focus on startups, driving venture investments, and leading
product incubation as well as co-innovation with customers.
Dr. Sikka is the creator of timeless software, a framework which articulates the principles
of renewing existing processes and landscapes without disruption to customer environments.
The principles of Timeless Software provide the foundation to ensuring there is no longer a
trade-off between leveraging breakthrough innovation and ensuring the consistency,
reliability and coherence of systems and user experiences. Dr. Sikka is especially known for
his championship of technology as an amplifier of human potential and his passion for
applying software in purposeful ways to address some of the biggest global challenges.
His experience includes research in artificial intelligence, intelligent systems, programming
languages and models, and information management at Stanford University, at Xerox Palo
Alto Labs, and as the founder of two startups.
Dr. Sikka received his BS in Computer Science from Syracuse University. He holds a Ph.D.
in Computer Science from Stanford University.