Bangalore: In an interview, Infosys Technologies Ltd chief operating officer S.D. Shibulal talks about Infosys Technologies Ltd and Generation Next. Joining him in this chat is Shibulal’s daughter, Shruti, 24, in her first interview ever. Shruti Shibulal has opened a fine dining restaurant, Caperberry, in Bangalore and plans to open a second before the year ends. Edited excerpts:
Infosys has this code of conduct where you don’t treat it as a family business and so the founders haven’t really encouraged other family members to be a part of the organization. What was the brief to your daughter on dealing with the Infosys ecosystem considering the stake she has in the company?
Legacy continues: Infosys Technologies chief operating officer S.D. Shibulal with daughter Shruti. Shibulal thinks Team Infosys is all about leadership by example and that is what their kids have seen.
S.D. Shibulal: I think there was a clear distance maintained between the professional and the personal life. We bring work home all the time because we work from home, but we don’t mix work with the family life. I think Team Infosys is all about leadership by example—it is what our kids have seen. They have seen us keeping the separation; we have (a) clear distance between corporate property and our personal property.
All these instances have made it very clear to them that this is not a family organization, it is a very professional organization, it is run professionally and those value get transmitted automatically— that’s what I believe.
But you know in Shruti’s case, for instance, she didn’t want to be a part of Infosys, she wasn’t really interested in technology. But for somebody else, who happens to be related to the co-founders, if they are genuinely interested, why disqualify them because of their “family connection”?
S.D. Shibulal: They are not disqualified, but being a very professional organization we have built a leadership layer; those leadership layers are already in place. There is another issue because if one of our children really wants to join Infosys and they get selected through the proper channels, you still have an issue with the regulatory framework because you need government permission, as far as I understand, for one of the children or relatives to join the organization.
The Infosys story gave this country and the middle class in this country hope—and the power—to actually believe that dreams can come true. Do you think that has been the catalyst for Shruti’s entrepreneurial plunge?