| INQ7 BREAKING NEWS - INFOTECH |
| July 30, 2006 BANGALORE, India--Twenty-five years ago, with an investment of just 250 dollars, a tiny software company took shape in a one-bedroom apartment in the western India city of Pune. Today Infosys Technologies has revenues of 2.1 billion dollars and employs 58,000 people in more than two dozen countries, ranking as India's second largest software exporter. Last financial year to March 2006, 1.4 million applicants applied for jobs of whom 21,600 were hired. The company's market capitalization is about 20 billion dollars. Infosys, a pioneer of off-shore software outsourcing, is one of the great success stories of India's burgeoning tech sector. But as the company prepared to celebrate its quarter-century on Sunday, founder and chairman N.R. Narayana Murthy revealed how red tape and archaic laws almost made him give up on his dream. "We had run this company for nine years (from 1981). In 1990 there were stifling conditions in the country. Everything was so difficult," the firm's bespectacled 'chief mentor' told Agence France-Presse. "It was very difficult to set up data communication lines and even phone lines. It took two years to process a computer application. We considered an offer from an Indian firm for about a million dollars. "But better sense pervailed," said Murthy, who turns 60 in August. "I got that 250 dollars from my wife who is a constant source of support." Murthy, who will resign from the Infosys board on August 20, hailed 1991 reforms by then finance minister and current Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. "Basically Infosys is a shining example of all the good that came out of liberalization. The real message (of the Infosys success story) is that the only way we can solve poverty is by creating more and more jobs," he said. "There are a few good entrepreneurs and for them to succeed they require an incentive. That is the Infosys lesson," Murthy added. The government provided tax holidays, export subsidies and duty-free hardware imports in the initial stages of reforms for software export firms and many state governments today lure these companies with tax concessions. Murthy, in the early 1970s, traveled to Europe to learn more about communism but later realised only capitalism could solve India's problems. "I was a strong socialist. By the end of 1970 I got to the conclusion that leftism is just bogus. Socialism in India is meaningless. Creation of jobs requires entrepreneurship," the soft-spoken Murthy said. As one of eight children of a rural schoolteacher who earned 175 rupees (3.8 dollars) a month, there was no money in the family to pay for Murthy's higher education. "But the value-systems I incorporated in Infosys were taught to me by my parents. My father had clear ideas of honesty, decency and work ethics. My mother taught me how to sacrifice (time and money) for others," he said. When Murthy signed the firm's first contract, he traveled to the meeting riding pillion on a motorcycle. Until 2002 he travelled by bus "at least once in a week" to his company's headquarters here, and queues up alongside employees at the food stall. In a nation where more than 300 million people live on less than a dollar a day, a person owning more than 6,500 Infosys shares today, is worth more than 10 million rupees (222,222 dollars). Based on the Infosys 2006 annual report, that works out as more than 2,000 people. Murthy said sharing the company's wealth with shareholders and employees is an overwhelming passion. "No leader can succeed in isolation. If that is so then it is only fair that everybody receives a reward for their sacrifices. The ultimate reward is part-ownership of the company. I believe in that," he said, adding that the company still had a long way to go. "The Infosys journey of 25 years has been a symphonic marathon... It is a marathon since we have a long way to go before we hit the tape." |
http://services.inq7.net/express/06/07/30/html_output/xmlhtml/20060730-12538-xml.html
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