Infosys crisis: Open letter to Narayana Murthy asks him to walk away

By Team Asianet Newsable | First Published Aug 22, 2017, 1:40 PM IST

Now that CEO Vishal Sikka has resigned sighting public and personal attacks all fingers are pointing towards Narayana Murthy
Omkar Goswami, a former board member in Infosys   has now written an open letter to Narayana Murthy
“Enough is enough. You have drawn first blood. Do not mortally wound the organisation by persisting in your actions”

Since the past one year, Infosys has been the ground for a lot of public and verbal duels. Sometimes it had been related to remuneration, sometimes it was related to recruitment and sometimes it was about decisions taken by the company. Interestingly, among all these problems one name was common – Narayana Murthy, the founder of Infosys.

Now that CEO Vishal Sikka has resigned sighting public and personal attacks all fingers are pointing towards Narayana Murthy. He also said that he was disappointed by the lack of support from the people he had expected would back him. The rumours all say that Sikka was forced to resign due to Murthy’s inference and constant complaints on the way the company was being run.

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Now amid all this drama and blame game Omkar Goswami, a former board member in Infosys from 2005-2015 has come out and written a public and scathing open letter addressed to Narayana Murthy in the Economic Times.

He has titled the letter asking Murthy to walk away from Infosys and to stop delittling the company.

Goswami’s began his letter expressing how he admired the former Infosys chairman for over two decades but he says it is now time that Murthy explain his behaviour with the company and the resignation of the chairman Vishal Sikka publicly. He tells him that it is no longer a matter between the board and the company but rather has been tossed and talked about much in the public domain and so it needs answers as well.

He writes: Your actions have de facto created a crisis that has forced the exit of a CEO, led to a stupendous 9.6 per cent drop in the share price, and a loss in market capitalisation of over Rs 22,600 crore in one trading day, and initiated the process of class-action suits in the US.”

Goswami says that it was love and respect for the company tradition and values that has forced him to come out in the open with this letter.

Murthy was reminded of the number of times he made the Infosys boardroom struggles known, the Panaya report was made public and many a times criticised the pay and other decisions of Sikka. Goswami writes in favour of Sikka saying how he made Infosys profitable and introducing new business vision and now ‘thanks to you’ he is leaving.

In a rather bitter ending note, Goswami signs off saying: “Enough is enough. You have drawn first blood. Do not mortally wound the organisation by persisting in your actions. Let Infosys get on with its business, heal itself from the injuries that you have inflicted and again grow shareholder value. Learn to walk away, as you had promised when handing the reins to Vishal. The corporate governance halo that was conferred upon you is shrinking. Let it not disappear.

I have respected you more than many others in the corporate world. So, pardon me for this missive. How I wish it weren’t needed.”

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