Been away from home far too often, says Sikka

Stress is perhaps a given when you are the CEO of a multi-billion dollar technology firm. But “continued assaults” of “baseless” allegations are certainly not what Vishal Sikka signed up for when he joined Infosys.

Sikka was welcomed into the troubled Infosys with much fanfare, becoming the company’s first non-founder CEO in 2014. He was taking over from S.D. Shibulal at a time when rivals were racing ahead and the company was losing manpower at a steady pace, along with its precious ‘bellwether’ tag.

Sikka had the blessings of the co-founders, including N.R. Narayana Murthy, when he had stepped into Infosys. Three years hence, Murthy turned out to be his nemesis and the very reason for Sikka’s sudden exit from the $10-billion IT giant.

Sikka had the task cut out right in the beginning. He had the responsibility of reinvigorating the company that was facing mass exodus of employees and losing out to rivals. The former SAP board member is credited with ushering in automation and artificial intelligence, technologies that have now become buzzwords in the IT services industry.

He took many steps, including gifting iPhones to woo top performers, and pushed up Infosys’ financial metrics in signs of a turnaround.

The ambitious Sikka also threw a challenge to Infoscions, urging them to help scale up Infosys revenues to $20 billion by year 2020.

A different kind of crisis was unfolding internally as founders regularly took potshots at the senior leadership for what they dubbed as corporate governance lapses. Infosys continued to be in news for the most part of the year as comments and counter-comments kept investors, employees and clients on their toes.

Over the next few months as Infosys searches for its next CEO, Sikka will draw a token salary of $1, a far cry from the earlier $11 million package. While Sikka still does not have a major assignment lined up, he said he will probably take some time off and go surfing. Spending more time with his loved ones is also on the list for the 50-year Stanford University passout. Sikka probably speaks for all high-profile executives and the stressful lives when he says, “I’ve been away from home far too often and far too long.”