Infosys chief executive officer (CEO) Vishal Sikka's resignation soon after completing 3-years at Infosys wasn't exactly a bolt out of the blue. It is being understood as the fallout of an endless tussle between the company board and founder-shareholders, especially NR Narayana Murthy, over governance issues. It came as no surprise that Sikka along with the company's board has named and blamed the IT behemoth's founder and former Chairman Narayana Murthy as the reason behind the California-based tech boss' surprise resignation. The $10-billion company's growth trajectory has witnessed a downward spiral after having surged in Sikka's first two years.
Consequently, Infosys' share price has slumped from the lofty heights it had touched mid-last year. Sikka has, since the very outset, enunciated a dual strategy—to renew the traditional business with automation and develop new businesses around the new digital technologies such as cloud, AI/machine learning, analytics, big data, and internet-of-things. The bad blood between Sikka, the first non-promoter CEO of Infosys, and a section of the IT major's promoter-shareholders, led by Narayana Murthy, became pretty apparent in the beginning of the year as promoters began voicing concerns over what they saw as deteriorating governance and values of the company.