Infosys Co-Founder NR Narayana Murthy on Indian Software Companies, Business Cycles, and Retaining Entry-Level Employees

 


NR Narayana Murthy, co-founder of Infosys, discussing various topics. He believes that Indian software companies will fare better during a downturn in the US as they provide better value for money. When asked about the widening pay gap between top management and freshers, he refrains from commenting without full data. He suggests that companies provide a challenging work environment, conducive physical environment, and an open environment to retain and maintain loyalty among entry-level employees. Lastly, he confirms that he has used ChatGPT and enjoys it.

go yeah thank you so much for talking very interesting session so where you spoke about values and ethics if you can also give us a sense of the current environment sir it is a difficult environment for technology companies what do you anticipate amidst the challenges this year you know I think business is all about business Cycles everybody knows every CEO knows every investor knows every investing company knows that there will always be ups and downs so I am not that much worried about the trough that may come but the reality is most Indian companies particularly Indians of the company are growing pretty well because when there is a downturn in the U.S they'll be focused on better value for money and Indian software companies do provide good value for money therefore my own surmise I may be wrong because I am out of the industry for the last eight years my own surmise is that when there is a downturn in the developer the prospects for Indian software companies will be better because the focus is on better value so whenever you know business slows down fresh pressure seemed to Bear the brunt of it we are seeing reports of onboarding delays across the board by companies do you think this is fair that you know this seems to be the low-hanging fruit approach that companies seem to take in such an environment you know. 

I don't know if I want to judge because if you want a judge you need to have all the data that's what I've done all my life all that I can say is what we did in 2001 there was the internet bust if you I mean you won't remember because you were not even born perhaps but but anyway what we did uh when there was internet bus was we had given offers to about 1500 freshers and the the the the think tank in the company we all sat down and we decided to take the largest salary cut for the internal board of directors then the next large salary card for the next level executive wise president etc etc and then we welcome every one of the 1500 people and I'm glad to say we are the only company that did it I'm very proud of it therefore Beyond this I am not going to say what is the fair thing what's not the fair thing because I don't know the currency actually pointed me to my next question which is the widening pay gap between in the top management and freshers you are someone who has written about this in the past about compassionate capitalism about how there seems to there needs to be a certain ratio for this but the Gap has only been widening even in the current environment while we are seeing onboarding delays companies you know cutting salaries of freshers before they join we haven't seen top management taking pay cuts do you think they should you know there should be some leadership by example as far as this is concerned you know again Chandra I do not have full data I don't know what the situation is it is I am not given to judging any situation without full data therefore you have to ask companies which know the real City.

I'm not the writer I'm almost like Rick Van Winkle you know is coming out of college are not employable uh in what are the key skills that you would uh tell the freshers in terms of those who are trying to enter the IT industry what are the key skills that you would say they should be well you know we realized as early as 1996-97 that the the angsters coming out of engineering colleges mathematics degree Physics degree Etc they did not have the skills to be very useful for Indian companies Indian software companies therefore we mounted the world's largest corporate training program you've seen it in my show on a given day we can train 15 000 people it's a 24-week training program so in any in a year we can train 30 000 people 30 000 angsters so that's what we did I can only say industry has taken ahead but India is still very resilient why do you see this going next year yeah I I didn't get your question there's a big correction in the startup startup valuation globally also we've seen big text taking hit considering what has been known as but India's still very resilient do you see this persisting through the next year or will India also give up you know there is a chair or there is a belief in the investment industry that Peg should be equal to one that is uh price to earning ratio and growth rate should be equal if you are going growing at the rate of 20 every year then your P will be 20. now that is all what I know I belong to the old school of thought and therefore I would say that the the the the the savants and the wise men and women of the Venture Capital industry should uh you know think about these issues they are much smarter than I am and then they should do what is necessary what is right because once you keep Peg equal to one then everything will will be open entry level employees have left many organizations to 40 percent of them what should companies do in order to retain and maintain loyalty among these entry-level employees no I think there are multiple things one is a challenging work environmental second a a a physical environment that is conducive to to the the creativity to Innovation and all of that and then and and an environment of openness to new ideas meritocracy Justice speed excellence in execution Etc.

If the leaders were to provide confidence to youngsters that this may be a tough time but the it is the it's the darkest before the dawn the future will be better and that future that better future creation is the responsibility of the youngsters and therefore they have a very big challenge very great opportunity last question have you tried chat GPT and what are your thoughts about oh yeah I have used it of course of course my son introduced it to me a few months ago and it's very good what it's going to do is it provides you a certain knowledge and then you can show your creativity your smartness your Innovation by operating in the next orbit s sorry should coders we are losing jobs because no no it will never happen we know in 1977-78 we there was a thing called Pro program generators everybody said the youngsters will lose all the jobs it didn't happen you know why because of a very important reason and that is the the human mind is the most flexible instrument it can adapt very well and all that happened was people started uh solving bigger and bigger problems which these program generators could not handle so chat GPT is a good one we should welcome it however we use chat GPT as the base and then show our creativity show our smartness and show our innovation.com




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