Infosys chief quits after battle with founders

NEW DELHI — India Inc. suffered a new blow Friday when the CEO of one of the country’s leading technology outsourcing companies suddenly resigned, a surprise move he attributed to “a continuous drumbeat of distractions and negativity.”

The departure of the executive, Vishal Sikka, from Infosys comes just months after a struggle at the top of the Tata Group, a powerful Indian conglomerate, focused attention on a variety of problems in the country’s corporate governance and culture.

Both companies symbolized a shift in India’s business mind-set in recent decades, as they looked overseas to court clients and deals. Their success in recent years has come as India’s overall economy has seen faster growth.

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Their more recent struggles, however, have also held similarities, with both companies being caught in battles between the goals of their original founders and a new generation of executives.

Sikka took over as the chief executive of Infosys in 2014, coming from the software company SAP and making it the first time the company looked beyond its original founders to fill the top job.

Established in 1981 by seven engineers armed with just $250, Infosys now has about 200,000 employees and reported revenue of $2.6 billion in the three months through June.

It has steadily expanded by offering software outsourcing services, arguing that it saves money for major companies and allows them to operate more efficiently. The majority of its revenue now comes from the United States, where Sikka pledged this year to hire 10,000 U.S. employees.

Sikka was credited with helping bolster the company’s revenue, sending its shares sharply higher. But he nevertheless found himself criticized by the founders of Infosys, including Narayana Murthy, a longtime former chairman and chief executive, particularly over levels of executive pay.

That criticism came to a head Friday, when Sikka suddenly announced he was resigning.

Sikka will stay on as executive vice chairman, and the company’s chief operating officer, U.B. Pravin Rao, will take over as interim chief executive. Infosys said it planned to have a new chief executive in place by the end of March.

Hari Kumar is a New York Times writer.