Honour belongs to Infosians, says Murthy

Honour belongs to Infosians, says Murthy
ENS ECONOMIC BUREAU

MUMBAI, DECEMBER 21: It was easy to see why N R Naryana Murthy's second name is humility. The Infosys chairman, who was named "Businessman of the Year" by Business India, said there was still plenty to be learned from other companies.

Delivering the `Running the Infosys Marathon: Some Lessons' lecture at the felicitation of Murthy on Monday, he listed some of these outstanding qualities as the longevity of Hindustan Lever, patriotism of Bajaj, compassion of Tatas, quality of TVS and customer friendliness of HDFC.

Elaborating on strategy, start-up team, trust - the three most important lessons learnt from the marathon - he said it was important to be unique, be a first mover. He described the Infosys' start-up team as "mutually exclusive but with an exhaustive set of skills". And on trust, he said it came from a belief that "you will not short change your customer".

"It is better to under promise and over deliver. Investors respect this," he said, "The management should be pro-active in bringing the badnews to the investor first. It is better the management tells them rather than they hear it from the competition." Valuable advice from the chairman of one of India's most respected companies.

He said a company could never get ahead by short changing the government. "Tisco is great example of the kind of difference you can make to society. For longevity like HLL you need a sound value system," he added.