Infy Quick Gun Murugans
By Bala Shah

The Infosys website clinically describes Mr. Mohandas Pai “as is Member of the Board and Director-Human Resources, Education and Research and Administration. He joined Infosys in 1994 and has served as a Member of the Board since May 2000. He served as the Chief Financial Officer from 1994 to 2006. In 2006, he voluntarily remitted the office of CFO to lead efforts in the areas of Human Resources and Education and Research.”

In reality, he is the most feared man in Infosys with no one dare crossing him. Only the CFO Mr V. Balakrishnan has a reputation of looking Mr. Pai in his eyes and refusing a ‘suggestion’.  Mr. Pai is on his way to fulfill his ambition to lead Infosys.

Over the last 6 months, Techgoss had nick named Mohandas Pai as ‘Quick Sack Murugun’ for his letting go of many people he termed as non performers. (See full story below). South Indian comedy ‘Quick Gun Murugun’ hit the screen in 2009 and its hero is played by Telugu super star Rajendra Prasad.  This filmi spoof is very silly but very watchable.

Techgoss had started calling Mr. Pai ‘Quick Sack Murugun’ starting more than 6 months ago. 

As if our words were eerily prescient, Churumuri is reporting how in the second week of June, 2010 “a slide show at the Infosys 29th annual general meeting, the post-Narayana Murthy, post-Nandan Nilekani generation of bosses bent backwards to inject some fun into the proceedings, allowing themselves to be photoshopped as Quick Gun Murugans and the 3 Idiots.”  (See the Churumuri photo from the AGM at the top of this article showing Mr. Pai donning the costume from the movie).

Infosys, what a great idea of inject some light hearted humor in the otherwise boring Annual General Meeting!  But it would have been even better if you had shown Mr. Pai as the strict IIT Professor in 3 Idiots who realizes at the end that there is more to life than strict discipline and everyone being scared of you (except for CFO Balakrishnan).

(Techgoss had published the following article on Jan 2, 2010)

Infosys: campaign to become CEO?
By Bala Shah

Early 2009, Infosys HR boss Mr. Mohandas Pai (whom many call ‘Quick Sack Murugan’) publicly labeled 2100 juniors that it sacked as ‘non performers’. Senior managers whose variable pay was cut were not labeled ‘non-performers’. Techgoss had then questioned why, like the laws of the jungle, only those who could not fight back were labeled ‘non-performers’.

After Techgoss published its first article on April 13, 2009 questioning the morality of humiliating sacked employees, British tech website The Register also picked up the Techgoss story.

Mr. Pai has not been heard making similar comments in the recent past.  In fact, in September, Infosys went on record to say they had actually ‘over hired’.

After rival Nandan Nilekani left Infosys, Mohandas Pai is positioning himself to become the next CEO. And possibly step into Nandan’s shoes.

Mr. Pai is taking up every opportunity to build a higher media profile.  In late Dec, 2009, Mr. Pai even went on TV to state that the ‘Infosys brand is bigger than its founders’. Probably a hint that unlike in the past, future CEO’s need not be one of the founders. Mr. Pai was not among the Infosys founding team. At another lecture at the end of December, he told the Indian Government on how it should give cash to poor people rather than subsidies.

Mohandas Pai has a BA (Commerce) from St. Joseph’s College of Commerce, Bangalore, and a basic law degree from Bangalore University. He is also a Fellow Chartered Accountant (FCA).

Although a very capable manager and a finance guru, Mr. Pai is supremely ambitious. According to Infosys insiders Mr. Murthy’s support of Mr. Pai ensured that he virtually had a free hand in the hiring process.

Apparently, the only person who stands up to Mr. Pai within Infosys is the current Chief Financial Officer, Mr V. Balakrishnan who succeeded Mr. Pai in 2006. Mr. Pai was the Chief Financial Officer till 2006 but was quoted as saying he wanted to move to HR to ‘give youngsters a chance’. Mr. Pai now heads HR, Finance and Admin in Infosys.  According to Infosys insiders, Mr. Pai hired new key HR people once he took over. At least two members of the Infosys Executive Council support Mr. Pai.

Everyone else is either scared of Mr. Pai or does not want to get involved in any confrontation.  The highly regarded CFO Mr V. Balakrishnan has won great respect within Infosys for standing up to Mr. Pai. 

One has always wondered why such a capable manager and rising star in Infosys sometimes has a cold hard streak.  The answer may lie in speech Mr. Pai gave in Bangalore on Dec 26.  Apparently, Mr. Pai was inspired by criminals and smugglers like Haji Mastan in his younger days.

DNA reported on Mr. Pai’s speech

“
Bangalore: It is highly unlikely to hear a corporate leader like TV Mohandas Pai, director (HR and E&R), Infosys, say that as a youngster, his role models included smuggler Haji Mastan.
 
Pai was delivering a lecture on "India at 2030" organized by the Institute for Social and Economic Change at Central College on Saturday.

"Smugglers like Haji Mastan were our heroes because they were rich. When I had just graduated in 1979, there were no jobs, no money, nothing. The angst of my generation is best captured in the film Deewar, where Amitabh Bachchan essayed the role of the angry young man. No one had predicted what India would be like by 2010," said Pai.
“

An Infosys source close to the Board told Techgoss that internally it is expected that Shibulal will take on responsibility of CEO of Infosys in next financial year. Mr. Pai has started his campaign to succeed Mr. Shibulal.