Ex Infosys Manager Comment on glass ceiling
By Pulkit Sharma

On Dec 5, 2009, Techgoss has published an exclusive article listing all the highly qualified and capable women who worked at Infosys but never got an opportunity to make it to the top layers of management. Most quit and went on to pursue senior positions in other companies. Many were head hunted by blue chip companies. 

After all, these women were the best of the best in India and were highly sought after by elite head hunters and their blue chip clients.

Even though Infosys is a great company, it has one or two short comings.  The first is that the co-founders have reserved the CEO Job for themselves so far.  Also, at the every top it is a bit of a boys club.

Soon after Techgoss published the article ‘Infosys: Men at top’, (the original Techgoss snippet is at the end of this article) we received the following comment from a very senior male member who worked at Infosys. Techgoss has edited some of the stronger views used against the Infosys women executives.  In essence, the comment sent to Techgoss read:

“
The names of women listed other than Hema Ravichandar were incompetent. Hema was a class apart. It showed in her work and her ability to carry teams. I have interacted and worked for prolonged duration with some of the other women mentioned in this report and I found them to be extremely arrogant women who were consumed with power and were hollow. Even they could not hold meaningful conversations. I disagree that women cannot make it to the top in Infosys.  Hema leaving Infosys was a big loss.

In my assessment it’s a fine company and has the same kinds of politics and pressures that is there in any organization. It’s no different. It’s a professional run company run by some very smart people.
"

After receiving this comment, the Techgoss Editor made contact with the sender and verified that the commentator was actually one of the key players in Infosys till recently.   When asked if he was okay that his name was used in the comment, he stopped all communication with Techgoss. This was despite using his real name and email address while leaving the comment to be placed at the end of the article.

As Techgoss guarantees total confidentiality to our writers, tipsters and commentators, we will never publish his name.  But we think his views should not be suppressed from our readers. After all, he did leave them in the comments section but is now having second thoughts about leaving his name as well.

Our reading is that it was an off the cuff comment on what he actually felt.  But soon realized that the publication of such views would harm long term working relationships with some of the women he had critically analyzed.  It is a small pool of people at the top. If you don’t work together in the future, chances are you will meet at industry conferences and social gatherings.

(Techgoss had published the following story on Dec 5, 2009)

Infosys: Men at top
By Shalini Singh

Highly regarded Infosys may not be the biggest Indian tech company, but it certainly has the respect of most Indians.  Much of this respect is due to the almost Gandhian beliefs of its co-founder Narayana Murthy and the fact that Infosys shares its wealth with employees and shareholders.

But despite having so many positives, it appears Infosys still has a glass ceiling for most women executives. The main reason is that Infosys was founded by men and they continue to monopolize the top positions.  An Infosys source close to the Board tells Techgoss that internally it is expected that Shibulal will take on responsibility of CEO of Infosys in next financial year.

The same source gave Techgoss a list of highly accomplished women in Infosys who reached senior management but never had a chance of making it to the top layers. Hema Ravichadar who headed HR for very long and was SVP quit the organization few years ago and same was the fate of Priti Rao SVP, who headed infrastructure services and Pune centre for long.  Anuradha Biswas who practically ran Testing Services left recently.  After a long stint Geetha Kannan, Vice President H, left about a year ago. Another key HR person, Suma Subramanian, left few years ago. Shubha V who was a Vice President, Delivery left recently.

This exodus of capable women has been happening since the very beginning.  Sudha, who was head of planning, left around 2000.  Jessie Paul, one of the key figures in marketing, left a few years ago. Rama who was legal Counsel a few years ago left after a short stint.

Needless to say, Indian tech will be stronger and more prosperous when women are given equal opportunities at the very top.  Ironically, most in the tech industry credit Sudha Murthy for much of the success of her brilliant husband Narayana Murthy and consequentially of Infosys itself.