Infy: Pai claim wrong
By Bala Shah

On April 15, 2011, Techgoss had published what Infosys (Infy) insiders told us were the reasons that their HR boss, Mohandas Pai, had quit the company.  For all his intellect and hard work, Mr. Pai had a cold ruthlessness which made him many enemies.  Techgoss was one of the first media to question Mr. Pai for publicly claiming how the company had got rid of some young men and women as they were ‘non performers’.  After all, is it right for anyone to publicly humiliate young men and women starting their careers? (Techgoss article republished below has links to our previous coverage)

Most individuals on Social media like Facebook and Twitter have cast no tears on his resignation.  In fact, many seem to be happy that he has left Infosys.

More public embarrassment!  Mr. Pai has been telling Indian media that Infosys co-founder and leader Mr. Murthy has offered him the job of Infosys CEO.  Today, Mr. Murthy flatly denied it

“
Moneycontrol: On 30th April everybody is expecting to hear a new CEO at the helm of Infosys but we were speaking to Mohan and he did mentioned casually that both the CEO and CFO roles were offered to him by you but he choose not to accept them. Can you take us through the selection procedure and how things move with the appointment of new CEO?  

Mr. Murthy: It is not for me to offer any position to anybody because there is a nominations committee. They go through a due process and then they determine who the best candidate is. It is true that I had discussed with Mohan about his desire, his ambition to be considered for a recommendation to the nominations committee and he said he was not keen on pursuing that alternative and he wanted a bigger canvas that will make a difference to the country. I did discuss with him but it is not right to say I offered him since I have no locus standi to offer anybody any position in Infosys.
“

(Techgoss had published the following on April 15, 2011)

Infosys: Why Pai quit
By Bala Shah

On Jan 2, 2010,  Techgoss had published an article titled ‘Infosys: campaign to become CEO?’ which detailed how after rival Nandan Nilekani left Infosys (Infy), HR boss Mohandas Pai was positioning himself to become the next CEO. And possibly step into Nandan’s shoes.

This Jan 2 article predicted: “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 the next financial year”. Cut July, 2010, and Infosys co-founder Mr. Narayana Murthy confirmed the Techgoss prediction made in January, 2010.

Regular readers of Techgoss are well aware that a large number of our articles are crowd sourced.  People send in tips, story ideas and even articles. Many of our contributors have full times jobs in IT-ITES, and so prefer using a pseudonym.  A number of Tipsters from Infosys have given us an idea of what is happening inside the tech major.  In July, 2009, Techgoss has exclusively reported on how the Infosys APAC BPO Head had been jailed for insider trading and how quickly he was removed from every Infy website and forum.

Today (April 15, 2011), Infosys boss Mohandas Pai quit the organization.  Techgoss reached out to our Tipsters working at Bangalore Infosys and this is what they told us

“
Apart from his intellect, one of the main reasons Mohandas Pai did so well in Infosys was Infosys co-founder and leader, Mr. Murthy, had backed him at every step.  This backing ended when Mr. Murthy took a background role starting 2010.  Mr. Pai is bright but very abrasive and has rubbed most of the Infosys co-founders and Board members the wrong way.  He also has severe differences of opinion with the incoming CEO Shibulal.  There is no way Mr. Pai would ever report to new CEO Shibulal.   Because of the new equations, most of us in Infosys knew as far as 6 months ago that Mr. Pai would quit.  It is also just a matter of time before Pai protégés like Nandita Gurjar will quit the organization.
“

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