Survival Depends On Transitions: Infy’s Vishal Sikka

Infosys CEO-designate Vishal Sikka has written a blog where he talks about the "two extraordinary transitions" in his life — of leaving SAP and joining Infosys — and says transitions and transformations are necessary for survival in the lives of companies, countries and people.

In his blog Timelessness, Sikka hinted that he did not foresee joining Infosys when he quit SAP in May. "Among the tons of calls that I received in the aftermath of the news (of his quitting SAP), there was one that was going to be very significant in shaping, in bringing about, another transition, both in my life and in that of a large company's," he wrote.

"Within a couple of weeks I found myself being swept by another massive wave. The iconic nature of Infosys, especially in India, made it impossible to delay the decision any longer, and I was announced as the next CEO of Infosys on June 12, scarcely 6 weeks after leaving SAP," he wrote in the blog titled Transitions and Anchors.

Sikka, who spent 12 years at SAP, was the executive member of the board in the German technology company. He will take over as Infosys CEO on August 1. "A great transition and its set of challenges and opportunities, awaits my new company, as well as every company in our industry, and indeed as software reshapes the world around us, every company in the world," he wrote.

Sikka says transitions at large companies are not different from personal ones. "Doug Engelbart (computer and Internet pioneer) had compared organisations to organisms. Companies, after all, are us. No more, and no less, than us, the people within them. So a transformation of a company, is really about the transformation of the people within, and around it, transformation of the contexts we form, the processes we have, and of the things we do," he said.