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The Amazing Infosys Story " How Infosys Was Born "

The document summarizes the founding and early history of Infosys Technologies. In 1981, N.R. Narayana Murthy and six software engineers founded Infosys with $250 in capital. They started operations from Murthy's home in Pune before relocating to Bangalore in 1983 after getting their first client. Infosys struggled initially but began to grow after surviving a crisis in 1989 when a joint venture collapsed, almost causing the company to fail but for Murthy's leadership in convincing the founders to continue. Infosys went on to many successes like becoming the first Indian firm to list on Nasdaq and reach several revenue milestones over the decades.

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66 views

The Amazing Infosys Story " How Infosys Was Born "

The document summarizes the founding and early history of Infosys Technologies. In 1981, N.R. Narayana Murthy and six software engineers founded Infosys with $250 in capital. They started operations from Murthy's home in Pune before relocating to Bangalore in 1983 after getting their first client. Infosys struggled initially but began to grow after surviving a crisis in 1989 when a joint venture collapsed, almost causing the company to fail but for Murthy's leadership in convincing the founders to continue. Infosys went on to many successes like becoming the first Indian firm to list on Nasdaq and reach several revenue milestones over the decades.

Uploaded by

saritasali
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The

amazing
Infosys story
“ How Infosys was born ”
 Infosys Technologies is one of the few Indian companies that
has changed the way the world looks at India.
No longer is India a land of snake charmers and beggars. It is
now perceived as an economic giant to reckon with, bursting
with brilliant software engineers and ambitious entrepreneurs.
 And Infosys is an symbol of India's information technology
glory.
Infosys has many firsts to its name: The first Indian firm to list
on Nasdaq; the first to offer stock options to its employees. . .
 The company crossed $1 billion in revenues for the
first time in 2004. TCS, however, was the first Indian
IT firm to top $1-bn in revenues.
 Infosys is an organisation that inspires awe and respect,

globally.
 On July 2, Infosys completed 25 years in existence.

This is its amazing success story, illustrated by rare


photographs.
 The idea of Infosys was born on a morning in January 1981.
 That fateful day, N R Narayana Murthy and six software engineers
sat in his apartment debating how they could create a company to
write software codes.
 Six months later, Infosys was registered as a private limited
company on July 2, 1981.
 Infosys co-founder N S Raghavan's house in Matunga, northcentral
Mumbai, was its registered office. It was then known as Infosys
Consultants Pvt Ltd.
 What was the company's starting capital?
US $250. Murthy borrowed $250 from his wife Sudha
to start the company. The front room of Murthy's home
was Infosys' first office, although the registered office
was Raghavan's home.
 Who were Murthy's six friends who joined hands to
launch Infosys?
Nandan Nilekani, N S Raghavan, S Gopalakrishnan, S D
Shibulal, K Dinesh and Ashok Arora.
 Are all of them still the founding directors?

Murthy is currently chief mentor and chairman while Nilekani


is the chief executive officer and managing director.
Gopalakrishnan, Shibulal and Dinesh are directors.
Raghavan retired as joint managing director in 2000.
He is currently the chairman of the advisory council of
the N S Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning
at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.
Ashok Arora worked for the company till 1988 and left
after selling his shares in the then unlisted company
back to the other promoters.
He moved to the United States where he now works as a
consultant.
 'Murthy was always broke'

'Murthy was always broke. He always owed me money. We


used to go for dinner and he would say, 'I don't have money with
me, you pay my share, will return it to you later.'
 For three years, I maintained a book of Murthy's debts to me.
No, he never returned the money and I finally tore it up after our
wedding. The amount was a little over Rs 4,000.'

Those days, Murthy wanted to do something with his life, but he


had no money. Murthy was married to Sudha on February 10,
1978, while he was working with Patni Computers.
 In 1981, it was Murthy's idea to start Infosys. Murthy had a
dream, and no money.
 So Sudha gave him Rs 10,000, which she had saved without
his knowledge. Murthy and his six colleagues started Infosys
in 1981.
 No, it was not in Bangalore, but in Pune that Infosys set up its
first office, in 1981. The house that Murthy and Sudha bought
with a loan became the first Infosys office. As Murthy ran
Infosys,
 Sudha took up a job as a systems analyst with the
Walchand Group of Industries to support their
household.
In 1983, Infosys moved to Bangalore when it got its first
client, Data Basics Corporation from the United States.
 The first mini computer arrived at Infosys in 1983. It
was a Data General 32-bit MV8000. The very next year
Infosys switched from mini to main frames with a
CAMP application for a Data Basics customer
 A huge struggle, day in and day out

When they began moving ahead with Infosys, the founders --


Murthy, Nilekani, Shibulal and the others -- took a firm
decision -- that their wives would not be involved in the
running of the company.
So after Murthy, it was Nilekani and his wife Rohini who
moved to Bangalore. But they had no house to stay. So the
Nilekanis stayed with the Murthys at their Jayanagar home in
Bangalore.
Rohini took care of Murthy's son as Sudha helped write
software programmes for Infosys.
 There was no luxury, only struggle, day and night.
They had no car, no phone. Murthy later recalled that it
was not the luxuries of life, but the passion to create
something new and innovative that made them keep
going on and on and on. Despite the struggles, the
Murthys, the Nilekanis and the other partners took time
out for picnics in Bangalore
 The crisis, and how Infosys began to grow

The first years of Infosys were not smooth. Most of the


founders -- Murthy, Nilekani, Dinesh, Shibulal and
Gopalkrishnan -- were into writing codes. And they wanted to
make an impact in the American market.
So Infosys got its first joint venture partners in Kurt Salmon
Associates.
 Gopalakrishnan, who had spent time working in the
United States, was the public face of the KSA-Infosys
venture in America. But the joint venture collapsed in
1989, leaving Infosys in the lurch.
Gopalakrishnan relives the memories of those days.
"We had nothing after eight years of trying to bring up
a company. Those who studied with us had cars and
houses," he says.
 The collapse of the KSA joint venture led Infosys to its first
crisis. The company was on the verge of collapse. One of the
founder-partners -- Ashok Arora -- was dejected with the way
the company was going, and decided to quit.

The others did not know what to do. But Murthy had the courage
of conviction. 'If you all want to leave, you can. But I am
going to stick (with it) and make it,' Murthy told them.
The other partners -- Nilekani, Gopalakrishnan, Shibulal,
Dinesh and Raghavan -- decided to stay. And thus began to
germinate the seeds of Infosys' enormous growth.
 Year of Incorporation : 1981
Became a public limited company in India : 1992
ISO 9001/TickIT Certification : 1993
Attained SEI-CMM Level 4 : 1997
Listed on NASDAQ : 1999
Crossed $100 million in annual revenues : 1999
Attained SEI-CMM Level 5 : 1999
Crossed $400 million in revenues : 2001
Crossed $ half a billion in revenues : 2002
Crossed $ billion in revenues : 2004
Crossed $ 2 billion in revenues : 2006

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