Ex-Infosys staff slam board, demand withdrawal of statement against Murthy

Bengaluru: A group of people claiming to be former Infosys employees, has written to the Infosys Board expressing "disappointment" and "anguish" at the manner in which it responded to company founder Narayana Murthy following the sudden resignation of Vishal Sikka as CEO.

The former employees, most of them shareholders, have asked the Board to address the issues raised by Murthy with facts, and immediately withdraw the statement released which "unfairly and unjustifiably" blames him for the current crisis.

"We, a group of ex-Infoscions want to express our deep disappointment and anguish at the manner in which the Board has responded to Mr Murthy in the form of a letter last week to stock exchanges," around 80 former Infosys employees said in an e-mail.

"We have worked closely with Mr Murthy for many, many years, representing a 1000 years of collective experience at Infosys- and believe the only thing he is and has always been concerned with is the good of Infosys. Everything he has stated is to help Infosys be a beacon among Indian companies as far as performance and being a role model company in corporate governance," they said.

Longevity of the organization has been his ambition and driving force, founded on the cornerstone of a strong value system, they said.

Last Friday, Sikka, the first non-founder CEO of Infosys, resigned from the company following months of acrimony with high-profile founders, led by Murthy, citing "malicious" and "personal attacks" on him.

While Sikka did not name Murthy for his exit, the Board of the USD 10 billion firm blamed the founder for "continuous assault" through "factually inaccurate" and "already-disproved rumours" for the resignation of the CEO.

Murthy, however, maintained that his only concerns are the lapses in corporate governance standards, something that Infosys was admired for at one point.

The former employees said Infosys was built on the core values of integrity and transparency, "fairness in every transaction, respect for all stakeholders, operating with highest levels of corporate governance, excellence in execution and leading by example."

Due to these core values, the company was able to attract best talent and become a successful globally-respected organization, they said. "These values were never compromised and acted as a guiding light when difficult situations needed to be dealt with from time to time," they added.

They said they are as disturbed as Murthy by these "specific insufficient" disclosures and seek clear answers from the Board so as to trust the Board. "We believe Sikka’s resignation could have been due to the Board not providing detailed facts and explanations in a timely manner which probably led to such distractions and noise."

"For the Board to accuse Mr Murthy as the primary or even the only reason for the distraction and noise is highly unfair and unacceptable. The Board needs to explain in depth, backed by facts and data, the issues raised by Mr Murthy, and come clean to all stakeholders," they said.