The Infosys Saga: An Indian IT Giant Faces a Leadership Crisis

Abstract

This case is about a flagship Indian IT organization, Infosys, which experienced a large dose of turmoil on 18th August 2017. Vishal Sikka, the Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Infosys had resigned, citing ‘continuous distractions’ as the reason. Thus, leaving the organization and creating a shockwave among all the stakeholders, at the time when Indian IT industry was facing the brunt of protectionist policies in the US. Infosys was considered to be a very professional and progressive organization. Vishal Sikka’s departure created a question mark regarding the future direction for the organization. The resignation of Vishal Sikka raised some questions. The objective of the case is to understand the succession issues within Infosys. The focus is to illustrate the importance of succession management within bigger organizations, identifying and preparing in-house talent for bigger leadership roles and the contribution of the board and top leadership to it. The case also investigates the reason(s) as to why it is difficult for the founders to handover the baton to someone else.