Industry experts expressed optimism over the appointment of Salil S. Parekh as the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of IT major Infosys with effect from January 2.
"We are delighted to have Salil joining as the CEO and MD of Infosys. He has nearly three decades of global experience in the IT services industry. He has a strong track record of executing business turnarounds and managing very successful acquisitions," said Nandan Nilekani, Chairman, Infosys.
The software major's full-time CEO post has been vacant since Vishal Sikka resigned on August 18, stating that he could not continue to work amid "malicious personal attacks."
Parekh will be joining Infosys from Capgemini, where he was a member of the Group Executive Board.
Most of the experts share the opinion that Parekh, an alumnus of IIT Bombay, can fit into the culture of Infosys easily unlike Sikka since Parekh has spent a vast amount of time in India, building and scaling up the Capgemini operations. Moreover, Parekh comes from an IT services background and should be able to handle the challenges associated with Infosys which concentrates more on IT services.
“Parekh has been instrumental in handling different acquisitions that Capgemini did such as IGATE and has vast experience in the IT services field. Parekh has also lived in India for long and understands the Indian culture, as he was also instrumental in scaling up Capgemini's Indian operations from a few hundred employees to say around a lakh people. Had Parekh stayed on in Capgemini he would have become the next CEO of the French giant. I have met him at a couple of Nasscom events and I feel that he is a perfect fit for Infosys unlike Sikka, who had very less Indian experience and came from a software product background. Parekh was also in charge of Capgemini's North America business from where more than 45 per cent of its revenue comes. Thus, he has good marketing experience as well,” Kris Lakshmikanth, the founder of the recruiting firm Head Hunters India Limited told THE WEEK.
Alok Shende of Ascentius Consulting, also expressed his optimism over Parekh's appointment and reiterated that he will have a very strong advantage over his predecessor Sikka. “Sikka came from a product background and was bent more on innovation and research whereas, Parekh has vast experience of running a business and was at the helm of the leadership team at Capgemini. I feel that he will be a perfect fit at Infosys and should be able to perfectly steer the Indian IT giant through challenging times,” said Shende.
