The Remarkable Story of Infosys

The first mini computer arrived at Infosys in 1983. It was a Data General 32-bit MV8000.

Backtrack two years, to a group of unlikely looking baby faced software engineers gathered in the lounge of Infosys founder N.R. Narayana Murthy's apartment discussing the possibility of creating a business to write software code. Six months after the initial meeting in Murthy's apartment; Infosys was registered as a private limited company.

1983 was a big year for Infosys. That initial investment in hardware was to service their very first customer! The Murthy's relocated to a family property in Bangalore, followed closely by another co-founder Nilekani and his wife - who moved in with the Murthy family as they had no option of getting their own accommodation.

The early days were extremely lean for the founders of Infosys, (who remained at the coalface of writing the code themselves for many years), remembering those times as being full of struggle, day in and day out. They had no car or phone between them. Murthy recalls that it was not the luxuries of life which kept them focussed, but rather the passion to create something new and innovative that gave them their drive.

After some initial success, Infosys was at a major crossroad after a crisis in 1989 when a joint venture with an american company collapsed, leaving them vunerable. They were faced with losing everything that had gained in their eight years. At this point a couple of the initial co-founders decided to pull out; with the remainder opting to stay for the ride after Murthy's brave statement to them all "if you all want to leave, you can. But I am going to stick with it and make it".

And make it work, they did. It was in this rebirth period that the Infosys company started its new chapter of truely remarkable growth.

In 1998 they began to win large contracts to scan western computer systems for the much feared millennium Y2K bug. Infosys was caught up in the massive growth of India's software sector, being the first Indian company to be listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange in the year 1999. They (along with other Indian software companies) proved their stability by barely skipping a beat when the US dotcom bubble burst in 2001.

Infosys Technologies Limited is now one of India's largest IT companies employing over 94,000 professionals as at June 30, 2008. It has nine development centres in India and over 30 offices worldwide. Its annual revenues for the fiscal year 2007-2008 exceeded US$4 billion with a market capitalization of over US$30 billion.

During the 14-year period from 1993 to 2007, the issue price of an Infosys share increased three thousandfold. This is excluding the dividends that the company has paid out over the same period.

You could say that to work at Infosys is the Indian dream! The remarkable sculptured Infosys Campus in Bangalore boasts daycare facilities, in-house supermarkets, gyms, laundry services and recreational facilities for the families of its employees. It has tens of thousands of women on its payroll. Outside each of its buildings there are bicycles for employees to cycle from one part of the forty acre campus to another.

Infosys was rated "Best Employer in India" by Business Today magazine in 2001. The company won the Global MAKE (Most Admired Knowledge Enterprises) award in 2003, 2004 and 2005, being the only Indian company to win this award. Infosys has been inducted into the Global Hall of Fame for the same.

The unusual and endearing values that have assisted Infosys' global respect as an organisation are:

1. 'We want to create wealth legally and ethically'

2. 'We believe a good night's sleep is worth a billion dollars'

3. 'A small percentage of a growing pie is better than a large part of a shrinking pie'

Infosys truely is a remarkable company.