Narayana Murthy Expresses Regret Over Not Being Able To Reward Early Infosys Employees Properly

Narayana Murthy, along with six other co-founders, established Infosys in 1981. The company played a crucial role in shaping the Indian IT industry and has become a global player in IT services.

In his hustle to make Infosys big, billionaire Narayana Murthy sure has some regrets. Expressing the same recently at an event, he said that he ‘regrets’ not being able to reward many of Infosys' early employees as much as he did the company's co-founders.

infosys

At the launch of Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's book titled "An Uncommon Love: The Early Life of Sudha and Narayana Murthy”, he revealed this in the Q&A session. He said,

“There were several extremely smart early adopters of Infosys whom I could not award the kind of stock I gave to my co-founders. Their contribution was more or as much as mine,” as quoted by The Economic Times.

Murthy was forced to close his first venture after it gained very little traction/Forbes

The veteran engineer, Narayana Murthy, also mentioned that he should have carefully considered awarding early employees of Infosys. He expressed the view that such recognition would have been beneficial for those exceptional individuals who contributed to the company's early success. This acknowledgment reflects Murthy's retrospective perspective on the rewards and recognition provided to key contributors during the early stages of Infosys.

Who Are The Founders Of Infosys?

Founded in July 1981 in Pune, the headquarters of Infosys is in Bengaluru. Seven engineers joined forces to start the company. Apart from Murthy, the co-founders are Nandan Nilekani, Kris Gopalakrishnan, SD Shibulal, K Dinesh, NS Raghavan, and Ashok Arora.

narayana murthy with wife sudha murty/businesstoday

Infosys was set up with a seed capital of ?10,000 given by Sudha Murty to Narayana, her spouse.?

Last month, Narayana Murthy had expressed another regret - that he did not allow his wife, Sudha Murty, to join his company.

Murthy’s ‘70-Hours’ Controversy

Known for his strong work ethics, he had previously generated controversy with his statements on work hours. He claimed that he used to work 70 hours a week during the early days of setting up Infosys. He went on to suggest that young Indians should also put in such long hours. Murthy's remark sparked discussions on work-life balance and the expectations placed on professionals, especially in high-pressure industries like technology and IT services.