@ Infy

June 22nd may be long gone, but a dream did come true on that day. It was on that day when I finally, finally saw my guru Mr. N R Narayana Murthy in the flesh. The occasion was the 26th AGM of Infosys Technologies. Alongside him was seated the man who has brought forth the 'flat world' idea- Mr. Nandan Nilekani. The event was a landmark one for Infy with the CEO baton changing hands from Mr. Nandan to Mr. Kris Gopalkrishnan.

The COO, Mr. Shibulal did his presentation after the ones by the above mentioned gentlemen. CFO, Mr. Balakrishnan.V held the audience's attention at the balance sheets with some very creative slide presentations. With the shuffle-up in management, it reflected very clearly on the company policy, and as Mr. Murthy has always said that the organisation must be professionally run putting share-owners interest ahead of the self.

As in every AGM, the Q & A session always ignites sparks. But with a company like Infy, we expected lesser fire in the line of action. However, as the praises and questions poured in for Mr. Murthy and his team, one particular remark bounced off at a tangent. A gentleman from the audience seemed to take personally the fact that the members on the dias were served water during the course of the meeting while the rest of the audience were left high (the balance sheets were good!) and dry (now you know why the man was annoyed!). He wanted to know if not providing water was some kind of a cost cutting measure adopted by the company!

But amidst all of this, there was a lesson to be learnt. There were really two kinds of people in that gathering that day. One that overlooked all the visionaries and their strategies for providing a profitable future for the share owners, and instead focussed on pettier issues like water/food/clothing. the other group of people would have attended the conference even if it were held in the heart of the Sahara Desert, where food and water are a thing of dreams.