Infosys founder Narayana Murthy Narayanamurthy has shared his success mantras in his book ‘Startup Compass.’ He has given today’s entrepreneurs the lessons of becoming an entrepreneur adopted in the early days of Infosys.
Infosys was founded by NR Narayanamurthy in the year 1981. There were 6 other co-founders with him. However, at that time entrepreneurs did not get as much support as today. In such a situation, it is interesting to know how Narayanamurthy set up Infosys and brought Information Technology (IT) revolution in the country.
In the book ‘Startup Compass’, 75-year-old businessman Narayanamurthy has shared his success mantras. He has given today’s entrepreneurs the lessons of becoming an entrepreneur adopted in the early days of Infosys. In this, he has explained why he still travels in economy class instead of business in domestic flights. Along with this, he had made it a rule never to discuss with his wife about the differences with the co-founders of Infosys.
Here we are going to tell you 9 business lessons of Narayan Murthy which he himself adopted to become an entrepreneur.
1. The first and most important lesson that Narayan Murthy and his Infosys team adopted was to adopt and follow the values. Murthy said that values form the backbone of an entrepreneurs determination. The first and foremost principle of our values system was to put the interest of the company ahead of our personal interest in every decision taken by the founding team. He further added that some of his founding team colleagues did not agree with some of those decisions, but he accepted those decisions and followed them with full commitment.
2. Describing failures as a part of the entrepreneurs’ journey, the Chairman Emeritus of Infosys said that failure can prove beneficial if analyzed timely and promptly. For this you have to find out why you failed, what lesson you learned from failure and make sure that you do not make the same mistake again. He gave the example of his failure at Softronix. He said that from the failure of Softronix, I came to know that the market is not available for it. After this, for my next venture, I focused on the export market.
3. Murthy said that an entrepreneur should always be prepared for the fact that his company may face some structural problem. In such a situation, an entrepreneur should think about keeping the passion a little low regarding his idea, not getting carried away in emotions and getting out of it as soon as possible. He further said that Softronics had no domestic market and I had no way out. That’s why I closed it within 9 months.
4. Fourth Lesson He explained the role of luck in the journey of an entrepreneur. Murthy said that I had many friends and classmates who were smarter than me. Their teams had better credentials than ours. He had better ideas than us. But God chose us to smile. There were many such difficult situations and there were opportunities for many such deals which could have resulted in something else. However, even in such circumstances, the Lord showed us the right path.
5. He gave the fifth lesson regarding market competition, which late businessman Rahul Bajaj had described as the best management school. Market competition taught us how to attract and retain quality customers and employees, and how to increase the confidence of our investors, Murthy said. In every area of our operation, we benchmark ourselves with the best practices in the world.
6. The sixth lesson is about leadership. He recalled that during the early years of Infosys, when the company needed to be tight-lipped about day-to-day expenses, he even traveled economy class on international flights until it hit $1 billion in revenue. He further said that even today I travel in economy class in domestic flights. I used to reach office at 6.20 every morning till I retired in 2011.
7. Murthy learned the seventh thing about maintaining the enthusiasm and confidence of the team of 7 founders for 30 years. Murthy said that I also decided that whatever differences we have on any issue in the office, none of us will discuss it with our spouse. I followed it strictly.
8. Murthy also decided that there should be one and only one leader in any company at any point of time. Murthy said that no company can be run by committees. We learned that a leader has to lead by presenting values. A leader should do the hardest work, make the biggest sacrifice. Leaders should welcome the views and opinions of competent and expert colleagues before making any decisions, taking those views into account in their decisions.
9. Murthy’s ninth lesson was Competence and High Value System to build a successful and knowledge company. This is the reason why ‘Powered by the Intellect, Driven by Value’ became the motto of Infosys. Murthy’s life is exemplified by this slogan. He didn’t let his difficulties get the best of him.He was wise and thought that he could only improve his own life. His moral convictions drove him to attain his goals.
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