India's corporate history can, in a manner of speaking, be divided into pre-Infosys and post-Infosys periods. Before Infosys became established as one of India's best-managed and respected corporate houses, giving rise to many, if somewhat lesser, companies of the same ilk, technocrats and professionals tended to generally shy away from hands-on management of big business, as they did from active electoral politics.

By and large, they still seem to keep that distance from politics. But many technocrats were emboldened by the Infosys success to launch startups of their own, and quite a few of them met with impressive success. The Infosys saga certainly pioneered a new brand of big, bold, dynamic, IT entrepreneurship in India. Infosys showed that running a business is not necessarily `sticky' business and spectacular success is achievable through professional, ethical and transparent business management practices. Infosys, more than any other corporate in the country, taught the Indian entrepreneur to think big and think like a winner. It generated a new verve and excitement among Indian entrepreneurs. It made running of a large corporation by technocrat, first generation entrepreneurs look simple and doable.

The success of Infosys, to be sure, was fashioned in part by the momentum of the times. The company happened to be in the right place at the right time. But the success was very largely due to the vision and innovativeness of its team of founders headed by Narayana Murthy and Nandan Nilekani, who took on the challenges of business with professionalism, extraordinary self-belief and commitment to value-based management. For very long Murthy and Nilekani represented the public face of the much admired company. If ever two entrepreneurs deserved every bit of credit and every decibel of applause they received, it was this duo. Both men of keen intellect and well-read, Murthy and Nilekani notched up another rare first in India's corporate history, by voluntarily stepping out, at a relatively young age, of active executive roles in the company they founded, to facilitate smooth and seamless management succession in the company, preferring mentoring roles.

Analyst Magazine, Electoral Politics, Management Practices, Value-Based Management, Economic Liberalization, Policy Makers, Indian Economy, Indias Policy Makers, Indian Politics, Economic Reforms, Agricultural Reforms, Economic Growth, Electoral Politics, Indian Entrepreneur.