"I
will be thrilled and privileged if the Board asks me to continue
as nonexecutive Chairman while the role of Chief Mentor would
be going to a smart person", said Narayana Murthy at
the 25thAnnual General Body meeting of the Infosys that he
presided for the last time. This was greeted by emotional
scenes and lavish praises were heaped on Murthy by the investors
for taking the company to $2 bn revenuemark, and nurturing
excellent corporate values, all in a span of 25 years.
Close
on the heels came the announcement of Bill Gates about his
intention to handover his responsibility for "software
strategy" immediately and reduce his involvement in the
company progressively. Bill Gates, a Harvard drop out, who
founded Microsoft along with his high school chum, Paul Allen
in 1981, said he would switch his attention to philanthropyworking
on global health and education. However, he hoped to continue
as Chairman of the Microsoft "for the rest of his life".
He said to reporters that it is not a retirement but only
a recording of his priorities. Nevertheless, it's stunned
everyone, particularly investor fraternity.
The
retirement plans of Bill Gates and Narayana Murthy differ
from the CEOs of any other company in many ways. These two
are unique in the sense that they are not only CEOs of the
respective companies but are also their "archrepertories"
of the knowledge that these two companies in effect sell.
A Jack Welch, a Ratan Tata or a WallMart can find a successor,
for all that a CEO of these companies required to do is to
lead the existing corpus of human capital to further heights.
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