BANGALORE: As Basab Pradhan, a former company veteran, prepares to take over as sales head of Infosys, he faces challenges of increased competition from rivals such as Cognizant apart from visa abuse allegations in the top outsourcing market of US that threaten to dent the image of India's second biggest software exporter.
Pradhan posted a tweet confirming the development.
"I'm back at Infosys for a second innings. Last couple of days met/spoke to many old friends. Great feeling to be back. But lots to do," he said. At 45, Pradhan, who left Infosys in 2005 to start Gridstone Research, is perhaps going to face the toughest assignment of career, at a time when Infosys is trying to fend of rivals growing better, and is undergoing the biggest management rejig in its history.
"Basab Pradhan is not going to find this easy at all — Infosys now has ambitious, restless next line leaders who have grown their stature and the company itself is going through a strategic shift," said a former Infosys executive who has worked with Basab requesting anonymity.
An Infosys spokeswoman confirmed that Pradhan joined the company on June 1. ET Now reported on Pradhan joining back Infosys on May 27. The last time Pradhan took over as Infosys' sales head the company was trying to come out of a crisis with Phaneesh Murthy had resigned amid allegations of sexual impropriety.
Before he left Infosys in 2005 to launch his own venture, Pradhan handled global sales for the company and headed several key businesses like retail, consumer packages goods, healthcare and transportation.
Ex-colleagues and senior leaders who worked with Pradhan say he was the kind of marketer customers loved simply because he knew their businesses inside out and offered services that are irresistible, at a time when Indian IT firms were still building their brands.
Pradhan joined Infosys from Hindustan Unilever in 1994 and took over as the worldwide sales head from Phaneesh Murthy, who left the company in 2003. "When we hired Basab, he joined from an FMCG company and he had no idea but he bought new perspective and new ideas and did well. He was one of our best marketing people after Phaneesh Murthy," Infosys co-founder NS Raghavan said.
An ex-colleague remembers Pradhan as an analytical salesman . "There are some marketers that people buy from because they like them and others that just know the business so well, Pradhan came in the latter. He was part of an analytical sales group," Jesse Paul CEO, Paul Writer Strategic Services said.
Pradhan will take over from Subhash Dhar, who will head the newly formed business innovation division at Infosys. He will be returning to Infosys at a time when it has announced some of the biggest structural changes in its history.
The company is passing on the mantle of chairman to KV Kamath who will be taking over from founder Narayana Murthy. Co-founder and COO SD Shibulal has been appointed as the new CEO, to take over from S Gopalakrishnan who was also a part of the founding team at Infosys. The company will be announcing new additions to its board and to its executive council this month.
Gopalakrishnan will take over as the co-chairman. Infosys has also been losing some of its sheen as the most revered IT company in India after peers TCS and Cognizant have been outperforming the company in the past few quarters. The company is also transitioning from a technology company to one offering business solutions.
Infosys describes this phase as " Infosys 3.0" under which it has announced new verticals and service lines. According to Paul, with Pradhan Infosys will be bringing back some of its old values and he will also fit into the role of a mentor well in contrast to some of the more ambitious leaders.
After leaving Infosys, Pradhan started a financial research platform company Gridstone Research with other ex-Infosys employees. He was chief executive officer of the company till 2009 and chairman till the company was sold out in 2010. Gridstone sold out after business started suffering.
According to Ashish Gupta, Managing Director of Helion Ventures, one of the venture capital funds that invested in Gridstone, the company suffered due to the financial crisis as most its customers were in the finance industry.
"Gridtsone's business was not doing well so it had to sell. Its clients included the likes of Lehman Brothers so you can imagine what happened to it when things collapsed," Gupta said. Industry watchers though say Gridstone never took off as the company was not able to build a sound model.
It was a product company being led by a team whose expertise lay in providing services.
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