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were outlined. Although these standards helped Infosys hire star academic
performers, they shrunk the available pool of qualified applicants. For example,
only 2% of 250,000 applicants in 2003 were recruited. Rather than relaxing the
standards, Infosys attached its recruiting process to the “predictability” compo-
nent of its PSPD model. The revenue predictions about future were based on
assessing the likely availability of qualified workforce.
Heavy investments were made in training. An Education and Research (E&R)
department and a Management Development Center (MDC) were created. They
developed and imparted about 300,000 man-hours of technical and managerial
training annually. This included a mandatory 10-day formal training every year for
all employees, and a four-month training program in analytical thinking, problem
solving, technical fundamentals, and customer negotiating for the new recruits.
Retaining an attractive workforce was the most difficult part. As Murthy men-
tioned, “Talented employees trained to deliver excellence attracted corporate
headhunters. We didn’t want to be a supplier of trained workforce to our competi-
tors. But it wasn’t easy to convince our knowledge workers (employees) to stay
with us. We planned a series of initiatives like employee empowerment, building
the right culture, and wealth sharing.”- Employee empowerment: Murthy saw empowerment as a way to improve employ-
ees’ perspective. For a highly talented IT workforce, this was easier said than done.
As he explained, “Most engineers had a strong identity, clear life goals, and flexible
yet defined ways of doing things. Talking to them about individual empowerment
was a redundant exercise.” So Infosys designed a unique approach to empower-
ment — to develop a strong corporate culture by channeling individual aspirations
toward a common objective. “Constant Innovation” was chosen as an objective
worthy for knowledge workers. Murthy felt that “the future winners will be firms
that escape from the gravitational pull of the past on the fuel of innovation.” - Building leaders: The objective of “constant innovation” required building a band
of leaders who could raise the aspirations of their associates. Murthy mentioned,
“Our focus at Infosys was to breed a whole generation of leaders, mentor them,
throw them the challenges, and train them in the practice of management.” A
Leadership Institute was set up in India that started training selected managers
from all the global locations. The institute taught courses on business ethics,
cultural integration, mentoring people, and relationship building with global
customers. - An open culture: The next step was to create a culture that heightened the desire
for innovation, a culture that gave respect to ideas regardless of where they
emerged. Murthy opined, “It was vital for our people to be able to deliver, execute,
and meet challenges of the future. This required an open culture that recognized
merit and encouraged ideas from all. A culture that did not get subdued by hierarchy
and was free of politics. A culture of excellence, speed, and execution.”
A critical issue while building such a culture was to integrate employees of over
38 nationalities. The challenge was to develop an environment where all these
cultures were at ease with each other. The E&R department, the Management
Development Center, and the Leadership Institute were asked to handle this issue
through their training sessions. Project managers and team leaders were encour-