Value of Good Education

More than an year ago, I and Pankaj Garg - my batchmate from Sunstone Business School, had worked on a strategy project to answer if RIL should enter e-tailing and if yes, what is the right way to enter e-tailing.

An year later, Amazon has entered the Indian e-tailing business and is starting with same categories that we had recommended.

Not bad for a couple of people from IT background to be able to analyze an entirely different business and understand its dynamics.

What made it possible?

I think this is where problem based pedagogy used by Sunstone proved really helpful. Solving problems like this one ingrained real business skills in me. This was not a trivial problem and neither was it answered in a day or a week or a month. We worked for several weeks - running it through various frameworks, seeking help from faculty, meeting industry people, collecting thoughts from anyone who wanted to share. All these activities added some real value in our real life. They set us up to take on problems like these - something that reading a book or two would have never achieved.

It is hard to overemphasize value of good education. :)

Infosys is in Big Trouble

Narayana Murthy's return and Rohan Murthy's appointment to the company are clear indicators that Infy is in much bigger trouble than they would let us believe.

Biggest question to ask is:
Why does Infy need Murthy to return?
Because current leadership has failed them. In last 2 years since Murthy left, a company of 1.5 lac people could not find single leader among themselves that could run the company at even the industry average rate.

It would be naive to assume that current leadership did not have access to Murthy's wisdom or guidance. They could not deliver despite Murty being available for consultation.

Would Murthy be able to put Infy back on track?
Who knows? May be, may be not. But that's not the point. The point is, what happens after Murthy's exit in not so distant future? Even if Murthy is able to reverse some damage, who will take it further on the right path?

Would it be Rohan? Would current leadership be able to step up to the plate next time? Would they be able to groom another leader while Murthy is at helm? Would they bring in someone from the outside?

All of these options are fraught with grave risks. Their safest bet of proper succession planning, by their own admission, has failed.