Entrepreneurs Of Today Are Smarter Than I Ever Was: Narayana Murthy | Global Leadership Summit

Well, first of all, let me say that the entrepreneurs of today are so much smarter than I ever was. I mean, look at Harsh from Swiggy. He says he will deliver food in 10 minutes in this environment where I took an hour and 25 minutes to come from Santa Cruz West to this place. He is a magician. He is a magician. He is a remarkable guy. Therefore, we must all salute him. We must salute him not because he may be able to do or he may not be, that's not the issue. Even to have such an audacious vision, even to have such an audacious aspiration target, that itself is fantastic. So anyway, having said that, the attributes at Infosys have been, first, courage. As I often say, without courage, no other attribute ever finds expression. Courage of conviction, I think those are absolutely necessary for a leader. So there, I would say, first is courage. The second thing is what I learned from Mahatma Gandhi, that is lead by example. If you want austerity in your company, you the leader show austerity. If you want punctuality in your company, by every employee, you come to the office first, then you don't have to give big speeches. So I think I can go on and on on the issue of leadership by example. But I think we in the corporate world must embrace leadership by example. The third thing that I would talk is, this is something that not just the corporate leaders, but leaders in every area in India, in the corporate world, in politics, in NGOs, in bureaucracy, everywhere, and that is putting the interest of the community ahead of my personal interest. If I did that, my personal interest will be much larger in the years to come. That's exactly what we at Infosys followed in the beginning. None of us had any cars. We all traveled by economy until we were a billion dollars in revenue. And that was the time, and 288 million dollars of after-tax. And such time we all traveled economy even on international flights. So the point I am saying is, let everybody lead by example. The third thing I would say is, if we seek respect from our stakeholders, then everything will become, revenue will come, good employees will join you, good investors, long-term investors will be there for you, your profits will improve, and your market capitalization will improve. Therefore, don't take the objective as earning, having much bigger market capitalization. Just say I will earn respect from every stakeholder. And the day you take that decision, everything else will fall in line. And then you know, you talk about being fair, fair, and using data and facts. Leaders to be fair, fairness, as you know better than I do, is doing unto others what you want them to do unto you. And that happens if you try and use data and facts to decide every transaction. And you have to start every transaction on a zero base because then your employees will have full confidence in you. Even if they lose a transaction, they will say this gentleman or this lady tried best, and this time I didn't have proper data, therefore I lost. So that's very important. And then of course, I already spoke about it. You know, this is what I learned from my extraordinary friend, late Rahul Bajaj. And then in 1993, I was a nobody. Even today I am nobody, but at the time I was even smaller nobody. And I asked Rahul Bajaj, you know, I had probably 30 seconds with him, which management book should I read? You know, Rahul, the way he would talk, said, why are you trying to waste money on management books? And real life is your best management guru. I tell you, from 1993, I wrote it down on a page and pasted it in my office. And until I retired in 2014, I practiced. Competition is your best management guru. The last thing, I can give a lecture on whatever I learned, but the last thing I will say is, when in doubt, disclose. It is the finest stride that you people can follow. I will stop here because otherwise I can go on and on and on. You know, that will be an eight-hour master class.