Let me ask you this, Mr. Murthy. You talked about your friend, the late Mr. Ratan Tata, and we spoke about the kind of leadership attributes that he held very close to his heart. You believe in many leadership attributes that you hold very dear to you. I know you famously told me once that in a time when everybody brings data to the table, let data decide and not go by leadership attributes. What do you believe, Mr. Murthy, that you would like Indian companies, young companies, to focus on as we move forward?
Well, first of all, let me say that the companies of today are so much smarter than I ever was. Look at 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 may not, but that's not the issue. Even to have such an audacious vision, even to have such an audacious aspiration target itself is fantastic. So anyway, having said that, the attributes at Infosys have been, first, courage. As I often say, without courage, no other attributes will ever find its place. It is the courage of conviction, the courage to go against the most majority of naysayers. I think these are absolutely necessary for a leader. So therefore, I would say first is courage. The second thing is what I learned from Mahatma Gandhi, that is leadership 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, 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 country 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-dollar company in revenue. And that was the time, and we had 288 million dollars of after-tax profit. And at such a 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 come. 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 talked about being fair, fair and using data and facts. A leader has 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 their 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 once in 1993, I was a nobody. Even today I am a nobody, but at that time I was even a smaller nobody. And I asked Rahul Bajaj, 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 realize that competition is your best management guru.' I tell you, from 1993, I wrote it down, and I 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 that I will say is, when in doubt, disclose. It is the finest principle 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 masterclass, and I know that there are many people in this room who would sign up to listen to you, Mr. Murthy.
But those are gems. One, 'When in doubt, disclose.' I have a personal library, a collection of Mr. Murthy gems. He always also, I remember, telling me that let the good news take the stairs and let the bad news take the elevator. And that's another very important lesson that he has taught me over the years. But Mr. Murthy, let's talk a little bit about work-life balance. You know, your 70-hour comment has gone viral, and you are not going to be able to live it down anytime soon. Any change in thinking on that one? Or do you believe that you were just grossly misunderstood?
No, no, no. First of all, I don't believe in work-life balance. You know, I don't know if KV is here. KV Kamath, about 25 years ago, he was on a platform at a function like this, and he was asked, 'KV, what do you think of work-life balance?' He said, 'Look, we in India, we are a poor country. We have a lot of challenges. We first have to get a life, then we can worry about work-life balance.' So therefore, my view is, at this point of time, when Prime Minister Modi is working so hard, probably he works 100 hours a week, when his cabinet ministers are working very hard, when his bureaucrats are all working very hard, the only way we can show our appreciation for all these wonderful things that are happening is by our working hard. Frankly, I was a little bit disinterested because there is no substitution. I will take this with me to my grave. I am very proud of having worked very hard. I used to go to the office at 6:20 in the morning and return at 8:30 in the evening. That was 14 hours and 10 minutes. And I worked six and a half days until I retired, and I am very proud of it. Therefore, I am not going to take it back.
