Keeping up with changing times: Salil Parekh says empathy, vulnerability are critical; calls being a 'little paranoid' helpful

Salil Parekh, CEO of Infosys, was in Mumbai a few days ago at a five star hotel for an event. Dressed in a black suit with a blue shirt and plum colour tie, the multinational corporation boss was on a panel with Wipro Chairman, Rishad Premji and Rajesh Gopinathan, CEO and MD of Tata Consultancy Services.

The three men shared how they helped their companies keep up with the times. "Empathy and vulnerability are critical. Being a little paranoid helps determine where the change is coming from. There are ways to describe internal risks taken, and to make sure that you don't massively penalise these risks. Some sectors grow faster and some grow slower. It doesn't start to say that those sectors that are growing slower have some inherent problems. It could be that some externalities are causing the problem," Parekh said.

Technology has come and changed the way companies have worked and the Infosys CEO is aware of that. "We are keeping pace with the technology change. While the opportunities are phenomenal, if we remain static and don't change, then we will be stuck with all the old things which our clients are not looking for. My paranoia is how relevant we can remain with the change in technology," he ended.