Vision 2020 is a moon shot: Vishal Sikka, Infosys

In a chat with ET Now, Vishal Sikka, CEO, Infosys, says many years ago at Infosy had aspiration to be a $10 billion company by 2010 and we just recently crossed $10 billion. Like that, vision 2020 is also an aspiration.

Edited excerpts:

How do you expect Infosys to grow?

The demand for new services, the demand from the software led services, the platform led services is great. Last year, as I mentioned earlier, 65% of our workforce worked on 55% of our revenue and this is the part that is becoming more commoditised. On the other hand, 35% of our workforce works on 45% of our revenue at a much higher RPP and much stronger growth.

In that area. we have seen close to 20% growth in the last year and we expect very strong growth this year as well.

For the software platform Mana, in less than four quarters we have reached more than 50 clients. It has more than doubled every quarter. So there is a very strong sense of optimism that we have in the new areas and we have to bring automation and an operational focus in a very strong way to the commoditising part of our business.

This is not an easy thing to do obviously but I am very hopeful about the future. You cannot look at the optimism and the execution of the strategy from the point of view of guidance in a particular quarter or a particular year. The long term trajectory, the revenue per FTE has improved, the margins have held steady and we have grown in line with the industry despite all that has been going on.

So I am very optimistic about the future. In terms of the 6.5-8.5 per cent guidance, this is based on what we see. A lot of people have deferred guidance but we thought about it, we looked at what the environment is that we see and obviously we have learned from what has happened in the last several quarters.

That was something I was coming to. Considering you have missed guidance thrice in the last fiscal year, does this also cushion possible risks? Is that why it is perhaps a more conservative number than what the street was expecting?

I do not want to use the word conservative or non-conservative. It is whatever is the opposite of conservative but obviously we have learnt from what has happened in the last many quarters and our philosophy, our approach is the same. We want to make sure that what you see is what we see and as we see it. But obviously as our visibility improves and as the year goes ahead, look for two things; the new services that we have in the next generation area for our clients as well as the software led services. These are the things that we expect will not be affected by the traditional seasonality that we typically have in Q3 and Q4. As we go forward in the year and as we see the evolution of the new areas, I feel very confident and we will obviously change our guidance as we see it. But this is what we see right now.

It is a landmark that you have crossed this $10 billion figure for FY17 but the $20 billion figure for 2020 looks a little unrealistic now. Is this more of a moon shot and not an actual target that you are working towards?

You know Praveen was telling me that many years ago at Infosys, we had a $10 billion aspiration by 2010 and we just crossed $10 billion. So it is something that is an aspiration, a moon shot is a great word for it.

Obviously it is an exceedingly difficult target to achieve now and especially with what we have seen in the last few quarters but the important thing is that the framing of strong growth while improving margins and especially improving revenue per FTE is a great way to frame our endeavour which is to transform the company into a next generation company that brings AI and automation into the commoditising world and into breakthrough new areas and become an innovative company.