Vishal Sikka brings 3 former SAP colleagues to Infosys - Michael Reh, Sanjay Rajagopalan & Navin Budhiraja

BANGALORE: In addition to the 12 executive vice-presidents at Infosys, Sikka since taking over office on August 1 has brought three of his former SAP colleagues to Infosys to help him implement his new initiatives. Two of the three, Michael Reh and Navin Budhiraja were present when Sikka unveiled his strategy.

MICHAEL REH

FORMER: Executive VP for business information & tech nology at SAP

CURRENTLY: Senior VP at Infosys.

Earlier this week, Sikka tasked Michael Reh with the revival of Infosys’ core banking product, Finacle, which had a poor second quarter.

Reh, who will be based out of Hamburg, Germany, will help Finacle increase its presence in mobile banking. Reh will also help expand the Finacle brand to include insurance, something which Mumbai-based TCS has done with its core banking product BaNCS.

Sikka has already said that he intends to double the company’s investment in Finacle. “Michael (Reh) has worked in areas of mobile and cloud while at SAP,” said an executive familiar with the matter.

SANJAY RAJAGOPALAN

FORMER: Head of Design, SAP

CURRENTLY: SVP Infosys

Sanjay Rajagopalan is to head the Design Thinking, a creative, user-centred approach to problemsolving and help the company implement it. Infosys has already started conducting large-scale classes for its leaders, including from consulting and sales team leaders.

Some of the classes are being conducted by professors from Stanford University’s design school. Rajagopalan is also helping put together a large-scale design thinking training session for all Infosys employees at Mysore, and other development centres.

Rajagopalan is also trying to get design coach experts to make Infosys trainers learn the nuances of Design Thinking.