Infosys global sales head Basab Pradhan resigns

BANGALORE: Infosys Technologies global sales head Basab Pradhan has resigned from the company in the first top-level departure after the return of NR Narayana Murthy, who was recalled as executive chairman in June.

Pradhan's departure comes at a time Murthy is trying to revitalise the sputtering sales engine of the Bangalore-based company as he seeks to rebuild Infosys, which has been lagging the industry on growth.

"Leaving Infosys to go back to the startup world. To all my friends at Infosys - please stay in touch," Pradhan said on microblogging site Twitter.

There was no word from Infosys.

Pradhan, an alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur and Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad, returned to Infosys in 2011 after his first stint at the company between 1995 and 2005. He took over from Subash Dhar, who resigned to start his own venture. Pradhan created a venture-funded technology startup Gridstone Research, which specialised in analysing unstructured financial data.

"I don't think Basab's absence will make a huge difference within Infosys. Infosys' sales growth has been pretty dismal over the past few quarters," said Harit Shah of Nirmal Bang Institutional Equities. "And we are assuming that Infosys has a capable person to fill this role."

For at least two years, Infosys has been lagging peers in terms of sales and revenue growth. In 2012-13, Infosys grew at about half the pace of the industry, and in the current fiscal, it expects sales to grow 6-10% while industry body Nasscom has predicted that the industry will expand 12-14% during the same period.

Pradhan's first stint as head of sales came after Infosys' former head of sales Phaneesh Murthy resigned following accusations of sexual harassment. "During his first stint, Pradhan also had the support of Nilekani, who was a great ambassador for the company. So in effect, the job of the head of sales was a lot easier," said a former colleague.

While no one has laid the blame for Infosys' poor sales growth at Pradhan's door, Murthy will have to choose a successor who will help him achieve his objective of "rebuilding a desirable Infosys", for which he has given himself three years.

Pradhan is the latest in a long line of senior executives to head for the exit door at India's second-largest software company. In recent months, Ritesh Idnani (chief operating officer, Infosys BPO), Shaji Farooq (head of financial services for North America) and Matt Barney (head, Infosys Leadership Institute) have left Infosys.

For Murthy, who is trying to win over employees with an unexpected pay raise last month, the challenge will be to ensure that there is no further talent hemorrhaging at senior levels.