My Company Culture - Infosys

Before describing the company culture, I would like to define what company culture is and the importance of it in shaping an individual.

A culture is the values and practices shared by the members of the group. Company Culture, therefore, is the shared values and practices of the company's employees.

Company culture is important because it can make or break your company. Companies with an adaptive culture that is aligned to their business goals routinely outperform their competitors. Some studies report the difference at 200% or more. To achieve results like this for your organization, you have to figure out what your culture is, decide what it should be, and move everyone toward the desired culture.

Company cultures evolve and they change over time. As employee leave the company and replacements are hired the company culture will change. If it is a strong culture, it may not change much. However, since each new employee brings their own values and practices to the group the culture will change, at least a little. As the company matures from a startup to a more established company, the company culture will change. As the environment in which the company operates (the laws, regulations, business climate, etc.) changes, the company culture will also change.

These changes may be positive, or they may not. The changes in company culture may be intended, but often they are unintended. They may be major changes or minor ones. The company culture will change and it is important to be aware of the changes.

Brief Overview

What Infosys Does

Short Overview of what Infosys is

Source www.infosys.com

Infosys Limited (NASDAQ: INFY) was started in 1981 by seven people with US$ 250. Today, we are a global leader in consulting, technology and outsourcing with revenues of US$ 7.075 billion (LTM Q1 FY13). Many of the world’s most successful organizations rely on Infosys to deliver measurable business value. Infosys provides business consulting, technology, engineering and outsourcing services to help clients in over 30 countries build tomorrow’s enterprise.

Their award-winning Infosys Labs and its breakthrough intellectual property can be leveraged as a co-creation engine to accelerate innovation across the enterprise.

Infosys pioneered the Global Delivery Model (GDM), based on the principle of taking work to the location where the best talent is available, where it makes the best economic sense, with the least amount of acceptable risk. Continued leadership around GDM enables Infosys to drive extraordinary efficiencies and free up clients’ resources for strategic transformation or innovation initiatives.

Infosys has a global footprint with 68 offices and 70 development centers in US, India, China, Australia, Japan, Middle East, UK, Germany, France, Switzerland, Netherlands, Poland, Canada and many other countries. Infosys and its subsidiaries have 151,151 employees as on June 30, 2012.

Infosys takes pride in building strategic long-term client relationships. 99.1% of our revenues come from existing customers (Q1 FY 13).

Infosys gives back to the community through the Infosys Foundation that funds learning and education.

How Infosys does it

Infosys helps companies derive the measurable business value that they have always been looking for from business and IT investments.

They deliver measurable business value in 3 ways:

Transform
They can transform the fundamental shape of your business P&L. Regardless of which team you engage with,  They have a best-practice process for delivering value.  They call it IMPACT – to ensure a clear line of sight from process change to bottom-line impact, ensuring that you receive the business value you were promised.

Optimize
Beyond transformation and innovation, it boils down to execution - delivering on time, on budget and "on value".  They can optimize your core operations to drive best-in-class efficiency and help fund the transformation and innovation.

Innovate
They can inject a level of product and service innovation into your business to create new revenue opportunities through collaboration and co-creation.  They keep abreast of the latest technology and how it applies to your business issues. What you get from us is best-of-breed solutions. The foundation of their innovation capability is our core lab network – Infosys Labs – and the new thinking that our team of over 600 researchers brings to the table.

Vision

"We will be a globally respected corporation."

Mission

"Strategic Partnerships for Building Tomorrow’s Enterprise."

Values

We believe that the softest pillow is a clear conscience. The values that drive us underscore our commitment to: CLIFE

Global Foot Print

Source: www.infosys.com

Infosys has global presence and has been operating in 77 cities across 32 countries and Infosys has global offices in Europe,South America,North America and Bangalore.

In India alone, Infosys has 10 development centers with the largest one being in Mysore, Karnataka

 Core Values

Infosys is governed by 5 major core values termed as C-LIFE.

1. C- Customer/Client Value
2. L- Leadership by Example
3. I- Integrity and Transparency
4. F- Fairness
5. E- Excellence

Customer/Client Value :

They believe that "A customer is the most important on our business. He is not an interruption in our business but the purpose of it. He is doing a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so." So, to survive for long time, they need to be “customer focused.”

Leadership by example:

There is no doubt that Infosys is a boundryless organization. It means everyone is free to think of ideas and brainstorming. If a leader gives himself to his team and show them the way then team follow him anywhere.

Integrity and Honesty:

In a good system of organization, three things must be there- Integrity, intelligence and energy. If you do not have the first , other two will kill you. In short, honesty sets the value of a person.

Fairness:

To be fair in business is a challenge in India and it is also true that fairness makes an organization sustainable for long time.

Excellency in execution: 

Still organizations are seeking for excellency in execution. But Infosys is the leader in putting a plan into action. Infosys was the first company to win Global MAKE (Most Admired Knowledge Enterprises) award for the year 2003.

Brief Overview of Core Values

Source: www.infosys.com

My Experience

Management. 

Management hierarchy looks a little aristocratic. It had, what Indians will call, a Desi touch to it. Although it is still far removed from the aristocratic setup in Indian Govt offices. There was less regard for personal time and work preferences. There are many sub cultures and sub-sub cultures there. What I say is what I, and most of my friends experienced. Some one else might have a totally different experience.

Opportunities to learn. 

There were opportunities to learn technical stuff, once I was in my second project. I added to my own value by taking up 2 certifications. The company paid for those. There was also some client exposure.

Salaries.

Compared to the rest of the market, the salaries they offer are on the lower end, both in India and abroad. They are still enough to maintain a decent life style. They somewhat compensate for it with better facilities at their campus. I, for one, would prefer a higher salary than a better campus.

The ‘Infosys is best’ idea. 

While managers never ceased to impress how good Infosys was, I found that most employees I knew were not very satisfied with their stay in the company. People felt they were paid low and were constantly looking for an opportunity to go onsite. If that didn’t seem possible, they would start thinking about leaving. Technical competency, was low. I still wonder how they showed up as the company with the ‘Highest Employee Satisfaction’ in a lot of magazines. Probably I never met the satisfied employees, or probably…

The ‘Client is God’ culture. 

There was a phrase that the managers used often, ‘Client is God’. We were asked to be very careful with the clients. I felt that there was a collective tendency to over appease the clients. This feeling was more pronounced, and, in a way, cultivated and encouraged among the junior employees. I did not realize this as much until I moved out and worked elsewhere.

Client Exposure and Onsite opportunities. 

The client exposure, and the subsequent onsite tenure can be a good learning experience, provided you don’t stay chicken for ever, doing just what your manager asks. You have to make the effort to learn. They won’t ask you to learn more than what is required for the project. If you want to learn and grow further, you will have to make the effort, and create some space yourself. Onsite is where you make a lot more money and can lead a much better life style.

References

www.infosys.com