Running head: Harvard Business Case Study: Infosys Group 1

Harvard Business Case Study: Infosys Group

Dennis Stovall

Kaplan University

GB 520 Strategic Human Resources Management

April 1, 2014
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Abstract

This analysis focuses on the Infosys Group and the manner in which its executive management

had elected to handle the firm’s human resources issues as they evolved, along with their

problematic issues, during various stages of this pioneer company’s road to success. The

beginning years that led to Infosys becoming a viable entity were besieged with what many

would consider to be insurmountable challenges. However it was through unswerving dedication

to become a notable world class software company, to which determination also proved to be a

key element, that the qualities inherent within these two characteristics helped the firm to

achieve its effectuate HRM practices. Infosys’s goal was to institutionalized and integrate its

core competencies in concordance with its affinity for providing its-‘ family of employees’- with

a human resource management system that was culturally invigorative and companionably

designed. As a reward for incorporating this level of quality into its HRM system for

its’Infoscions’ it was ranked number one by Business Today’s - Best Employer Survey- for two

consecutive years starting in 2001. But unfortunately this distinction came to an abrupt end in

2003(Delong, 2006)

Keywords: HRM, Infoscion, scientific management, outsourcing, enterprise resource

Management
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Harvard Business Case Study: Infosys Group

Through the years Infosys has incorporated a number of HR systems in which to keep its

workforce satisfied and in balance with its corporate strategies. After overcoming the challenges

that beset it in the beginning, Infosys became a well-organized, distinctly compact and-

‘emotionally stable, highly motivated company’- and as a complementary result these HR

systems were remarkably proficient if not role models in their own right. However as the firm

grew in keeping with its mission which was to remain competitive while also adhering to its core

strategies; to institutionalize, remain competitive and highly productive, adapting (up-to–date)

HR systems proved to be increasingly difficult with respect to the progress it had made in

becoming a global entity.

In the beginning when the firm was smaller the innovative HR systems that were implace

were seemingly tailor made for its uniformly compatible workforce and as such proved to be

quite effective. However, the abundance of the HR measures that the firm implemented

afterward revolved around a more metrically balanced and scientific if not fabricated approach to

human resources management.

The problem however is that Infosys allowed itself access to opportunities, such as

developing a number of unitary portfolios that expanded its dimensions as a global business-

while overlooking the need to adjust their HR systems to be adaptive during these intense

changes- and then in retrospect, assessing the need to do so in hindsight, i.e. only after driven

expansions had taken place. This proved to be an unsettling experience for the firm because the

firms HRM was not sufficient to address the needs of the newly expanded workforce. Measures
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to adapt a scientific form of employee merit and rewards/compensation programs based on

scientific performance evaluation did not align with the originally institutionalized and much

favored human resources management system of the past.

Exactly how the Infosys Group’s HR leadership team headed by Hema Ravichandar-‘the

global leader of Infosys’s Human Resources Management and acting Vice President, at the

time’- did in fact manage to get a company that had originally started operations with 250

employees in 1992, establish and maintain methods that allowed it to remain successful enough

to have 40,000 people successfully in its employ by 2005 is unclear (hema ravichandar, n.d.).

However, it is safe to assume that Infosys Technologies did in fact meet its executive

mandate-‘to be on the top ten lists of both Best Performing Company’s and Best Employer’. As

of 2014 Infosys is a renowned global leader with 160,000 employees assisting clients in 30

countries to achieve professional results in areas such as consulting, technology, outsourcing and

enterprise resource management (Infosys, 2014).

Conclusion

One can only speculate when attempting to answer how Infosys managed to pull up and

away from the nose dive that seemed to draw the firm every closer to a crash landing in the late

months of 2003. Perhaps it was a spell that was cast by Hema Ravichandar’-with the intent of

magically providing a clear way in which to turn this unfortunate stream of events into a clear

heading thus assuring that the firm would meet with favorable prospects on the road ahead.

Perhaps it was a loan from the World Bank that helped Infosys channel needed funds in

which to climb steadily away from insolvency and directly into the role as a number one leader

in global IT systems technology. One thing seems fairly certain, and that is in keeping with its
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mission goal-‘to build a firm that “was professionally managed with good corporate governance,

good employee management and good ethics”; a firm that “promised a fair share to all its

stakeholders-shareholders, employees and customers alike” Infosys succeeded in doing just that

(Delong, 2006, p.3).

References:

Delong, T. (2006). Infosys (A): Strategic Human Resources Management. Harvard Business

School. 9-406-010

hema racvichadar (n.d.) strategic HR advisory. Retrieved from

http://www.nasscom.in/sites/default/files/Speakers/Hema_Ravichandar.pdf

Infosys: Building Tomorrows Enterprise. (2014). Retrieved from

http://www.infosys.com/about/Pages/index.aspx