N R NARAYANA MURTHYA Leadership Bio by Siddharth Shankar

BIOGRAPHY

“Dad advised me to inculcate habits that don’t require money - listen to music, read books and have enjoyable conversations with interesting people. I have never been bored.”

“I was admitted to IIT but my family couldn’t afford the first year of tuition before my scholarship kicked in. Dad said, ‘if you’re smart, you will succeed regardless of where you study’ and I agreed with him.”

“I decided early on that I would never pay a bribe. Being honest requires 5X the effort, and you need to accept that there will be delays, but in the end, you will emerge victorious.”“Once, a client accounting for 25% of our revenue wanted to negotiate our prices down. We realized we couldn’t maintain service quality at the desired prices, so we decided to walk out today rather than under-deliver tomorrow.”

“I went on an 11 month road-trip from Paris to Bengaluru (not a typo!), and was incarcerated in Soviet-controlled Bulgaria. That experience changed me from a socialist to a capitalist.”“India needs to fight poverty. The only way to do that is job creation and growth. Entrepreneurs create jobs better than the government can. So, the government’s responsibility is to create an environment where entrepreneurs can thrive.”

“To maintain professional objectivity, I felt that Sudha and I should never work in the same company.”

“I believe in compassionate capitalism - care for employees, pay taxes, add value to society.”

“Revenue, profits or market cap? I focused on INFY becoming the best reputed tech firm; other indicators would follow.”

“Sudha had to make many sacrifices to raise our two children well.”

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- N R Narayana Murthy

“The real power of money is the power to give it away.”