India?s biggest IT major, Infosys has been through an interesting journey over the last 37 years. A man who sold Infosys story to the potential investor has a large role to play in the company?s success trajectory.
ENAM Group?s Vallabh Bhansali helped Infosys with its IPO. ET Now?s exclusive interview with the man behind selling Infy story to potential investors talks a lot of the journey of India?s major IT firm. Soon after the IPO, Infosys changed the way India Inc conducted its business. The company celebrated its 25th listing anniversary on Thursday.
Referring to the first encounter with Infosys, Bhansali said, ?It started sometime in 1991...I had a colleague, Mr Puranik, who used to work for State Bank and was covering this little company in Bangalore. He was so impressed by the value system of the promoters and then he introduced me to Mr Murthy. So we kind of interview each other rigorously and we just had tremendous confidence in each other ? he trusted us with his IPOs and we trusting him with a little of our money. It was quite extraordinary.?
When Bhansali started helping Infosys, the company had just 100 employees. Infosys had a few 100 crores in turnover. Only a few 100 crores in turnover but the one thing that convinced Bhansali to invest in Infosys was Narayana Murthy?s confidence and clarity. Whatever that Murthy talked about was hard not to be impressed by.
In an interview with ET Now, Bhansali appreciates Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy and his vision. Even 25 years back, Infosys co-founder had the same clear vision for company?s future roadmap. Infosys IPO was not an easy journey, the IPO failed to impress in the initial attempt. Bhansali says that Infosys founders were understanding people and had full trust in the efforts that were put through the process.
He shares an incident that describes the anxiousness of Mr Murthy at that time. He had to ask Narayana Murthy to not call him. He said, ?Mr Murthy, please do not call me. I want you to go to sleep because I can tell you I am awake 24 hours until the job is done and that?s what our spirit was.?