Infosys co-founder NR Narayana Murthy said senior leaders in IT companies should consider taking salary cuts instead of laying off youngsters, encouraging employees to reskill for companies to take advantage of new opportunities emerging in the industry.
Murthy said it was a strategy adopted by Infosys in 2001 when the market turned tough following the dotcom bust. “We all sat together and then we said, let us make some sacrifice for youngsters. Let's not postpone joining dates and demonstrate commitment by senior people taking salary cuts based on disposable income,” he said. When asked about layoffs and employees petitioning labour commissioners in various states, he said, “I have a feeling that it is possible to save the jobs of youngsters.”
Several major IT companies are planning larger than usual layoffs this year after a decline in business and the industry's shift to newer technologies like cloud, mobile and machine learning. Murthy said industry leaders should identify new areas of opportunities, mount training programmes in those technologies for youngsters and give them enough opportunity to pick up those technologies. “And then, tell them you have to work harder and ensure you are in a position to add value, otherwise we will not have opportunity for you.”
In line with this philosophy, Murthy and some of the other co-founders of Infosys had also objected to steep increases in the pay to Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka and COO U B Pravin Rao, and a huge severance pay to former CFO Rajiv Bansal.
