Looking back, looking ahead
12 August 2005
Infosys Technologies embarks on a year-long celebration of its silver jubilee today. Chief mentor and chairman, N R Narayana Murthy, recalls some lessons of the early days of Infosys during an investors' meet in Hyderabad this morning, and looks at the future of the company he co-founded.
We start our 25th year celebrations today. It is indeed laudable that we have run this marathon so far. Several happy thoughts come to my mind as I stand here. But, the most important one is our meeting in January 1981.
It was a wintry morning in January 1981 when seven of us sat in my apartment, and created Infosys. We had lots of hope, confidence, commitment, energy, enthusiasm, hard work, passion and a sense of sacrifice. We were short of one thing, money. We managed to put together just $250 in seed capital.
We never dreamt about size, revenues and profits. Our dream, right from day one, was to build a corporation that was, above all things, respected.
From the beginning, our team was unique in our commitment to a strong value system. We believed in putting the interest of the company ahead of our own interest. We believed in legal and ethical business. We believed in respect and long-term gratification. And each of us brought complementary strengths to the company.
