i-flex Solutions wins a major order from top German bank

Our Convergence Bureau
29 May 2003

Chennai: A crisis brings out the best and worst in any organisation or in any person. It is also true that a crisis provides a learning opportunity for them. And communication during a crisis, to a large extent, shows a person's true self.

Recently, we have been witnessing three high-profile software companies — Infosys Technologies, i-Flex Solutions and Polaris Software Lab — getting into a fix for different reasons. There are some striking similarities.

All these three companies operate in the banking software sector. The last two companies are from the same stable — Citigroup. And more importantly it is their CEOs, one based in India and the other two who are abroad, who got into trouble.

The first to get dragged into a rut was Infosys, known for its excellent corporate governance measures. And what a crisis it turned out to be. Reka Maximovitch, an employee with the company's US subsidiary, filed a case against Phaneesh Murthy, her boss and the company's US operations in-charge, for sexual harassment.

An Infosys board member, Murthy was one of the highest-paid (drawing a salary of Rs 1.91 crore every year) employees. He resigned from his post ostensibly to "focus his time and energy" to fight the sexual harassment case filed by Maximovitch, his former secretary.

The second corporate head honcho to get into trouble was Arun Jain, chairman and managing director and CEO, Polaris Software. Jain, who went to meet his Indonesian banking client, Bank Artha Graha, to sort out a commercial dispute, was detained by the Jakarta police and was jailed for seven days along with his senior vice-president, Rajiv Malhotra (See 'The Indonesian virus will not affect Polaris, asserts Arun Jain').