How to build a Great Company!!

N R Narayana Murthy, Chairman of the Board and Chief Mentor, Infosys Technologies, outlines the key ingredients to building a great company and the role of 'compassionate capitalism' in society.

Narayana Murthy is a co-chair of the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland. Excerpts from an interview with the Infosys Chairman:

You are fond of using the term 'compassionate capitalism.' What does this mean in the context of India?

As I look back on the idealism of my youth, I realise that a socialist system will not succeed as a system, because people need opportunities, incentives and competition in order to better themselves. This is the essence of capitalism.

Embellish the spirit of capitalism with fairness, decency, transparency and honesty, and the result is compassionate capitalism.

Compassionate capitalism is extremely important for every society, in general, and for developing countries, in particular.

In India, where the divide between the haves and have-nots is very large, the only way we can reduce this divide is by embracing compassionate capitalism.

To what do you attribute the success of Asia's multinationals?

The first factor is the work ethic. By and large, there is tremendous focus on hard work, pride in the company, and loyalty to the company in Asia. This focus exists in the West too, and that's how they have built great companies.

However, I see less emphasis in the West on such a work ethic these days.

Second, there is a spirit of family in Asian companies. This means working as a team, showing concern for your fellow employees, making sacrifices for each other's benefit, and identifying with the common cause of the company.

How has Infosys responded to the tsunami that struck South-East Asia?

Infosys has contributed Rs 50 million to the Prime Minister's Fund. In addition, we requested employees to contribute a day's salary on a voluntary basis. We did something similar after 9/11.

We were the first Indian company and one of the few in the world outside the United States to contribute to the Firemen's Fund.

The Infosys Foundation has donated clothing, medicine and food items to the victims of the tsunami. Some of our people have gone to affected areas and helped people to improve processes for better management of aid distribution.

Some companies sell to the bottom of the economic pyramid, to customers with relatively little spending power. What is the business case for multinational companies to target this market?

About 80 per cent of the global population lives in the developing world. These people have low disposable income. Thus, taken as individuals, their buying strength is small but, as a group, they have an enormous potential as a market.

On the other hand, the markets in the developed world are getting saturated and growth is coming down. Hence, if multinational companies were to design products that are inexpensive and cater to this vast segment of low-disposable income consumers, then there is tremendous growth opportunity both in revenues and profits for MNCs.

Business can address social challenges through public-private partnerships. Again, what is the incentive for companies to partner with the public sector?

Public-private partnerships in developing countries like India are very important because a company cannot prosper on a sustainable basis, unless it makes a difference to the context in which it operates.

By making a difference to the society in which they operate, companies create goodwill in the society, and become friends of the society.

This responsibility is even greater in the case of multinationals, since there is a mistaken belief that multinationals do not care for the context, and are there only to plunder the society where they operate.

When the vast majority of the poor believe that there is a positive impact on them because of a public-private partnership involving multinationals, it is likely to create tremendous goodwill towards these companies.

What is the key to building a great company?

First of all, we need good leadership. I don't know of a single great company that has not had good leaders. Great leaders raise the aspirations of their followers; they make people more confident, energetic and enthusiastic.

Such leaders make people embrace the adage: a plausible impossibility is better than a convincing possibility.

People, who are motivated by great leaders, dream big, make sacrifices and achieve miracles. It is not sufficient just to have great leaders. We need a mechanism to identify, train, empower and mentor successive generations of leaders.

Such leadership training and mentoring has to become the responsibility of the current generation of leaders.

Second, we have to create a grand, noble vision which elevates the energy, enthusiasm and self-esteem of everyone in the company while ensuring that everybody sees a benefit in following the vision.

Third, a company has to benchmark itself on a global scale in every area including sales, production, human resources, R&D and finance. It creates an open and confident environment where first-raters recruit first-raters.

Fourth, a great company continuously measures and improves the following attributes: meritocracy, fairness, justice, openness, speed, imagination and excellence in execution.

Finally, a great company practices an enduring value system, and follows the finest system of corporate governance.

6 tips to make great a presentation!

ne of the greatest challenges when making a presentation is to prepare for it.

Most of us sit down, pick up a sheet of paper, and our minds go blank.

We don't know where to start.

Or we may have so many ideas that we don't know how to organise them.

Or we don't have enough information to choose a format or decide on the points to be covered.

And this is why I recommend the book Use Both Sides Of Your Brain, by Tony Buzan. It helps put presentations on the right track.

A significant part of the book outlines a technique which Tony calls Mind Mapping.

This reduces the time it takes to develop a presentation, a report, an article, or a letter by approximately 50 percent.

Mind Mapping also allows you to use words to visually relate concepts and information in ways that are more enlightening than note taking or outlining.

It helps in deciding how you want to present the information.

It also enables you to focus on the content and the sequence of the content.

A mind map helps you see not only what is there, but also what is missing.

Here are the fundamental aspects of Mind Mapping:

1. Start with your central thought.

Write the premise in the middle of a blank sheet of paper.

Then list the first idea that comes into your mind.

Next, note down any related points.

As you exhaust ideas on a topic, move to the next idea. Note down related points.

Repeat this process until you have exhausted all the ideas and related points you want to cover.

2. Be free-flowing.

One of the models I use for the mind looks like a pinball machine.

It can bounce around very quickly to numerous ideas before it comes up with a logical conclusion.

We have all had this experience at some point or the other: someone says something to you.

You pause for a minute and then reply. Your listener asks where in the world your response came from.

You reply, "You said this, which reminded me of that, and that made me think of that, and that's why I said that to you."

For you, the thought progression was very logical, but anyone else looking at it may not see how you got your reply from the original statement.

The Mind Mapping technique accommodates this type of bouncing around better than either note-taking or outlining.

3. Use only key words.

Often when taking notes and creating an outline, we use too many words.

Most people think faster than they write.

(The human mind can think 1,200 to 1,600 words a minute. On an average, most people only write freehand 25 to 35 words a minute. The best of us can type a little more than 100 words a minute.)

The key concept is to think in bullets and jot down one or two words that capture the concept. This way, you won't slow down your thinking.

4. Allow yourself to bounce around.

You might be on your third or fourth key idea and, suddenly, you think of something that fits back with idea number one.

Stop. Bounce back up, add the idea, and continue. That's okay.

5. Feel free to connect things that relate.

When two topics relate to one another, simply draw an arrow to connect them.

Draw the arrow with the same colour as the rest of the mind map or with another colour to clearly highlight the intended connection.

6. Try short bursts.

Time yourself for five minutes.

Then take a break. Sit back. Look at your mind map.

Do something else.

Then, spend another five minutes adding, modifying and adjusting.

Remember, Mind Mapping is your tool. Let it work for you.

Many people, when exposed to Mind Mapping, say, "I could never show this to my boss."

A mind map is not necessarily for others. It is primarily for yourself.

Use the mind map, not as a report, but to dictate or type the report.

Use it to make sure that all the elements you want in the report are there before you start.