ONE-ON-ONE We’re in a marathon, not a sprint: Shibulal Premium Pricing Reflection Of Brand: Infy CEO

Bangalore: Infosys on Thursday lowered its revenue forecast for the fiscal as IT industry feels the impact of global slowdown. Its net profit also fell 1.2% sequentially. TOI spoke to IT major's MD and CEO S D Shibulal, who says there is lack of confidence among customers. Excerpts: 

Infosys has a high margin strategy. But are you willing to trade off on pricing to improve your volumes? 
Our premium pricing is a reflection of our brand and the business value we bring to customers. There are some sporadic requests for price renegotiations and discounts, because these customers are under pressure. But we do not yet see this becoming a secular trend. And we will continue to be premium compared to our domestic peers. We are making huge investments in consulting and systems integration and in products and platforms to create high-value service lines. These will show their impact when the global economy normalizes. 
Infosys has undertaken a 
transformation exercise at a time when the global 
economy is in severe pain. How are clients responding to your 3.0 strategy? 
Change is hard on human beings, but change is a must to progress. We've gone through it, completed it and we are beginning to see the results. We're running a marathon, not a sprint. We could not have continued as earlier because the industry is changing in multiple ways. Clients are looking for higher value, some parts of the industry are getting commoditized, and the linear model (where revenues grow in proportion to the growth in number of employees) is not sustainable. 
Why have you not issued a guidance for the second quarter? 
We are seeing decisions being moved around, discretionary spends are getting delayed. There is lack of confidence among customers and there are probably more aberrations on the way. So we don't have a clear view of the quarter. 
When do you expect the global environment to normalize? 
It will be a protracted recovery, not a quick one. 
FIIs sell 6.5m Infy shares 
Chennai:Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) dumped nearly 6.5 million shares of Infosys between April 1 and June 30, a period when the company's net profit fell by 1.2% to Rs 2,289 crore compared to the preceding quarter, and rose by 33% compared to the corresponding quarter a year ago. Stock price of Infosys dropped nearly 12% in the first quarter of the fiscal, when the bellwether sensex was flat with a growth of 0.27%. TNN

S D Shibulal MD & CEO, INFOSYS