Re-skill to stay relevant, Nilekani tells employees

With induction of Parekh, the number of board members, have gone up from eight to nine as company is looking to induct some more members into its trimmed board.

Infosys non-executive chairman Nandan Nilekani on Tuesday told the company employees to focus on reskilling themselves in order to stay relevant in the current job market.

In a letter addressed to employees while introducing the new CEO and MD Salil Parekh, who assumed charges at the company, Nilekani said:  "Relevance is built only through reskilling, especially in our world. Today's world values certain specialised skills, in emerging trends and more.... By reskilling you will increase your own value and your contribution to your project."

The IT major started the multi-faceted reskilling drive for its employees during former CEO & MD Vishal Sikka's regime. The company has been reskilling its employees on its design thinking platform using different courses.

The Infosys Learning Platform has been enhanced with 177 courses on topics spanning different technologies and business effectiveness, and has witnessed over 45,000 unique users.

Following the launch of Infosys Nia in April 2017, the company has trained over 2,100 employees in this new product. Design Thinking, the driving force for change at the IT behemoth, has covered 142,218 employees across the organisation.

Welcoming Parekh to Infosys, Nilekani expressed hope that newly appointed CEO and MD would continue to drive Infosys to a greater stability.

"We have been able to be stable in our business (in 2018), through our hard-work, and I am sure that this will continue in the new year with the entry of Salil Parekh, as the new CEO and MD," Nilekani said in the letter, accessed by DH.

With induction of Parekh, the number of board members, has gone up from eight to nine as the company is looking to induct some more members into its board.

In a first, Parekh stepped in as CEO and MD on Tuesday, in very low key affair. Parekh joined the Bengaluru-based IT major from Capgemini, where he held several leadership positions for 25 years.

Parekh, in his address to employees, said that he will work with them for the transformation of the company and to make it ready for future.