In the first significant reshuffle after he returned to Infosys as chairman after a long hiatus, NR Narayan Murthy today replaced its subsidiary Lodestone chairman BG Srinivas with V Balakrishnan, its former chief financial officer. Balakrishnan, an Infy director, headed Infosys's BPO arm Finacle and India Business Unit operations.
Srinivas, too a board member, was head of the European and global financial services and insurance. Before heading Infosys's BPO and Finacle operations, Balakrishnan served as the chief financial officer.The change assumes importance in the backdrop of Infosys calling back Murthy as chairman following the firm's repeated below-par performance and its losing market share to rivals like TCS, Cognizant and HCL Tech.
However, the company termed the move as a regular shuffling of portfolios. "This move is part of the regular re-allocation of portfolios to meet the company's strategic objectives. The integration of Lodestone is progressing as per plan." Infy acquired Swiss SAP implementation firm Lodestone last October for 330 million Swiss francs (about Rs 1,932 crore), a move aimed at strengthening its consulting practice and increasing revenues from its European operations. The acquisition, an all-cash deal, is the biggest by Infosys so far.
Headquartered in Zurich, Lodestone advises international companies on strategy and process optimisation, and provides business transformation solutions enabled by SAP's enterprise solutions.