NR Narayana Murthy, the co-founder of Infosys, has stated that he put in long hours when he started his compan. Mr Murthy’s comment comes months after he proposed that young people in India should work for at least 70 hours a week to increase productivity. His statement led to a major row at the time. He revealed that he worked more than 85 to 90 hours a week up till 1994 in an interview with The Economic Times.
The 77-year-old businessman said, “I used to be in the office at 6:20 AM and leave office at 8:30 PM, and worked six days a week. I know every nation that became prosperous did so through hard work.”
Narayana Murthy added,”My parents taught me very early in life that the only way we could hope to escape poverty was to work very, very hard – of course, assuming that one gets the best productivity from each hour of work.”
Mr Murthy’s father was a Mysore schoolteacher and he was the fifth of eight children in a modestly-off family. Afterwards, he studied computer science at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Kanpur after earning a degree in electrical engineering from Mysore University. “During my entire 40-plus years of professional life, I worked 70 hours a week,” he reiterated, “When we had a six-day week – till 1994 – I used to work at least 85 to 90 hours a week. That has not been a waste.”
The country’s work productivity is among the lowest in the world, according to the billionaire who made this claim on a recent podcast with former Infosys board member and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Mohandas Pai.
Narayana Murthy stressed that India has significant ground to cover while talking to The Economic Times. “We must remember that with a per-capita (income) of $2,300, India is a poor country. For us to become a middle-income country (with a per-capita of $8,000-10,000) it will take about 16 to 18 years even with an annual growth rate of 8%.”
He noted that it takes this kind of dedication to break free from the cycle of poverty. “My parents told me that the only way I could escape from the orbit of poverty was by good values – honesty, hard work, discipline and good work ethic. Putting the interest of the community ahead of one’s interest in the short and medium term will lead to personal betterment. I know every nation that became prosperous did so through hard work”, Mr Murthy added.
In October, NR Narayana Murthy made news when he remarked in the “The Record” podcast of 3one4 Capital that young people needed to work seventy hours a week in order to boost the country’s overall productivity. Prominent figures from a variety of businesses responded differently to his comment. While some shared his opinions, others believed that producing the best outcomes required quality effort rather than quantity.
Last month, in a candid conversation with Zerodha’s Nikhil Kamath at the 26th edition of Bengaluru Tech Summit, Narayana Murthy voiced his disapproval of freebies and asserted that “nothing should be given for free.” He also opined that compassionate capitalism can help a ‘poor’ country like India to become developed.
Mr Murthy highlighted, “When you provide those services, when you provide those subsidies, there must be something in return that they’re willing to do. For example, if you say I will give you free electricity, then it would have been a very nice thing for the government to have said, but we want to see the percentage attendance in primary schools and middle schools go up by 20 per cent, then only we will give you that.”
