It is interesting and inspiring to know about N.R. Narayana Murthy, Ex-Chairman of Infosys, an IT lengend, institution builder, a leader par excellence and embodiment of directing abilities. Born on August 20, 1946 in Karnataka State, Mr. Narayana Murthy graduated (B.E.) from University of Mysore (1967), and obtained master degree (M.Tech) from IIT, Kanpur in 1969. He stated his career as head of the computer centre at IIM, Agmedabad. He started infosys, a small software company alongwith his friends in 1981 and turned it ino a global IT company by 2002. He was the chief mentor, CEO of the company for two decades. During that time, he took the company to unimaginable heights. With an equity capital of Rs. 10,000 in 1981, infosys market capitalisation reached Rs. 11 billion by 2001, Infosys became one of the biggest exporter to software from India. It is the first company to be listed in Nasdaq Stock Market in 1999. Narayana Murthy is remembered as a top leader for many things. He had Superme confidence on his team members, excecutives and workers. He nurtured and developed leadership qualities through coaching and training. He started Infosys Leadership Institute in early 2001 to help promising infoscians to develop into global leaders. Mr. Murthy leads by exmaple and by trust. Very often, he used to say "A true leader is one who leads by example and sacrifices more than any one else, in his or her pursuit of excellence". He truly practiced and proved it in Infosys. Mr. Murthy always motivated his team. He introduced number of motivational schemes including the noval stock option scheme for the executives of Infosys. Narayana Murthy was associated with many national and international bodies in different capacities and extended his services to the wide ranging activities. He received number of awards and rewards from academic, social and business community. Following the norms setup by himself, Narayana Murthy handed over reins of Infosys to his friend and co-founder Nandan Nilekani in 2002.
Why do you think leadership is important in an organisation ?

Explanation

Leadership is essential in making an organisation successful, because of the following reasons :
(i) Influences the behaviour of people A good leader influences the behaviour of people and contributes their energies for the benefit of the organisation.
(ii) Provides confidence A leader maintains personal relations and helps his folowers in fulfilling their needs. He provides confidence, support and encouragement to his followers.
(iii) Introduces changes Leader play a key role in introducing required changes in the organisation. They help in solving the problem of 'resistance to change' by inspiring and persuading employees to accept the changes.
(iv) Handles conflicts A good leader helps in solving the conflicts, allows his followers to ventilate their feelings and disagreements, and persuades them by giving suitable clarifications.