Infosys is a company that has witnessed explosive growth. Beginning in 1981 with a seed capital of $1200- (USD) and revenue of $100K at the end of the first year, it is a $4+ Billion software services behemoth today. From 7 employees, it now has 80,000 (eighty thousand) employees. Whilst creating a successful enterprise is no easy task, the challenge of ensuring sustainability for an enterprise of this nature is an even more complex challenge.
 
Whilst a number of actions need to be initiated, one of the critical decisions that Infosys board made was to invest in systematic development of leaders at Infosys.  Amongst the key advantages that a company can possess is good leadership. In fact good leadership is central to the success of all human endeavors - be it an army fighting a war, a nation coming out of difficulties or a family. Processes and challenges Infosys faces in the area of leadership development include:

	Philosophy behind leadership development at Infosys.
	Leadership competency model at Infosys and how the nine dimensions of the model relate to the organizational context.
	Development of Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scale – BARS and their application.
	Selection process for leaders and their grouping into three tiers.
	Different interventions for developments: 360 degree; personal development plans; leaders teach and how it has been deployed; distinguished speaker series; mentoring process.
	What are the lessons that we have learnt about these interventions?
	Leadership Index - how it was developed and how it is being deployed to assess the leadership capabilities of our leaders.
	Key challenges to deploy a program of leadership development in a company which has been growing at a CAGR of 40%, has an average employee age of 27 years and recruits 20,000 employees in a year with 14,000 fresh graduates. Despite these numbers the nature of challenges is common across all the industries.
	How does the Infosys Board of Directors support this key initiative?

Girish G. Vaidya (Girish) is the Senior Vice President and Head of Infosys Leadership Institute (ILI) and looks after Leadership Development in ILI for the entire Infosys Group. He joined Infosys as Senior Vice President and Head of Banking Business Unit (BBU)  in January 1999. Girish was a regular speaker at various international conferences on banking technology during his stint as Head of Finacle Business Unit. Finacle, the only product unit in Infosys, saw tremendous growth under his leadership. He transitioned out of the unit in October 2005 and joined Infosys Leadership Institute (ILI) in February 2006.

In his present role, Girish is working with the Infosys Board to develop an effective leadership pipeline. ILI which was ranked 2nd in Asia- Pacific (and 10th globally) in Fortune-Hewitt Leadership effectiveness survey is responsible for developing managerial and leadership skills of infoscions.

Prior to joining Infosys, Girish worked for almost 24 years with ANZ Grindlays Bank as head of Technology for the bank for South Asia. He worked in all of the units of the bank in different locations of India and abroad/
 
An engineering graduate of University of Bombay, Girish completed his PGDM from Indian Institute of Management  Calcutta in 1975. A regular speaker at different conferences, he is known for his ability to connect complex constructs to organizational realities.