A chip of the new block

When Shruti told her father she wanted to start a restaurant,he was proud his first-born has the courage to experiment. “I have always encouraged her to do things differently based on her interests and capabilities,” says Shibulal.
The differing career paths of the father and daughter represent a new trend in India where,traditionally,businesses and companies have been handed from one generation to the next. And this new shift holds more true for the children of Infosys’ founders than anyone else. Their fathers may have laid the foundations of the Rs 21,693-crore-revenue,100,000-plus brand of Infosys. But their children are going in another way.

“I grew up seeing my father and other founders slog day and night,I didn’t want to be an Infosys nerd,” says Shruti,a gadget freak (she’s obsessed with her iPhone) who otherwise excelled in computers as a child.
Shruti’s restaurant,says another Infosys founder N.S. Raghavan,is a great idea. “The children of Infosys founders need not join the company and flout its much-vaunted corporate governance principles. All of them have enough wealth. Anyway,Infosys is a professional company,not a family firm,” he says. Raghvan’s two sons,who are in their mid-thirties,run life sciences and wealth management initiatives.

Infosys’ chief mentor Narayana Murthy sums up the ambitions of the next generation succinctly. “The children are well-qualified to run their own marathon,” he says. His daughter Akshata,an MBA from Stanford University,works as a venture capitalist in green technologies in the US. Son Rohan is a computer science Ph.D student at Harvard University.
Given their sizable independent or inherited fortunes,the Infosys kids really do not need to do much beyond watching their money grow. The Murthys collectively own 5.4 per cent of Infosys. The Nilekanis,whose both children are studying at Yale University,own 3.45 per cent. Infosys CEO Kris Gopalakrishnan,along with his wife and daughter,holds 3.35 per cent.

But the Infosys Gen Next is mindful of their wealth. “The assets my brother,who’s in tenth grade,and I will inherit have to be managed properly,” says Shruti,who doesn’t want to delegate the task to an outsider because,“you could get taken for a ride and not know it”.
In fact,her restaurant was born out of the idea of increasing her wealth. Caperberry seems to be doing good business,it was full for lunch on the weekday we were there. It is the first in a series of planned restaurant launches by Avant Garde Hospitality,the company she has founded with well-known Bangalore chef Abhijit Saha.

Shruti has found ways to adapt Infosys’ values and methods into her new passion as a food entrepreneur. At Caperberry,there is an “Infosys rub-off on everything,” she says. All tasks,from food preparation to table setting and service,are process-driven. For four hours every day after the restaurant closes post-lunch,the heads of the various departments meet to recap the previous day,scrutinise how and why things went wrong,analyse guest feedback and make plans for the next day.

Caperberry offers trendy global dining concepts like molecular gastronomy and deconstruction. On the menu are items such as the deconstructed Greek salad with tomato,bell pepper and cucumber frappuccino,crumb fried goat cheese and black and green olive tapenade,and the sous vide duck confit with foie gras,red wine poached pears and roast tomato. There is also the textured apple with mini tart tatin,apple pate de fruit and apple granite.

The dishes are Saha’s creations. Shruti admits her own culinary adventures have mostly resulted in knife injuries and burnt food. She says she understands,however,that producing a good meal is much like “presenting a show on Broadway,each element dished up just right”.
There are other perks of belonging to the Infosys family. Shruti’s father dines at the restaurant every week,bringing in his friends and business acquaintances. His daughter says he may know nothing about food but he is a fount of advice on managing people and operations.

Other founders too help by virtue of being well-known and influential. “They talk about my restaurant and refer people here,” says Shruti,who says she would never exploit her Infosys connections.
Perhaps none of the Infosys kids actually end up at Infosys. But one thing is clear. For Shruti and others,there is no real getting away from the company’s legacy and values.