Indian tech titan Narayana Murthy’s call for 70-hour work week stirs debate over company culture, productivity
- Business executives are divided over whether Murthy’s advice is practical in a new-age economy such as India
- The comments by the tech billionaire come as India aims to narrow its economic gap behind China, particularly through its tech sector
Indian tech billionaire Narayana Murthy’s recent suggestion that young people should work for up to 70 hours a week to advance the country’s industrial development has split opinions about whether the advice would work in a new-age economy.
The comment last month by the former chairman and CEO of tech juggernaut Infosys has provoked a sharp debate on social media with a section of industry veterans and elderly citizens endorsing them, while many young people and executives disagreed, saying that the well-meaning advice was out of date with the times.
“What I think he really meant by his comment on 70 work hours per week is that young people early in their careers need to work harder,” said Lloyd Mathias, business strategist and former marketing head of HP, Asia-Pacific, based in New Delhi.
“For someone who has achieved so much in his life, he is perfectly justified in saying that,” he said. “But these days there are so many diverse career avenues available. I have worked with many young people, and they are clear that they won’t compromise on their weekend time.”
Listed among the 12 greatest entrepreneurs of the current generation by Fortune magazine, Murthy rose from being the chief systems programmer at top business school, the Indian Institute of management, Ahmedabad, to launching Infosys in 1981 and propelling it to become a global tech giant.
