Kishore Ramnani, Infosys’ large global deal maker quits

Kishore Ramnani, who helped the company to build a deal pipeline of $80 billion and a deal win of close to $18 billion in the last over 10 years, has resigned from the company.

Mr. Ramnani, a Texas-based Vice President, Global Strategic Sales, Large Deals and Partnerships at Infosys, known as the best deal maker, or shark hunter in tech circles, put his papers at Infosys on February 27 to take up a more challenging task at a California-based tech firm that is backed by a private equity firm.

Ten years ago when he joined Infosys, the technology company was not a major force in large deals as it mostly followed a direct sales model. Based on his prior experience at TCS and HCL, he was instrumental in building an indirect sales engine with 18 channels as direct sales channel was not able to really trigger large deals. Through indirect channels, he cracked open 45 new accounts, and put Infosys at the table for 40 mega-deal pursuits which eventually defined the company’s digital transformation.

According to Mr. Ramnani, personal connection with Fortune 200 companies and their CXOs is critical to do this. Capability to demonstrate and communicate was also important to get the business out of these large firms. “Selling to Fortune 200 companies is really tough. So, we established something called an indirect channel sales origination, a platform that helped Infosys to become a leader today. Today if you look at all the large deals, 90% of its large deals have come through indirect channels,’’ Mr. Ramnani added.

During his tenure, he has seen Infosys’ market capitalisation rising from $33 billion to $100 billion in August 2021.

 Some of the most significant pursuits of Mr. Ramnani include: $2 billion deal from Vanguard, TIAA ($3B), UPS ($1.6B), PepsiCo ($1.5B+), Starbucks ($1.1B), Toyota ($1.8B), Molina ($850M), Anthem ($1.8B), Transamerica ($2.7B), NYL ($1.4B), Fiserv ($1.4B), Xerox ($1.2B), Merck ($4B),ArcelorMittal GCC ($1.5B), MetLife ($1.2B),HPE ($1.2B) to name a few.

“Kishore is an architect of an unprecedented deal-hunting machine for Infosys. His departure will create a gaping hole in Infosys’s growth engine,’’ said a global tech analyst who didn’t want to be identified.