Infosys taps employees for innovation, mid-level staff leads the way

The country’s second-largest IT services firm launched an in-house incubator to generate new business ideas, promising funding, mentorship, and potential cash rewards. The initiative has gained traction, but most selected ideas have come from mid-level and senior employees.

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Infosys received 700 submissions under its “Be The Navigator Business Incubator” initiative, launched on 26 December 2024, and has shortlisted 100 ideas, according to an internal memo seen by Mint.

The programme, open to all employees across ranks, is designed to develop scalable offerings for clients. Infosys has positioned it as a way to drive growth and innovation, though it also appears to be an attempt to make work more engaging for its 3.2 lakh employees.

Most of the selected ideas—23—fall under ADM (application development and maintenance), a coding-heavy area. Other strong themes include engineering and global delivery.

However, most of the ideas were those of mid- and senior-level employees. Of the 100 selected ideas, 84 came from employees ranked JL5 to JL7, while entry-level staff (JL3 and JL4) contributed just four. Most of the approved ideas originated from Infosys employees in India and the US, the company’s two largest locations.

“As part of the pre-seeder phase from 21 March to 4 April 2025, idea teams will connect with senior Infosys leaders who will be their idea coach and work toward improving their idea and proposition,” said Infosys in its internal memo sent to employees on 26 March.

Those selected for full implementation will shift into the incubator role full-time and receive up to $2,000 ( ₹1.7 lakh) in rewards, Infosys had said last year.

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Infosys will fund the necessary software, hardware, and marketing for projects that advance through the pipeline. However, the intellectual property (IP) rights will belong to the company, with inventors acknowledged per Infosys’ policies. Employees who drop out of the programme will have to follow standard exit policies.

The incubator programme comes as Infosys looks for fresh sources of growth. The company ended last year with $18.6 billion in revenue, up 1.9% from the previous year, though its operating margin declined 30 basis points to 20.7%. More than a quarter of its revenue comes from banking clients, making the sector its largest contributor.

Infosys did not respond to a request for comment.

Currently, Infosys offers five software platforms to clients. Ideas that successfully pass through the research and implementation phases will be added to this portfolio.

While the initiative encourages in-house entrepreneurship, its impact will depend on execution.

While Infosys has encouraged in-house entrepreneurship before, this marks its first formal incubation programme.

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In July 2014, then-CEO Vishal Sikka launched Murmurations, a crowdsourcing initiative to solicit business ideas from employees across divisions and ranks. The effort drew 2,700 submissions, of which 10 were implemented. But while Murmurations focused on pitching ideas to clients, Be The Navigator aims to develop full-fledged business offerings within Infosys.

Whether this latest initiative translates into meaningful revenue—or remains a well-intentioned experiment—will depend on execution.