The document discusses the roles of two CFOs - T.V Mohandas Pai of Infosys and V. Srinivas of Satyam. Pai played an influential role in transforming Infosys into one of the world's most respected software companies through articulating strong financial policies and transparency. He helped Infosys become a reputed brand and win awards for its financial reporting. In contrast, Srinivas admitted to aiding Satyam's chairman in falsifying accounts by creating fake records and jobs. His actions raised doubts about being aware of the impending fraud that ultimately destroyed shareholder wealth. The document shows how a CFO can either maximize shareholder value or destroy it.

1. CFOs: What are they Pursuing?
The CFO of a company has the primary role of building the long-term financial vision of the
company. Infosys‟ former CFO, T.V Mohandas Pai has been associated with the company since
1994, playing an active role in its performance and growth. He had headed the finance function
for more than a decade i.e., since 1994 to 2006. Pai had played an influential role in the core
team that worked on listing Infosys on NASDAQ in 1999. Under his supervision, Infosys has
transformed into one of the world‟s most respected software companies. Pai believes, “Our aim
is to be among the best companies and also become the most respected company in the
world.”[30]
Pai worked on articulating the company‟s financial policies, and helped the company to become
a reputed brand among the investors by enhancing transparency and disclosure mechanisms. In
Pai‟s words, “We have created a robust financial model which has consistently enabled us to
meet the challenges of growth and profitability.”[31] The standards he has set in preparing the
company‟s annual reports, helped the company‟s annual report to win „Best Presented Annual
Accounts‟ award from the ICAI continuously over the years from 1999. He has been awarded
„Best CFO in India‟ by Finance Asia in 2002 and „Best Chief Financial Officer in India‟ in the
Best Managed Companies poll conducted by AsiaMoney in 2004.[32] In 2006, he voluntarily
stepped down as CFO, to head the human resource, education and research operations of the
company. His successor Vibin Balakrishnan, former company secretary and vice president
finance, who became the CFO in 2006 (joined the company in 1991), is also playing active role
in making the company stable and successful.
On the other hand, the CFO of Satyam, V. Srinivas carried on his duties as the head of finance
function purely highlighting the interests of the head of the company. During his interrogation by
ICAI after his arrest, Srinivas had admitted his active role in aiding the chairman in fudging and
falsifying the accounts by forging and creating fake records. He even confessed that he had
created some 10,000 fake jobs since 2004 and drawn about INR 20 crore per month from these
non-existent accounts.[33] Besides this, his acts such as selling of his
ESOP holdings of 92,358 shares of Satyam in September 2008 (few months before the scam) had
raised many doubts that he was aware of the coming events. Srinivas along with G Ramakrishna
accepted that their team used to prepare false documents to cover the fraud of their chairman.
The investors were disappointed and lost trust in the company. An Institutional investor
commented, “The CFO should have been aware of the financial irregularities, including fudging
of the earnings figures.”[34] Another investor commented, “As CFO of the global software
major, Srinivas would have been privy to all the transactions taking place in the company over
the years”.[35] Shareholders wondered whether the CFO worked to further the interests of his
boss (CEO) and his cronies or for them. Even the business media questioned the CFO‟s role in
the entire Satyam Computers fiasco that Satyam‟s fraud is an odd-man out in Indian IT industry
(Annexure V). Puneet Kumar, manager, Wipro, opined, “Satyam was an aberration, the fact is
that the IT industry thrives on good reputation and every major in the business lays great
emphasis on maintaining global standards of corporate governance. ”[36] Hence, the two
different scenarios clearly indicate how a CFO can maximise the wealth of the investors and on
the other hand can also destroy the wealth of the shareholders.