Every day at 6.30 a.m. EST, Sandeep Kalra logs in from Pennsylvania and does the standard global-IT-CEO routine: client calls, delivery reviews, and conversations with business heads scattered across time zones. Once a week, though, the rhythm pauses.

Kalra, the current chief executive of Persistent Systems, takes a call from Anand Deshpande, the founder and former chief executive of the $11 billion market cap company. There is no agenda. The conversation drifts from family and children to “challenging” customers and new deals. 

“I hear whatever he wants to share with me,” Deshpande, who remains the managing director, told The Ken. “He isn’t obligated to do what I say.” The call ends, and Kalra returns to running the company he has been in charge of for five years. 

That detachment did not come naturally to Persistent. The company’s previous attempt at an external transition ended badly. IBM veteran Christopher O’Connor’s tenure—from 2019 to 2020—collapsed over what Deshpande later described as “culture fit”, undoing the founder’s attempt to step back from active involvement.

It was a familiar outcome in Indian IT, where leadership change often proves destabilising. Clients prefer continuity; boards fear disruption. Many firms deal with the tension by postponing succession altogether, keeping founders or long-serving chiefs in place.

InfosysBBCInfosys chief executive Vishal Sikka resigns, for instance, lost Vishal Sikka in 2017 after a public fallout with founder Narayana Murthy. WiproReutersWipro CEO Delaporte resigns; to be replaced by veteran insider cycled through two external chief executives in a decade before reverting to a long-time insider in 2024. Some firms chose stasis instead: Happiest MindsHappiest MindsHappiest Minds announces apex-level organizational changes’ founder Ashok Soota stepped back only earlier this year, at 83. MindtreeMintWith 60% stake, L&T completes its hostile takeover of Mindtree retained leadership continuity until its takeover by L&T.

Against that backdrop, what followed at Persistent looks anomalous.