For Premji, it was a delicate predicament. On the one hand, he had a star performer who had delivered. On the other, his loyal, old guard was increasingly becoming resentful.
And something had to give. Losing a CEO does bring a certain amount of churn in its wake. A Bangalore-based head-hunter says that suddenly there are a lot more Wipro CVs in the market. But Wipro has lived through many upheavals in the past. When Soota quit with a handful of senior managers in , it was considered almost cataclysmic in the short term, but Wipro survived.
What is sometimes forgotten is that Wipro has a team of professionals almost wedded to the firm. They may lack Paul's charisma, but they know their job. Then, there's Premji. The business prognosis too seems encouraging.
The company closed fiscal with a 39 per cent topline growth and the market expects it to sustain these growth rates in the current fiscal. Wipro is expected to bag a couple of very large contracts this year from GM and Shell.
Valuations should stay reasonable," says a Mumbai-based equities analyst. A few days back, news reports said Wipro was gearing for a really big-ticket acquisition in the US. Paul himself is a proponent of this view. The tail-wind is with us. The challenge is two years out. One reason for this new challenge is that competition is no longer restricted to the likes of Infosys or Tata Consultancy Services [ Get Quote ] , but more from HP, IBM and Accenture, who are fast building offshore capability.
Other than IBM, each has over 10, people in India. IBM has over 20, Wipro's peers appear to have made some moves in this direction. TCS has entered into a joint venture with Microsoft to address the China market, while Infosys has been paying top dollar to get the right global talent for its consulting business.
Two years from now will be too late," says a former Wipro executive. This means there will be stability, but no creativity," says another executive. The new team has its task cut out. The BPO business, which is in the process of being merged with its parent firm, has to flip over from a voice-based business 80 per cent voice to one based on high-end transaction processing. The transition will not be easy. Then clients could wait for clarity from Wipro in terms of who is in charge.
There's no concern among our customers as to whom to contact. Premji has always had a strong No. This time, no successor was announced. Simultaneously, the number of direct reports to Premji has gone up from eight to The structure may stay for a while, though there may be pressure on Premji to appoint a professional CEO.
Paul had a relatively free hand while he was at the helm. The new team may not be given the same privilege," says a former senior executive. In the year , for about six months after Vivek Paul took over, Sridhar Mitta had a cabin right next to him.
Mitta found that Paul was always at hand when he was needed. He had a lot of time for customers too. Mitta had seen Paul's predecessor Ashok Soota working almost 17 hours a day. Throughout the s and even in the s, many people had joined Wipro thinking that they would retire from there. In fact, Wipro used to entice people away from public sector companies telling them that they would get similar benefits when they retire. Such a company tolerated periodic laggardness.
Things changed quickly after Paul took over. He brought with him both an advantage as well as a disadvantage. He was based in the US, and hence, could not be a hands-on manager beyond a point. Paul turned his distance to the company's advantage. He built in processes so that Wipro would run smoothly without his daily intervention. The company was ready for such a transition; it was growing big and could not have survived without better processes.
Paul had come from GE, the most global of companies. Then he joined Wipro, which was an Indian company to the bone. Paul immediately made its employees think big and think global. This was a complex shift in attitudes, as thinking global is not merely about having global customers.
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Everstone Capital and Solmark, have emerged as a frontrunner to acquire a significant stake in Servion Global Solutions. The event, the first of its kind in India, signals a growing trend of large IT companies based out of India turning to startups for innovative ideas and technologies.
Rumours have been flying thick and fast about a six-month 'sabbatical' that he is planning starting the end of December. Patni Computer rose as much as 3. The Carlyle bid is higher than the iGate-Apax bid, which is believed to be around Rs a share and without any non-compete clause tied to it. The bids are expected to be near the market price, at around Rs a share or a little above it.
Patni shares closed at Rs As Patni Computer's founder-promoters prepare to sell their stake and exit the company, list of potential suitors has narrowed down to two. Vivek Paul-promoted Kinetic Glue has acquired Bangalore-based start-up Injoos in an all-stock transaction. Former Wipro vice chairman Vivek Paul's first entrepreneurial venture, KineticGlue, is going to be a social platform for companies.
Vivek Paul is back to doing what he is best at. After a four-year stint in private equity, the former Wipro vice-chairman is in the technology business again. Vivek Paul recently resigned from TPG and is rumoured to be in the running for the top job at Satyam. In pics: Funny side of Satyam saga! Satyam Fraud: Full Coverage. Meanwhile, the promoters themselves are attempting to revamp top management in a bid to turn around Satyam's battered image.
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