Best place to find us is in an airplane: Vivek Paul

When Mr Vivek Paul took over as the vice chairman and president of Wipro

Technologies about a year back, it surprised many in the IT industry. How is the

remote management going to work, many asked. However, thanks to his flamboyant

style of functioning, Wipro Technologies has seen continued growth. In an

extensive interview with CIOL Bureau, Mr Paul spoke on various issues, ranging

from Wipro’s future plans to the parking lot meetings. Excerpts:

Wipro Peripherals has been hived off as a separate unit. Is this a prelude to hiving off Wipro's software operations too?

I think, people are resorting to extrapolating things. The reality is that we
constantly take a look at what value we generate together as an entity. We also

take decisions, which are not purely financial, but are emotional and

sentimental as well. Each step is an independent one. One cannot lead to

another. I would not extrapolate anything from the move (of hiving Wipro

Peripherals).

Is there a possibility in the near future?



We look at everything. You will be amazed at how open this organization is.

We have been hearing of Wipro going to the NYSE. Which company will go to the

NYSE? Or is it the Nasdaq? Why is the exercise taking time?



We would like the market to settle down. So, I think by the end of this
summer or fall, we would come to you as to what we want to do and when. We have

got the board approval in place and the application filed with the Indian

government.

So, you have chosen the NYSE?



Pretty much, yes. They are both great exchanges and it was a tough call.

The Wipro-GE software venture has been called off as GE insisted on holding

stock in Wipro. Is it in any way a standard being created — that no company

can have stock options in Wipro in exchange of a partnership?



The news seems to have brought in some confusion. People think that Wipro GE
Medical Systems has been called off, which is not true. This company is doing

extremely well, and I am proud of it, as I am a founder member of the company.

The second is about the relationship between Wipro and GE on the software

side. Like in any other customer-supplier relationship, we did have some

tension. The customer wants lower price, while the supplier wants as good a

price as he can get. We want to have a clear, transparent structure. We do not

want to create multiple subsidiaries. We want to deal with our customers in a

very fair manner. We would like to get value for what we deliver. If we do not

think we get value, we will walk away.

More and more software business seems to be getting shifted to the US

operations of Wipro, with the Indian operations doing the development mostly. Is

it how it is going to be? Why is it being done?



I think there are two things. Where is our execution center of gravity and
where is our sales and marketing center of gravity? Our execution center of

gravity is solidly in India, and I do not see that changing. The sales and

marketing engine has always been in the local market. None of the SBUs have

relocated to the US. We want to make sure that it is irrelevant where they are

operating from, because anybody would know that has to be in both places.

Therefore, the best place to find us is on an airplane seat.

What is Wipro’s philosophy as far as HR is concerned?



Our philosophy is that Wipro should be one of the most admired companies and
one of the best places to work in. There are multiple facets to it. First, the

work place has to be good. So, you have to have a good environment. You have to

have a work culture that is open and empowering. So you get to enjoy more than

just work. The third is that your competition has to be in line with the market

place and we have to be fair. The fourth is (to provide) constant opportunity to

learn, and retrain. Those would be the four elements of whatever we do in terms

of Human Resource.

continued >>>

What do you mean by 'open'?



When I say open, I mean that every employee feels that there is not only an
opportunity but a specific forum to speak their mind. To the extent that people

have suggestions, ideas and thoughts to share across multiple levels. What it

does is to build a culture across the organization that at the end of the day it

is the team that does the work and truly adds value. There should be no

hesitation on the part of employees to speak out their mind to anyone. And,

being open works both ways. They get the communication from their seniors about

what is going on around them and also get support from the management.

But, is this kind of openness restricted to only the IT industry? Do you

think the concept is spreading over to other industries too?



I think that clearly IT is the leader in this area. So, many of these
aspects are applicable pretty much across all industries. But, IT is an industry

where this stuff is actually demanded of you. And, the penalty of not doing it

well is much higher as well. Because, if you have a dissatisfied work force in a

knowledge industry, your productivity drops dramatically and you will not be

able to see it.

How do you ensure that you are not too 'open', where do you strike a

balance?



There is no such thing as too open. There are certain things that you do not
want to be open about. You cannot be declaring your financial figures in advance

and you cannot be sharing confidential information on other people. So, the only

two things that could limit your openness are the regulatory requirements and

the confidentiality agreements that you might have with others.

How do you ensure employee retention?



You need to adhere to the four things we just talked about. We should be
able to continuously teach the employees. We have the ability today to teach

50,000 in Wipro Technologies every single year. I should say 50,000 training

mandays. From the infrastructure perspective, we have launched an e-learning

initiative. For example, what we have done is to provide certain courses that

can be taken through the Web, with teachers who act as mentors over the Web. It

is a virtual classroom, where the course can be completed at your own pace and

time. At any point of time, there are about 1,500 people registered for one

course or the other. Since, it is on the Web, people from any part of the globe

can participate. The third initiative we did from the training perspective is

the alliance we had with BITS Pilani under the Wipro Academy of Software

Excellence, where people with non-engineering degrees are trained to become

software professionals.

Coming back to the openness issue, some of us senior managers speak to the

employees at least twice a year to give them an opportunity to communicate with

us. We also conduct round tables to make sure that we are engaging the

employees. That is one level of openness. The second is that we started a weekly

highlights program. The employees send weekly highlights to their seniors. And,

this goes up and up to the top. And, my weekly highlights I send to every

employee in the organization. So, in some way I report to them. That is one good

way to effectively communicate and disseminate information, which keeps people

engaged.

There was another one we launched. The range of technology we touch is

enormous. What we needed was an efficient clearinghouse to help people move jobs

within Wipro. Wings Within is a program that informs people about all the sites

where new jobs are available, including the new technologies and platforms, in

case they wish to change.

The third is: what is it that makes the workplace more exciting and fun? We

believe that nothing makes it more exciting than the sense of success. We,

therefore, like to have celebrations of our success and make public disclosures

of all our wins.

The fourth area is compensation. We constantly benchmark with what is going

on outside. For example, this year we decided to accelerate the salary increase

exercise. Normally, we have an October-to-October salary increase period.

However, this year we have already finished for two-thirds of the population,

and we are only in July. We try to stay current. And, there is stock option,

where Wipro has stepped forward and given lot more stock options.

continued >>>

Is it a major challenge today to ensure employee retention?



Absolutely. There is no bigger challenge for an IT company anywhere in the
world. I was recently talking to a customer of ours, who is one of the top five

technology companies in the world. He asked me what was my attrition rate, and I

said it was 17 per cent. He replied by saying how he wished it was the same in

his case. And then he asked, "Did you know that our professional service

business has an attrition rate of 110 per cent?"

The opportunities available for the IT professionals are very large. Some

people will go because the technology will attract them, while some will go

because the company is good. Some will find more money. And, some will go

because they are IT professionals and are used to changing jobs very often.

What levels of attrition would you like to see?



Over the last three years, the band of attrition level has been from 10 to
25 per cent.

Is attrition levels less than 10 per cent bad?



I do not know. It is tough to say. The worst a company could do is to keep
an uncomfortable employee. Companies with low attrition levels will have to ask

if they are losing out on healthy attrition.

Coming to stock option, we are now seeing a stage where every company, small

or big, is offering stock options, many of them without adding much value.

Consequently, stock option seems to losing out as a top demand among IT

professionals these days.



The world changes very fast. People do not understand what stock option is.
It is very difficult to compare the stock options you get from an established

company and a start-up. And, IT people are very savvy when it comes to

technology, but not as savvy when it comes to finance. This is an issue. What a

stock option does is, it gives dual benefit. It says, I get a stock option

because I did well. And also for what you will do from here on. It is a powerful

vehicle, because it rewards you for something you did retrospectively, but the

value is in what you do in future.

How many Wipro employees are covered under the stock option scheme? Do you

want to raise this ratio?



About 30 per cent. I do not want to go out and make any future looking
statement. I want to move a step at a time.

You have about 20 executives reporting to you. Now, is that a conscious

decision on your part? Or, is it just a temporary measure?



I have had 20-25 people reporting to me through most of my career. This
empowers them to go out and do things that I expect them to do. So, my job boils

down to getting the right people, giving them the right direction and making

sure that they had the right tools to go out and get things done. I just make

sure that I have the right measurement and tracking mechanisms to ensure that

they are headed in the right direction.

Would you go for an increase in this number?



I would say that 20 to 25 is the right number. Beyond 25, I begin to get a
little stressed.

We also find you are inclined to a more Americanized way of functioning. For

instance, last month you held a meeting with the Wipro staff at the parking lot

of International Technology Park in Bangalore. Is there a conscious effort to

bring in a new culture?



I cannot say that there is a specific sort of culture that I have in mind.
One thing which compelled me to do this was I found that there were a lot of

people who felt alienated. They did not quite understand what Wipro was about.

So, communication was getting blocked and filtered at each level. The

purpose of such meetings is to provide the communication vehicle. As for the

parking lot, we did not find a bigger place. So, there was no American thinking

in it (laughs).

About a year-and-a-half back, Wipro started this initiative to encourage

entrepreneurship within the company. What is its status now?



What we would like to do is to encourage as many ideas as we can. The
biggest issue in taking any idea to the market is the product marketing and the

global market size. Where we excel is the technical area. Where we need to

strengthen ourselves is in product marketing and the global market size. So, we

are being very careful as to how we do that. We have a couple of more things in

pipeline right now. When we spin it out as a separate entity, the plus side is

that we create a strong ownership. However, the flip side is that they would

want us to stay away, and then you do not get the full leverage. Therefore, the

next two initiatives that we have, they are going to be under the Wipro arm. For

one of them, we are building a relationship with a company in the US for

marketing. Let’s see how it performs. Because, I do not want to declare

success till the business really takes off.

In another project, we have identified two companies, which will take us to

the market, both in the intellectual and product initiatives. They are still an

experiment and therefore I don’t want to talk much about them.

continued >>>

Do you have an idea generation initiative within the company?



Yes, we do. The business development manager screens these ideas, which are
both internal and external. People want ideas to be incubated by us, they want

funding from us. We get a constant flow of ideas, which are centralized for

scrutiny.

Do you have any plan to start a venture capital fund?



No, we do not have any such plans. It is a different industry. At this
point, to set up a venture capital, it requires setting up an infrastructure

that is fairly strong. It is not just doling out money and telling them that

when you make money, return it to me. It’s a lot more than that.

What is Wipro’s HR mix in other countries? The ratio of Indians versus the

natives.



Predominantly Indian. One of the challenges we still have to overcome is,
how do we make a person from the US or Europe comfortable working for Wipro.

Because, working in Wipro is like driving in India. It works, but it works on a

totally different route site. So, you have two choices. Either they have to

learn to drive in India, or we have to drive like them. So, what we thought was

do a bit of both.

What is the kind of ratio you maintain?



There is no specific ratio. We try to pick the best people from wherever we
can get.

For a marketing team, would you prefer a local person?



The overriding thing is that we want to be effective with our customers. We
try to be very flexible.

Is there a difference between these two: when a country’s operation is

headed by an Indian or by someone who belongs to that country? How many of your

country-wise operations are being headed by Indians?



In the US, the world is changing very fast. There are companies where you
have Indian heads now. People worry about talent and capability and not about

the cultural background. The other thing is that in whatever manner we position

ourselves, we are still an Indian company, which is not a liability.