Rishad Premji to shape Wipro's growth strategy

BANGALORE, INDIA: Rishad Premji, heir apparent to India's IT czar Azim Premji, will shape the future growth strategy of Wipro's gobal IT business, a senior company official said Thursday.

"As the chief strategy officer of our global IT business from January 2011, Rishad will be closely involved in shaping the future strategies of the company's flagship division and converting them into executable business plans," the official told IANS but declined to be named.

To give a free hand to Rishad under a new management structure, the company has decided to split strategy and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) businesses into twin entities.

In the new role, Rishad, 33, will report to the joint chief executives in the IT business - Girish Paranjpe and Suresh Vaswani.

With rich experience in consulting and finance, Premji junior will have an opportunity to deal with IT business on a bigger scale in line with our global operations.

"As our $4.4-billion global IT business deals with technology pervading every sphere of the economy, its agility and opportunity give Rishad immense scope to leverage our core competency with strategies to drive the next growth wave," said the official.

In an internal memo to over one-lakh employees Wednesday, the company said Rishad would assume responsibilities as the chief strategy officer of the IT business from January 1, 2011.

"Rishad, who is currently general manager of treasury and investor relations, brings with him a diversified experience of consulting, finance, treasury and operations," the memo noted.

Asked if Rishad was being groomed to take over the company's reins from father Premji, the official said it was too early to speculate on the succession plans and who would step into the 65-year-old chairman's shoes in future.

"No succession plans as of now. There is still time for such things. As Rishad is not even a vice-president, there is a long way to go in moving up the management ladder," the official said but refused to elaborate.

Elder of Premj's two sons, the other being Tariq, the Harvard graduated Rishad joined Wipro in July 2007 after stints at GE Capital and Bain & Co, a global management consulting firm in the US.

In a related development, the company announced that incumbent chief strategy officer K.R. Lakshminarayana will become the chief endowment officer of its Trust, set up to fund the philanthropic activities of Azim Premji.

"The M&A business will be looked after by general manager Sridhar Srinivasan in the interim till a new head is appointed," the official added.

Lakshminarayana will manage investments from the corpus of the Trust for Azim Premji Foundation and its affiliated entities.