Why did Wipro's Joint CEO quit?

BANGALORE, INDIA: Though Wipro Technologies claims that their Jt. CEO Girish Paranjape and Suresh Vaswani left the organization citing personal reasons, it seems to be a bitter pill to swallow.

Being a responsible media house, we do not state what has not come out of the horse's mouth, but gauging the sentiment around, we logically dive into to find if Wipro Jt. CEO resigned voluntarily or were asked to leave and why.

There could be umpteen factors behind it; both professional and personal. A look at the Q3 performance of the company and the chairman's comments hint that a few sectors, which turned out to be money spinner for rival, was their weak zones. Verticals like healthcare, financial services, insurance etc.

And looking at the responsibilities, while financial services, communication, media, telecom and technology, were the Girish's domain, Vaswani was responsible for manufacturing, retail and consumer products, government and transportation, healthcare and energy and utilities sectors and BPO, technology infrastructure, enterprise applications, business technology services (enterprises) and testing service lines.

The management would have pointed finger to the duo for that.

Looking at another major factor. Personally, though Premji clarified that this is a professional organization and not a private garden which is cultivated the way owner (Azim holds more than 75 per cent stake in the company) wants it to, it is still visible that he is building the highway for his son, Rishad Premji (currently chief startegy officer for Wipro Technologies). But this could have been little later, when Rishad was ready for the CEO role, why now?

According to a Wipro watchdog, who has been indirectly connected with a lot of executives in the company, “ T K Kurien has been a close affiliate of Azim(closer than the two CEOs) and taking him above the corporate hierarchy as the CEO was expected to come some day. He went climbing the position in just 10 years. ”  Data proves that in less than year, he moved the shoulder level of the chairman and was constantly changing his positions, from BPO to consulting, then EcoEnergy and now IT business.

Wipro's announcement for the appointment of T K Kurien clearly says about under performance and that it was the management's decision to let them go. “The Joint CEO structure was one of the key factors that successfully helped us navigate the worst economic crisis of our times. With the change in environment, there is a need for a simpler organization structure.”