Vivek Paul, the 41 year old President and CEO of Wipro
Infotech Software and Services Group has taken over the reigns from the 57 year old Ashok
Soota.
The contrast in Mr Paul to Mr Soota’s and Mr Azim
Premji’s quiet and soft spoken ways can’t be more telling. This is the first big
change that has come in the wake of the restructuring of the company in April this year.
In fact, it was a change that was waiting to happen. For
one, there were not many in the industry who were willing to bet on Mr Soota remaining in
Wipro after the business was split into two. As for the choice of a rank outsider, well,
that is also in keeping with the management style of Mr Premji, who has often brought in
outsiders in key positions. But, what the move also clearly underlines is the
chairman’s ambitions in software. A well recognized name locally, nearly 50 percent
of Wipro Limited’s Rs 1,443 crore came from software exports. His goal, as declared
last year, is to become the largest software exporter by 2003 by getting to a billion
dollar in revenue.
It is anybody’s guess from where that growth would
come from. Says Mr Premji, "The first ingredient to building a global business as
opposed to having an international one, is being close to your customers both in proximity
and by proactively understanding their requirements. And to realise our vision of being a
global leader in software services, it was clear that we at Wipro have to move our centre
of gravity closer to our customers overseas." And so, in a dramatic departure from
past ways of working, the CEO will be located in Wipro’s Santa Clara office in
California in the US.
It will be the first time that any Indian company CEO will
be based in the US while the operations itself are carried out from India. While the
person in question sees more advantages than disadvantages, there are many who question
the wisdom of having a long distance CEO. According to Mr Paul, "I can get a lot
closer to the market and consequently drive the organization in ways that a salesperson
sitting in the US cannot." While they don’t fully disagree on the logic of the
argument--after all, getting orders is more important than the delivery part of the
business--they are not sure of its feasibility, especially when it comes to providing
leadership to human resources and finance. Ironically, it is for the same reason that Mr
Paul prefers to be a remote CEO. Says he, "As CEO, I can concentrate on larger issues
instead of getting bogged down by transactional issues."
In his opinion, there are enough people in Team
Wipro, as
he calls them, to focus on the domestic affairs. He is not one bit worried. Between
travelling 6-8 times a year to India and Team Wipro, he is certain that operations will be
seamless. Interestingly enough, that’s one area where he intends to focus a large
part of his energies. In fact, of the three broad areas that he has identified for
immediate overhaul, getting rid of the `turbulence’ in the processes and making it
more global to enable seamless operation across the world is one of them. Says he,
"It’s the `how’ of what we do. When we improve this, we can do everything
faster." The other two areas are: getting close to customers to build services around
that need; and invest in replicable services built on IP (Intellectual Property) services.
All of the above would indicate definite changes in the
structure. But there are no evidence of it yet. Mainly because Wipro has just had a
restructuring in April and Mr Paul is "loathe" to bring about any changes
immediately. However, some changes can be expected around October-November when he has the
time to take it all in and arrive at a clear stated objective for the company. For sure,
some senior managers will be relocated to the US. Whether, we will see realignment of
business responsibilities is a debatable point at this juncture.
It is early days yet to to talk of Wipro’s Software
and Services group’s strategy in the global markets, as very little of that is out
for public consumption. Currently Paul is in the "listening mode"--he would
rather listen to everyone concerned and formulate the business strategy--so that
"once the consensus on the strategy is gathered, we agree on the direction and then
just do it." Since the entire process is spread over 3 weeks of extensive
interaction, one can look forward to the strategy towards the end of August or early
September. But one thing is for sure. There will be an increased focus on the domestic
market with the intention of steeply increasing the learning curve and deploying the
learning in the global markets.
Just a fortnight old in the organization at the time of
meeting, Mr Paul brings with him a formidable reputation: a tough manager with a
no-nonsense attitude on one hand and on the other, a highly ethical and sensitive person
with the ability to empower and take people along with him. Wipro-ites have had a feel of
him earlier when he worked with the joint venture Wipro-GE Medical Systems Ltd in 1990. In
less than three years, he went on to become the CEO and President--a post he held
until1996--with the additional responsibility as Chairman of the Sales and Marketing
Council of Wipro Corporation.
Executive Vice President of Siemens Medical Engineering
Division Ltd C.R. Sahu swears by Mr Paul. Then with Wipro GE, Mr Sahu describes his
five-year professional association with Mr Paul in one word: fantastic. Says he, "He
brought channel business and key account concepts and achieved a milestone of Rs100 crore,
doubling business." Wipro GE, the joint venture company that started operations in
1990, became a major threat to Siemens which had been operating in the South Asia market
for over 30 years. The domestic market share of Wipro GE grew to 25 per cent and exports
in software and ultrasound systems from Wipro GE grew aggressively.
Can Mr Paul do it again? Mr Sahu is willing to bet
everything on Mr Paul’s "dynamism and foresight" to do it again. As for the
man himself, this is what he has to say to the challenge ahead of him. "Faster,
better, speedier is what Wipro wants to be and will be. As for reaching the top, I have
four more years to make it to the number one slot." Will it be the case of the famous
last words? Hope not but, in all sincerity, there are many in the past who have had to
live up to Chairman Premji’s expanding expectations and fallen short. One thing for
sure is that Mr Paul will be among the most watched and marked men!