Lison Joseph, ET Bureau | 9 Sep, 2013, 05.57AM IST23
BANGALORE: Within the last few days,Wipro has been announcing a flurry of large deals worth over $100 million (Rs 650 crore), a sign of its improving prospects and rising confidence. While these contracts are by no means conclusive evidence that the company is returning to the pink of health, they nevertheless demonstrate that Chief Executive TK Kurien has been implementing a turnaround plan that has earned him a reputation within the company and without as a CEO who is made of stern stuff.
Two-and-a-half years after taking over as CEO, the 54-year old is aware that the initial expectations of a swift turnaround were too optimistic. But Kurien also believes the time has been well spent in laying the foundation for strong, sustainable growth in a rapidly-changing industry. "The hardest one (job) I have ever done," Kurien told ET.
Wipro is still underperforming the industry, but on the brighter side, the company has signalled a silver lining ahead — robust growth forecast for the July-September quarter, which is the highest in nearly two years. While Kurien has not engineered a spectacular turnaround, he did not inherit a garden variety problem either. He took charge from two company veterans, Suresh Vaswani and Girish Paranjpe, under whose watch Wipro's performance turned dismal, forcing the hand of founder Azim Premji.
The job description did not capture the scope of the challenge at the company that employs 135,000. In February 2011, the former GE executive was handed a disillusioned organisation that was bleeding talent and was staring at potential customer desertions. And the outsourcing market's dynamics were changing fast.
Scarred by the 2008-09 financial crisis, clients in the US and Europe demanded tangible value and not just pieces of software or hardware. They also pushed more risk on to service providers. "I didn't plan for the ground shifting beneath my feet," remarked Kurien.
He had to change the organisation internally, banish cynicism and find the right talent to help Wipro get in sync with external realities. His reputation as a ruthless taskmaster did not help matters, but Kurien was not prepared to put up with people who did not believe in Wipro's ability to fight back. His biggest challenge was to be able to work with long-time colleagues and friends without letting familiarity get in the way of taking tough and necessary decisions. "You get comfortable with each other and tend to avoid conflicts. In the process, you forget the customer," he said.
As Kurien started shaking things up, employee churn peaked to as much as 30 per cent in some divisions. "The biggest thing was putting your arm around people and making sure that the good ones didn't go away." It appears to be working, if the June quarter attrition rate of around 13 per cent is anything to go by. In fact, Kurien considers the "touchy feely" side of people management as one of his biggest lessons.
Even as he was getting the employee side of things right, Kurien did not take his eyes off customers and pushed sales staff to get bigger share of clients' technology spending.
"Kurien knows when to go out of the way to entertain clients' demands and where to draw the line without putting them off," said Sid Pai, president for Asia-Pacific at TPI, one of the largest technology sourcing advisories.
"TK has made Wipro a more customer-centric organisation," said Rishad Premji, Wipro's chief strategy officer and the elder son of chairman Premji. "His boundless energy, no-nonsense style, openness to take risks and strong execution rigour have been instrumental in setting us on our transformation journey and also carrying people along."
A senior headhunter who has worked with Wipro closely for many years, said Premji, has told Kurien not to get bogged down by what the press writes about Wipro or its pilgrim's progress. For his part, Kurien says Wipro being a promoter-driven organisation is a blessing. "It is surprising, the level of risk I have been able to take. I would have been fired 100 times over in a market-driven company," said Kurien.
On why he thinks Premji chose him for the top job, Kurien said "I have no clue. Probably (because I) happened to be around!" Kurien has no qualms in admitting that Wipro is still work in progress, with plenty to be done still. But beyond the metrics and data points, he said he is working towards more long-term goals.
"My success is in being able to hand over something to my successor that is better than what I inherited," said Kurien, who is also candid about the job being a mixed bag of things he loves and aspects he can do without. "A leader has to live with both the hopes and the nightmares of an organisation, every day. You can't choose just one."
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