‘Most Wiprospecific issues are behind us’
BENGALURU: Abidali Neemuchwala, since taking over as CEO of Wipro Ltd on February 1 last year, has completed five full quarters. Wipro has done well only in one quarter — the January-March period this year. But Neemuchwala remains confident that by the end of March 2018, Wipro will be able to come back to industry matching growth. Edited excerpts of an interview:
You have stated that Wipro will come back to industry matching growth by March 2018. How would you view the performance in this quarter?
When I started, we had set ourselves a plan, and milestones. The current quarter, I will call it as evidence of disciplined execution of strategy. As you know, some of the best strategies if not executed well, fizzle out. I believe this is one of my best quarters and we have got a momentum. I feel pretty good, as we have got results from client mining, (high growth) from top ten clients. Even from margin perspective, we have done reasonably well.
So is the worst behind?
I personally feel the worst is behind. We had Wipro-specific issues and most, if not all, are behind us. So unless there is a macroeconomic uncertainty or challenge, I do believe we have got the momentum to deliver industry-matching growth numbers by March 2018, as previously stated.
On M&As, Wipro appears to have slowed after having spent over $1 billion last year.
We have a clear vision and strategy. There has been no change in the strategy. When I came in, there were clear gaps. Design (we bought DesignIT), Cloud (we bought Appirio) and Germany (we bought Cellent). So we were very aggressive. Now, when I look, there still two-three gaps which I cannot disclose.
We need to find the right assets in these two-three areas. So overall, there is no change in our M&A strategy.