After driving change at Wipro for the past year, Mr T.K. Kurien, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer, IT Business, has a reason to be pleased — while attrition is down 9 per cent, customer satisfaction is up 9 per cent. But this said, global worries — especially European woes — plague Wipro like any other company and are a cause for concern.

In this interview, Mr Kurien discusses operating margins, investments, and vertical performances. Edited excerpts:

Your operating margins are down to 20.8 per cent when compared to the 22.2 per cent that you registered in the same quarter last year. Does this bother you?

No. We are very conscious about investing. If you look at general and administrative and sales and marketing, they are up one per cent. We have clawed back what we lost in terms of currency and wage hikes. We do not want to cut back on investments.

All your verticals contribute over 10 per cent, but not even one division crosses 30 per cent. Are you doing enough to mine them?

The more balanced the portfolio you have, the better it is for your company. Different business verticals perform differently in different times, and I would love to see other verticals grow faster than BFSI.

You now have six $100-million clients as opposed to just one in the same quarter last year. What is the risk that somebody will cut back on spending?

You can't plan a portfolio based on the choice of customers. You have to live with that.

Your Europe figures are still good, but if Europe continues to struggle, will it hurt you in the next financial year?

The last person who can predict what will happen today is an economist. The reality is that today nobody has a clue but everybody has an opinion. We want to listen and watch. We see the European crisis as an opportunity because Europe is underpenetrated and this means that they will want to outsource.

You are getting a lot of BPO deals. Do these operational deals take away your strategic focus?

It is extremely important to be operational. If you don't do operational work, you can't teach people. If you have no BPO, you can't be great in consulting. It is critical to be in a BPO business because consulting is all about processes.

BFSI contributes 27 per cent of your revenues and you have said that investment banking is stressed. Will this impact you negatively?

That is a reality that all of us have to face. If one sector falls, it pulls the entire industry down. We need a balanced portfolio and our objective is to grow the other parts of the portfolio.

>balaji.n@thehindu.co.in>sushma.un@thehindu.co.in

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW