BackWipro shuffles executives after computer infrastructure chief quits
Wipro names Shaji Farooq BFSI head; Soumitro Ghosh, G.K. Prasanna take over Anand Sankaran’s roles
Premium(Anand Sankaran, who has been with Wipro for nearly two-and-a-half decades, helped the software services provider grow its business in India to around `7,000 crore. )
Bangalore: Wipro Ltd named former Infosys Ltd executive Shaji Farooq the head of its crucial $1.5-billion banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) business, as part of management changes triggered by the exit of its computer infrastructure chief Anand Sankaran.
Farooq, who joined Wipro in September last year, replaces Soumitro Ghosh, who takes over as head of its Indian and Middle East business Wipro Infotech. G.K. Prasanna will head the computer infrastructure management services business, in addition to his present role as head of product engineering. Ghosh and Prasanna take over roles handled by Sankaran.
Farooq headed Infosys’s $2.5 billion BFSI segment before he moved to Wipro and took over its advanced technologies business, which will now be led by Jeffrey Heenan Jalil, global head of the company’s telecom equipment vendor and media businesses.
Farooq, Ghosh, Prasanna and Jalil, whose appointments are effective 1 January, will all directly report to CEO T.K. Kurien.
Wipro has struggled to grow its BFSI business and has been overtaken by rivals such as Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS), Infosys and Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. In June, Wipro hired Ganesh Balasubramanian from Lloyds Banking Group to head a new unit that focuses on banking products and platforms.
“With the growth momentum picking up in the US and European economies, the financial services industry presents significant opportunities. Shaji’s long experience with the BFSI sector in the past stands him in good stead to shape Wipro’s strategy for this vertical and help seize emerging opportunities," Wipro said in a statement. “He will continue to be based in New York."
Ghosh was a founding member of Wipro’s BFSI business. Wipro said he had “played a significant role in building this vertical and making it the largest BU (business unit) of the company".
Wipro’s BFSI business contributed 26% to its overall revenue in the April-June quarter, which pales against the BFSI segment’s 43% revenue contribution to TCS and 34% at Infosys. TCS’s BFSI revenue in 2012-13 was triple that of Wipro’s at more than $4.5 billion.
As for Sankaran, the reason for his exit wasn’t immediately clear.
Sankaran, who had been with Wipro for over 24 years, had helped the software services provider grow its business in India to around ₹ 7,000 crore and last year was appointed as the head of the merged business that included infrastructure management.
The company, in a statement earlier in the day, only said, “Sankaran, currently senior vice-president for global infrastructure services and Wipro Infotech, has decided to pursue a career outside of Wipro."
An executive at Wipro said Sankaran was seen among top contenders for a bigger role at the company but that was until two years ago when the board decided to restructure the management. “Anand has always been ambitious and a true Wipro-ite," this person said.
Sankaran couldn’t be reached immediately for a comment.
Over the past five years, Wipro has consistently lost significant market share to rivals such as TCS and Cognizant. In 2011, Wipro chairman Azim Premji appointed T.K. Kurien as chief executive to lead a turnaround in its fortunes and revive flagging revenue growth. Kurien collapsed complex organizational structures that earlier reported to two joint chiefs, shifted decision-making powers to leaders managing different business units and poached high-performing executives from rivals to create a new organization.
Wipro, however, continued to lag rivals in overall growth and, barring its energy and utility business, failed to become a leader in the banking and financial services and manufacturing sectors. The banking, financial services and insurance sector contributes 30-40% to the overall revenue for India’s IT sector.
“Our strategy of driving a significantly higher degree of customer engagement and hyper growth has been paying dividends," Kurien said in the statement announcing the management changes. “In order to sustain this momentum, our leadership team has spent considerable time reviewing market opportunities, and sharply defining the focus areas that would fuel our growth ambition. The exercise reaffirmed our conviction in our chosen strategy."
In an interview in August, Sankaran had said Wipro would not exit its money-losing computer hardware business.
Sales from the hardware business have been consistently declining over the past three years and some experts have said the company should hive it off. In the June quarter, hardware sales fell about 7% from a year ago. Hardware sales now make up less than 10% of Wipro’s overall revenue, down from its 15-20% contribution two-three years ago.
“Every year, we evaluate the strategic nature of our businesses and we’ll continue doing that. As long as we believe that is strategic to our business, we’ll continue with it," Sankaran had said in that interview, when asked whether the company was evaluating strategic options, including hiving off or selling the hardware business. “If we believe that it is not strategic to us, we’ll discontinue with it—and it’s not just hardware, it could be any of our businesses."
Wipro rose nearly 3% to ₹ 484.50 a share on BSE on Thursday, while the benchmark Sensex surged 1.97%.
Anirban Sen contributed to this story.
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