JUNE 23, 2002
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Watching I-flex IPO
A host of IPO-wannabes-including Tata Consultancy Services, Maruti Udyog, and Hyundai Motor India-is going to be watching the I-flex public offering closely. The issue, due in June first week, will indicate the moribund primary market's appetite for new stocks, and the small investor's willingness to return to IPOs.


Saving UTI
It's bail out time again at UTI. With two of its monthly income plans maturing in July, it needs find Rs 2,400 crore-and fast.

More Net Specials
Business Today, June 9, 2002
 
 
WHERE WIPRO GETS ITS REVENUE
Wipro Technologies is clearly the company's star division, accounting for 66 per cent of the company's Rs 3,492.6-crore turnover.
WIPRO TECHNOLOGIES 66%
IT services is Wipro's mainstay. Wipro Technologies (WT) accounted for 90 per cent of the company's Rs 873.7-crore profit before interest and taxes in 2001-02. As Wipro Ltd Vice Chairman and Wipro Technologies CEO Vivek Paul, puts it, Wipro is "one business really", a reference to WT's contribution to Wipro Ltd.
WIPRO INFOTECH 21%
It's no longer just hardware, Wipro Infotech's systems integration play could see it emerge a significant player in the domestic market. Its turnover shrank 14.5 per cent over the previous year, but Wipro Infotech President Suresh Vaswani puts that down to an unwillingness ''to grow the topline at the expense of the bottomline''.
WIPRO HEALTHCARE & LIFE SCIENCES N.A.
From software-based bioinfomatics that can help pharmaceutical companies accelerate the drug discovery process to engineering services that will help design medical equipment, Wipro Healthcare's canvas is vast. ''We will grow both organically and inorganically,'' says Wipro Ltd Vice Chairman and Wipro Healthcare and Life Sciences President D.A. Prasanna.
WIPRO CONSUMER CARE & LIGHTING 9%
For a taste of the original Wipro Ltd, look no farther than its oldest business, consumer care. Detractors may wonder what Wipro is still doing in this business, but as Wipro Ltd Vice Chairman and Wipro Consumer Care & Lighting President P.S. Pai explains, it provided the funds for Wipro's diversification into hardware and software services. It also boasts ''operating margins of 14-15 per cent'', and may see fresh investments.

ALL ABOUT IDEAS
Wipro Ltd has an innovation framework that could put 3M's fabled skunkworks to shame. Now for the results.

VINEET AGRAWAL, EXEC. VP, WIPRO: Playing chief ideator

A dedicated team of 200, six projects, likely to increase, and a target of 20 per cent contribution to revenues in three years-that's a snapshot of Wipro's innovation effort. In 2000, when the company was done with its efforts at branding and quality (for some time) it set its sights on innovation, on creating products that could, as Chairman and Managing Director Azim Premji puts it, ''be game changers.'' Vineet Agrawal (his card reads Corporate Executive Vice President. Mission: Quality, Brand & Innovation, Corporate Communication) was vested with the task of identifying a structured framework for innovation in keeping with the company's process-heavy approach to all things. Agrawal started off by studying how organisations like Nike, Nokia, and Home Depot tackle innovation; he spoke to consultants, academics, and members of Wipro's board of directors, such as Ashok Ganguly, formerly the head of R&D for Unilever and management guru Jagdish Seth. Then, in part synthesis, in part, well, innovative, he created a unique-to-Wipro methodology that could capture ideas and take them to their logical denouement: revenues and profits, not just IP (intellectual property) and products. The results are showing: the company has customer orders in hand for four of the six projects. ''It is a big challenge to translate technology into customer needs,'' says Agrawal. Judging from those orders, he's doing just fine.


BREAD-AND-BUTTER VS TOPPINGS
In 2001-02, enterprise solutions accounted for 50 per cent of Wipro Technologies' business, telecom and inter-networking, 23 per cent. The division has ambitious plans for both.

S. BANERJEE: Heading the consulting thrust A.L. RAO: Banking on a telecom revival

Both are old-timers. And both their business cards read President, Wipro Technologies. The similarity ends there. Sudip Banerjee has been with Wipro 19 years, heads the Enterprise Solutions practice of the division, works out of a 25-acre campus in Bangalore's Electronics City-the Infosys campus is a stone's throw away and Banerjee personally oversaw (and continues to oversee) the construction-and is now spearheading the company's foray into it consulting, a logical next step for the enterprise solutions practice. ''The enterprise will always be at the heart of it because companies will have to maintain their competitiveness; (they will) want to be at the cutting edge,'' says Banerjee. Dr A.L. Rao has been with Wipro 22 years, heads the Telecom and Inter-networking Practice of the division (the second largest after Enterprise Solutions), works out of a matchbox-like vertically-scaled building in Koramangala, and is hoping for an upswing in the telecommunications sector. ''We work with almost all equipment manufacturers except Siemens,'' says Rao, ''and once the sector's fortunes look up...''


HANDS-OFF, YET HANDS-ON
Contrary to popular perception, Premji is a leader open to delegating power.

He's paranoid about security-Wipro's Doddakannelli facility has electric fencing around it-and sits alone on the third floor of one of the buildings in the campus. That goes well with the image of an owner-manager. But while he may not be quite as accessible as Infosys Chairman N.R. Narayanamurthy-so says one individual who has worked with both-he is quite the hands-off manager. "Premji empowers his people; his biggest asset is his ability to take criticism," says Dilip Ranjekar, CEO of the Azim Premji Foundation. Vice Chairman P.S. Pai recalls a meeting where Premji was digressing from the agenda. "I walked out in a huff and he took it," he grins. Like most company-founders Premji values loyalty; most of his senior team has been around for some time. Pai for 23 years, Vice Chairman D.A. Prasanna for 24 years, and CFO Suresh Senapathy for 22. Pai puts that down to the degree of empowerment in the organisation. "You won't believe how empowered Wipro is," adds Vice Chairman Vivek Paul. That's just the way Premji, who views Wipro as a professional, not family-managed company, would have it. Neither of his two sons is in business and when and if they do enter the business-elder son Rashab works for GE Capital in New York, younger son Tariq for 24/7customer.com-they will have to go through the grind. ''The worst thing you can do to the investor community, and that includes me,'' says Premji with a laugh, ''is to get the wrong person into a leadership role.''

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