Wipro]s Vivek Paul: He is making news, news, and more news

Forbes magazine would have us believe that it is Kiran Karnik, the President of India's National Association of Software and Service Companies, Nasscom; popular wisdom has it that it is N.R. Narayana Murthy, the Chairman and Chief Mentor of, arguably, the best-known Indian it services company in the world, Infosys Technologies, and a small but rabid bunch of open-source new-liberals declares that it cannot be anyone but India's President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. This writer, and by extension, the magazine you are reading, have a different take: Circa 2004, the face of Indian it is (drum roll and clash of cymbals please) Vivek Paul, the 45-year-old Vice Chairman of Wipro and President, Wipro Technologies.

Purely in terms of coverage in the international media in the past 12 months, Wipro, and Paul have outscored every other Indian company. A sampling of the headlines: Wipro: The Live Wire In Indian High Tech (BusinessWeek, US Edition, January 2003), The New Face Of Global Competition (Fast Company, February 2003), An American In Bangalore (Economist, February 2003), Companies Come For Cost, Stay For Quality (San Francisco Chronicle, June 2003). That's not counting the tens of other stories in the international media on Wipro and Wipro Spectramind, its business process outsourcing arm, that saw light of day in 2003. And it's not counting India's Tech King, a cover story on Azim Premji that appeared in the Asian edition of BusinessWeek. This year started on a good note for Paul: BusinessWeek magazine named him one of the top managers of 2003.

Paul believes it isn't a coincidence that this media-coverage snowstorm accompanied the beginnings of the backlash against Indian it services companies in the US. While other companies were busy figuring out how to deal with the flak, he explains, Wipro went ahead and threw open its doors. Result: Reams of coverage including some of the alarmist ("Your job is going to India") variety, but largely positive. It isn't surprising that Paul handles the American media well: he has spent all his working life in the US and prior to signing on with Wipro in 1999 spent 10 years at GE; he was on the fast track at GE's medical systems business and reported to the company's now CEO Jeff Immelt. Senior execs at large American corporations are great media managers: they smile into the camera, say the right things, even know which tie looks best on magazine covers.

Don't dismiss Paul as just a creation of the media, though. Since he joined Wipro, he has spear-headed its acquisition strategy, closing deals with four companies in as many years. And he has successfully fought Wipro's conservative culture, making some small but significant gains: the company's vice president in charge of strategic marketing, for instance, is Sangita Singh, a fast-talking woman in her early thirties. That would have been unthinkable in the old Wipro. All through last year, Bangalore was abuzz with rumours of palace intrigue that could effect Paul's departure; Wipro's poor results a few quarters back provided the right context for these, but with the company back to showing a healthy growth-trend the gossip has lost its sting. These days, the talk is all about how the company's strategy over the past two years may actually see it emerge far ahead of its competition in the future. That, though, is another story.

-R. Sukumar

Q&A
"Labour Is An Issue"

COPC's Clifford Moore: BPO's quality evangelist

How should BPOs address the quality issue?

There is a lot of variation here. It is pretty difficult to talk about "India" (as one). One of the biggest challenges we face is the whole labour issue and the growth issue. It is hard to grow 500 agents a month in the same sort of way.

How does one solve the attrition problem?

The one thing that I think will change the work is a lot better job profile.

Is enough training happening in India?

In fact, far more, than what happens in the US. But what's important is what comes out of this training. We have a lot of variation going here. If you screen people better, then the output will automatically be better.

How does COPC help?

We focus on four things: improving service, which has helped the industry turn things around; quality, which is giving the customer the right answer; cost, which is efficiency and productivity; and revenue, because many of the Indian firms now feel that sales are more important than revenues. So, COPC leads to customer satisfaction as a result of these four parameters.

Q3 Results: Take One
Good times continue to roll in corporate India.

Here's some more evidence that the stockmarket rally is based not so much on sentiment as hard numbers. In the third quarter-ended December 31, 2003, a sample of 312 companies showed a decent 13 per cent growth in revenues, but a much more impressive 32 per cent jump in net profits over the same quarter in 2002. And just as in the previous quarters, it is the fall in interest costs that is helping companies fatten their bottomlines. The current market favourites such as auto and auto ancillary companies, continued to show good results. Example: Tata Motors, whose net profit zoomed 178 per cent in the quarter. Analysts expect the trend to continue. Says Jigar Shah, Head of Research at KRC Research: "We expect the growth to continue into at least the next six to 12 months." Even the traditional underdog, the capital goods industry, is showing signs of perking up. "Capital goods manufacturers are doing better than the overall economy, and an upturn could mean better future," says R. Srinivas, Senior Analyst at Motilal Oswal Securities. On the whole though, it will get harder for companies to keep the growth numbers ticking. Simply because their base is growing. In fact, some signs of fatigue are already visible. For example, for the same set of companies, net profit growth has slipped from 40 per cent in Q2 to 32 per cent in Q3. The good news: Profits in absolute terms will be higher.

-Narendra Nathan

TRIVIA
Cell Phone Caste System

Ever wondered why one Nokia handset is called the 1100 and another 6600 or 8810? We did, and in the process discovered a rigid caste-based society of mobile phones, where your place in the hierarchy is determined by technology. Got all the bells and whistles the engineers could think of? Think the 6 and 7 series. The 8 and 9 series (think 8910 and 9100), we bow to you because you nestle in the pockets of high-flying executives. Got just about enough intelligence to handle voice and SMS? Take the floor, you 1100s and 2100s. However, the lord of them all, the Vertu (made by a Nokia company), is too sacred to be desecrated by a numbering system.

-Kushan Mitra