Wipro's intent is to sign billion-dollar deals: CEO

In the three months since he put in place a simplified organisational structure, Wipro Chief Executive Officer Thierry Delaporte has also made his leadership hires across regions. With a strong revenue forecast for the first quarter of 2021-22, Delaporte tells ET’s Ayan Pramanik and Raghu Krishnan that the stage is set for faster growth as the Bengaluru-based IT services provider chases large cloud transformation deals from global clients. Edited excerpts from the interview:You have forecast 2-4% growth for the first quarter. Are you on track for double-digit expansion this year?We are not guiding for the entire year; we guide quarter by quarter. We like to track the progress and deliver on commitment, not over promise. We've said three quarters ago, in the first year, we will really accelerate the growth and we are accelerating. We are in this phase we will feel comfortable to grow at the same speed that the best in our industry, and then there will come a time where we can accelerate again and grow faster. We are satisfied with the strong performance.You have hired senior leaders across geographies. How do you ensure there is a cultural fit—people who have been in the organisation for years having to work with new leaders?We have completely changed the organisation model on January 1, a change that had never been done over the last many years. This itself has created a culture of positive change and is easier for new people joining to connect. We are vigilant and we've paid attention to the culture and values of the people we have hired, always with the question: Will this personality fit well into the Wipro organization? And frankly, I'm not worried. I think it's creating a lot of great and positive energy inside the organisation. Wipro is a global organisation, people have been living in many different countries, they have spent a significant part of their professional years in America, in Europe or in Asia, and I think it has given a lot of those people a certain level of openness for change.Some analysts remain cautious about the growth in cloud deals plateauing after September since activity may normalise after recovery from the pandemic-induced slowdown. What is your observation?Cloud represents today about a quarter of our business, and it's growing at a very high double digit. We have a lot of deals usually offered together with some of our large technology partners. And there is a growing demand around cloud transformation programs everywhere in every industry, across the globe, in America and Europe and Asia. I have zero concern about the opportunity to grow this business in the next months and years; we are at the beginning of the cloud transformation wave that is going to disrupt most of the industries we work in.You signed a $1 billion deal in the quarter? Can you elaborate on that?We are not commenting on the name of the client, but it's in America. It's a large organisation. It's a true digital and cloud transformation program. It's a major transformation that will including the IT modernisation of the entire landscape for the next seven years. Will we see more such large deals?I don't know if we will systematically close a $1 billion deal every quarter. That's definitely the intent, but I don't think we have yet the machine but we are building it up. So, we have created a big deal team. We are hiring talent. We have got a leader for this team. Our chief growth officer Stephanie Trautman is actively driving this as a priority across the organisation. Is Wipro eyeing more Capco-like acquisitions in FY22?Capco is a very strong brand, very well managed organization that has a lot of large financial institutions. And they are really working on the digital consulting on the transformation and on the technology but more from an advisory standpoint, and so that they bring a certain level of significant level of complementarity to the capabilities we have. So, yes, Capco and Wipro combined have a much stronger value proposition but also complementary capabilities and talent in order to connect and drive those large programmes with our clients. I think what is true for the BFSI sector is true for any other sector. Since we've announced the acquisition of capital, some other companies in the industry have also expressed intent to look at consulting capabilities as well. And I think it's a reflection of that reality.

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