Veterans at Wipro Ltd are steadily rising to the top in Srinivas Pallia’s eight months in the corner office, at a time when India’s fourth largest technology services firm is working to recover from a full-year revenue decline.
Chief marketing officer Laura Langdon resigned earlier this week and will be succeeded by Asia business CMO Ranjita Ghosh. This makes it Wipro’s eighth top-level change since Pallia took over as chief executive on 6 April.
Langdon, who joined Wipro as CMO in March 2019, is expected to leave in February. Ghosh, who completes two decades in Wipro next year, will work from Bengaluru. Ghosh’s elevation underscores the talent strategy of Pallia, himself a Wipro veteran with more than three decades at the Bengaluru-based company.
In six of the eight top-level changes, Wipro promoted internal candidates to leadership roles.
Four days after Pallia was named chief executive, Malay Joshi took over as CEO of Americas 1, Wipro’s largest market unit that Pallia used to head earlier. In May, less than a month since Joshi’s promotion, Hari Shetty, another company veteran, was named Wipro’s chief strategist and sales excellence officer.
On 10 May, Anis Chenchah resigned as president of Wipro’s Asia Pacific, India, Middle East and Africa region, citing personal reasons, and was replaced by Vinay Firake, a company veteran with more than 28 years of experience.
In August, Sandhya Arun took over as company’s chief technology officer, replacing Subha Tatavarti, who put in her papers to explore other options outside Wipro. The last top-level change was of Srikumar Rao, who succeeded Harmeet Chauhan in October to head Engineering Edge, which is Wipro’s engineering business.
However, Wipro’s reliance on internal talent was not absolute.
Sanjeev Jain took over as chief operating officer of Wipro in May this year, replacing Amit Choudhary, who resigned to pursue opportunities outside Wipro. A month later, Bruno Schenk was appointed country head and manager of the company’s Switzerland business. Both were outside hires and have been in Wipro for less than five years.
A query emailed to a Wipro spokesperson remained unanswered.
Internal promotions may have higher chances of success, a hiring industry expert said.
“If a company promotes people internally, they know the company better than an outside hire, and the chances of them succeeding in their role are higher. This is a tried-and-tested method, and is always good for building morale within the company,” said Navnit Singh, chairman and regional managing director of Korn Ferry, an executive search firm.
The changes come at a time Wipro is trying to revive its fortunes. The company’s FY24 revenue of $10.8 billion was 3.8% below the previous year’s.
“The only risk is that internal candidates have extra pressure to perform because they know the company better than an external hire and do not need time like an outside hire to get familiar with the company,” said Singh.
The top-level changes are part of a larger leadership churn at Wipro. At least 30 leaders ranked senior vice-president and above have left the company in the last two years, either for better opportunities elsewhere, or because of lack of growth at the company under Delaporte.
The company, however, was unfazed by the leadership exits.
“There is a living organization. There will be some people who would move one kind of stuff. But there is no major disruption in the way we are going to work, organize ourselves. So, I don’t see that much of a challenge as we move forward,” chief human resources officer Saurabh Govil said at a post-earnings interaction with analysts on 19 April, responding to a question on senior management churn.
At least one analyst said that churn was expected to stabilize.
“Most of the senior replacements appear to be internal hires/promotions and old-timers in the company. We reckon that Wipro’s leadership churn could stabilize ahead as the new organization under Srini’s leadership settles down,” said Axis Capital analysts Manik Taneja, Saksham Savernya, and Rohit Thorat in a note dated 29 October.
The software services company, once bigger than Infosys Ltd, India’s second-largest IT services company now, faces an uphill task after a full-year revenue decline and exits at the top.
The company is trying to turn the tide under Pallia’s leadership by focussing on cost-saving measures rather than big-bang changes. Expensive offsite meetings are being shifted to virtual mode and the company is prioritizing its operating margins in conversations with clients.
