Wipro’s Alarming Exodus: Top-Level Executives Abandon Ship, Exits Skyrocket to 14 in Less Than a Year

Wipro‘s avalanche of top-tier losses persists, with two senior vice presidents being the most recent to leave the business. The most recent being the heads of Wipro’s healthcare and manufacturing departments.

Mohd Haque, the senior vice president and the head of Wipro’s Healthcare & Medical Devices group, will leave the organization in June. Along with Haque, Ashish Saxena, SVP and head of the production and hi-tech business unit, is leaving the organization after nearly six years.

This follows Vice President Gurvinder Sahni’s departure to become CEO at Persistent Systems. Wipro acknowledged the exits in an announcement.

“Wipro confirms Mohd Haque will depart the company in June.” Wipro employees Ashish Saxena, as well as Gurvinder Sahni, recently left to pursue different possibilities.

“We appreciate their years of management and contribution,” said a Wipro official. Wipro has lost at least 14 top-level executives in less than a year.

Even though the company regularly promotes employees to VP as well as SVP.

Wipro Americas 2 CEO Angan Guha and Mohammed Areff, Douglas Silva (Brazil), Tomoaki Takeuchi (Japan), Sarah Adam-Gedge (Australia and New Zealand), Mohammed Areff (Middle East), Mohammed Areff, all left the business late last year. Guha then became the CEO at Birlasoft.

COO Sanjeev Singh, Nithin V Jaganmohan, Satya Easwaran (India), Rajan Kohli, and Kamini Shah have all left the company in 2023, along with Sahni, Haque, and Saxena.

Singh became the CEO of CMS Infosystems, Jaganmohan became the CFO of Xoriant, Kohli became the CEO of CitiusTech, and Shah became the CFO of Birlasoft.

Recently, the company elevated 61 people to vice presidents along with 12 to SVPs. It brought the entire number of VPs alongside SVPs to 275.

This is the largest promotion ever made by the corporation. In an interview following the company’s performance the previous year, Saurabh Govil stated that top-level attrition is in the single digits and is not a concern.

We have approximately 275 persons with the level of VP or higher. Wipro’s performance has slowed as a result of the global downturn.

Due to the worsening macro-environment, the company’s net profit fell 0.4% year on year in Q4 to 3,074.5 crore. Revenue from operations was 23,190 crore, up 11% year on year and down 0.2 percent quarter on quarter.

The reduction was attributed by management to market volatility and a decrease in discretionary spending. Wipro missed projections for a flat financial fourth-quarter net profit (Q4FY23), citing uncertainty in technology spending.

However, it announced its second stock buyback in several years, at a maximum premium of about 20% to the present market price. This falls short of brokerage house predictions, which ranged from a 1% decline to a 1% increase for the time.

The company reported a combined net gain of Rs 3,074 crores for the fourth period ending March 2023, a 0.4% decrease from the previous year. A survey of brokerage companies predicted a 3.5% increase in net profit year on year.

The departures also come at a moment in which Wipro has failed to increase its profit in an industry-wide recession. So Significantly that Chairman Rishad Premji’s annual salary has been cut in half for the fiscal year ending March 31.

For this reason, Wipro continues to bolster its leadership ranks. Early this year, the IT business elevated 12 SE to senior vice president, and 61 others were promoted to vice president.

According to the corporation, these promotions are in honor of their efficiency and potential. On Thursday, Wipro Ltd. shares increased 0973% to Rs 407.40 per share on the BSE, while the benchmark Sensex lowered 0.31% to 62,428.54 points.

Wipro CCV has acquired an additional share in LetsShave, a personal care startup based in Chandigarh, for an undisclosed value. Following the newest fundraising round, Wipro and Dorco, one of the world’s top razor producers, now possess a 25% ownership in LetsShave.

The firm has since raised an overall $6 million from its beginning, thanks to this investment. Wipro Ventures has also backed men’s grooming firm Ustraa, as well as beauty and cosmetics business MyGlamm, nutraceuticals label Onelife and others.

Wipro, an Indian IT services business, has integrated its ISRE segment with its larger IT Services segment following a 20.18 percent revenue decline in the same category during the fiscal year 2022-23.

The income decrease was linked to the conclusion, closure, or scaling back of big government contracts, according to the corporation. Furthermore, Wipro experienced difficulties in recovering past-due accounts receivable from government-related enterprises.

The business is divided into three divisions, 1. IT Services 2. IT Products, and 3. ISRE. In FY23, the first one covered 98.7 percent of Wipro’s earnings. IT Products provided for 0.7%.

The ISRE division contributed only 0.6% of total revenue in FY23, a reduction from the 0.9 percent contribution in FY22. Notably, in both FY21 and FY22, earnings from government-related businesses outpaced sales from the IT Products category.

This decline was ascribed to increasing write-backs in lifetime projected loss of credit due to the recovery of past-due accounts receivable by the company. The credit for administrative and general expenses increased by Rs 77 million in absolute terms.

In FY19, the ISRE sector was previously separated from Wipro’s worldwide IT Services business.

Wipro emphasized that, historically, ISRE projects have predominantly featured SI with complicated deliverables, lengthier working capital cycles, and separate downstream billing and collections processes when compared to the IT Services market.

However, the company’s ISRE strategy has moved to a greater emphasis on consultancy and digital engagements, with the company being choosy in competing for SI projects with long working capital cycles.

Furthermore, as a result of the focus on consulting as well as digital engagements, the ISRE and IT Services sectors now have similar sales cycles, invoicing, and collection processes.

Thierry Delaporte, CEO, and MD of Billionaire Azim Premji-founded IT giant Wipro, received a hefty salary check for FY 2022-23 amid a 5% decrease in income in USD terms from the previous year. Last year, Delaporte was named the highest-paid CEO in the Indian IT sector.

Delaporte was paid $10 million (about Rs 83 crore) in the fiscal year 2023. This is a $0.5 million decrease from the previous fiscal year’s $10.5 million.

It was approximately Rs 79.66 crores at the time. Delaporte’s compensation was the highest among contemporaries within the Indian IT business last year.

Salil Parekh, CEO of Infosys, received $9.36 million, or Rs 71.02 crore, in comparison to the Rs 79.66 crore. Wipro, announced an expanded relationship with Google Cloud last week for bringing its generative AI abilities to clients worldwide.

Wipro announced plans to combine Google Cloud’s comprehensive suite of generative AI tools and services, notably Vertex AI, the generative AI App Builder.

Plus the Model Garden library of foundation models, with their own AI IP, commercial accelerators, and already constructed industry solutions. Wipro will additionally instruct 20,000 workers on Google Cloud’s generative AI capabilities as part of the cooperation growth.

“Generative AI offers amazing chances ahead,” Wipro CEO and MD Thierry Delaporte said in a statement. “We are investing in new capabilities and talents in this area so that Wipro may establish and drive our clients’ AI-led transformation.”

Proofread & Published By Naveenika Chauhan