T.K Kurien: New face of Wipro
Wipro has just announced the appointment of T.K Kurien as the Chief Executive Officer of the Information Technology (IT) business and Executive Director of the company. According to industry analysts the appointment of Kurian as CEO is aimed at improving the IT business of the company which is witnessing an underperformance as compared to its competitors like Infosys, TCS, HCL among others.
The company also said the current Joint CEOs of the IT business Girish Paranjpe and Suresh Vaswani, have decided to step down from their responsibilities with effect from February 1, 2011.
Commenting on the new move, Azim Premji, Chairman of Wipro said “The Joint CEO structure was one of the key factors that successfully helped us navigate the worst economic crisis of our times. With the change in environment, there is a need for a simpler organization structure."
“Suresh Vaswani and Girish Paranjpe have been with Wipro for the past 20 plus years and been an integral part of our leadership team. They have made significant contribution to the company in the critical years of its expansion and played a stellar role in the success of the IT Business. I want to personally thank them for their contributions to Wipro and wish them the very best in their future endeavors.”
Girish Paranjpe, Suresh Vaswani and T K Kurien will work together through quarter ending March 31, 2011 to ensure a smooth transition.
T.K Kurien
Kurien is currently the President Wipro EcoEnergy, the clean tech business division of Wipro.
Premji added "Over the last 10 years, Kurien has been instrumental in building and scaling many of our businesses successfully. His track record with customers, passion for excellence coupled with strategic thinking and rigor in execution makes him uniquely positioned to lead Wipro’s IT business through the next phase of growth.”
Underperformance
Wipro had reported third-quarter profit growth that lagged its main rivals, sending its shares down 4 percent.
Analysts said Wipro, which posted a 10 percent rise in third quarter net profit on Friday, had been struggling to keep up with its bigger competitors, Tata Consultancy and Infosys .
"Wipro has been underperforming both TCS and Infosys for the last five to six quarters," said Hardik Shah, IT sector analyst at brokerage KR Choksey Shares & Securities."
"Something was wrong, things were not quite working out and this (the management change) seems to be a drastic step," he said. "It will take a couple of quarters at least for the new strategy to come through. There should be some uncertainty till then."
Investors appeared unsure, however, with shares in Wipro falling 3.5 percent at 460.90 rupees on the Mumbai stock exchange, their biggest fall in more than two months.
Sources: channelnewsasia, business-standard, reuters
Photo source: thehindubusinessline