A phenomenon in outsourcing
S.RAMACHANDER
BANGLAORE TIGER— How Indian Tech Upstart Wipro is Rewriting the Rules of Global Competition: Steve Hamm; Tata-McGraw Hill, 7, West Patel Nagar, New Delhi-110008. Rs. 299.
Steve Hamm was specially sent by Business Week, USA to India, to study the story of Wipro, one of the big three that spawned the phenomenon of outsourcing of computer-based services over the past two decades, the other two being Infosys and TCS. Their model of offshore development and delivery of software has become a reference point for the world. Less informed observers from metal-bending industries might still think of the software sector as too technologically lightweight and amounting to nothing more than body-shopping— making "warm bodies" available at a fraction of the western wages. This book shows how far reality has moved away from this stereotype.
Evolution
Wipro began in the most unlikely setting — vegetable oil processing and wholesaling, a quintessential old economy business called Western India Vegetable Products. Azim Premji, while about to take his finals in his engineering degree at Stanford, was unexpectedly thrust into the hot seat to look after the declining fortunes of this family venture. His own story and personality, as told in this book, are remarkably intertwined with the evolution of Wipro into a software giant with a current turnover of <243>$ 2340 million and a profit of over $400 million.
Though Premji's majority stake is substantial enough for the company to be practically a proprietorship, he has resolutely and wisely refrained from allowing the obvious feudal ways of many of his countrymen to creep into the way Wipro is managed. On the contrary, he has set himself tough standards and codes of behaviour. For example, his children have no part in it; and he says a professional best suited for the job will succeed him, in time. Premji's understated style and eye for detail are imprinted on the company. He is a tireless worker, a stickler for values and beliefs, chief amongst which is uncompromising integrity. He is willing to debate and discuss, listen to criticism and learn from any available source. The official values statement mirrors these traits.
The overriding common feature is the focus on serving the customer at all costs, and building relationships and maintaining the highest standards of integrity in one's conduct both personally and as an organisation. The continuity and survival of these values came from a group of seniors who stayed together through its metamorphosis - from making soaps to medical equipment to software.
Modern management
Part of the mystique of the company is also its attention to detail. The top management team realised early on the importance of good processes and discipline. As new waves of management practice came up, Wipro adopted them to an exemplary level. Thus it moved from ISO 9000 to the Japanese quality methods, the Toyota production system and the 6-sigma techniques, determined to prove that it was possible to achieve the apparently opposing objectives of improving quality all the time, while driving costs down and improving delivery performance. This was supported by a thoroughly professional approach to training and job-rotation in developing people.
Although the compulsions of size make the company a hierarchy, when a problem surfaces it is all hands on deck. Everyone who can contribute is pulled in, and if necessary the senior most person visits the problem-site to reassure customers and resolve issues quickly and efficiently. Though software is seemingly a technology business, the fact is that success has far more to do with personal relationships and sustaining customer confidence and comfort levels. In Wipro, this has been repeatedly shown not only by Premji, but also others like Ashok Soota, and Vivek Paul who contributed significantly to the development of the organisation. At the root of the successful growth, according to the author, is also a managerial style, to an extraordinary extent based on open debate, participative action and an un-politicised work ethic.
This is a welcome book at an important juncture in India's evolution into an important player on the world economic scene. One wishes, however, that there were more serious Indian authors willing to write such detailed and analytical works on the successful Indian companies.
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