Wipro CEO and MD Thierry Delaporte has the full support of the board, said Executive Chairman Rishad Premji on chatters of whether the board supports the current management.
Premji also said he sees early signs of greenshoots in demand, while speaking to Moneycontrol at the World Economic Forum in Davos on January 18.
"I'm certainly hopeful that 2024-25 can look better than 2023-24, as I said we're seeing early green shoots," Premji said.
He said order bookings in the consulting business, which is a lead indicator of discretionary spending, was decent in Q3 and indicative of greenshoots in demand.
On generative artificial intelligence, Premji said the nascent technology is moving towards “more and more business impact” this year. “So I'm hopeful that as you move into the second half of this year, you (will) perhaps see more elements of discretionary spend picking up.”
He said the company is training 2,45,000 employees on generative AI with the objective of increasing their day-to-day productivity levering the technology.
Premji said a chatbot developed for employees has had 4.7 million queries with a 98 percent accuracy, with over 40 use-cases.
He said many use-cases are emerging for generative AI. "I think this year is going to be the year with some of those pick up into real businesses," Premji said.
On being asked against lawsuits against former executives, Premji said employee contracts are industry standards and that the company is simply enforcing them. "Senior leaders get incentivised and compensated well to maintain the confidentiality of what they're doing. We're just ensuring that we enforce it. This is nothing personal," Premji said.
Premji echoed what CEO Delaporte had said earlier, addressing a press conference on January 12 after declaring Q3 earnings. Wipro said there's nothing personal or targeted in the way the company is dealing with contractual obligations, on the lawsuits the company has filed against its former chief financial officer Jatin Dalal and senior vice-president Mohd Haque.
In November, Wipro filed a lawsuit against Dalal, accusing him of violating the non-compete clause in his employment contract by joining rival Cognizant within 12 months from his last date of work.
On being asked about multiple senior-level departures in the past, Premji said employees leave for three reasons in large organisations. Firstly, because of structural changes. Secondly, because of underperformance and the organisation not being happy. And finally, because they find "amazing opportunities" outside the organisation, Premji said.
"Our exits have also been a very healthy combination of these three. And that's the nature of large organisations, and in a business that's transforming and growing," he said.
Premji said the company has not hired too many senior leaders from outside, but has had senior-level promotions internally. "So there's a large chunk of internal movement that's happening."
Premji also spoke about the declining headcount in the IT industry, attributing it to the after-effects of aggressive hiring in the last few years and tepid demand in 2023-24.
He said he would "not argue" that the reduction in headcount is because of the elements of "disruptive productivity coming into play on scale" to change the hiring quotient. Premji was answering a question on whether generative AI and automation are the reason why the headcount is declining.
In Q3, India’s top three IT companies reported a reduction of 16,254 employees. Even in Q2, India's top four IT companies had reported a decline of 21,213 in the workforce.
When asked what his suggestion would be to the engineers of tomorrow, Premji said he would urge them to have a strong open mindset to skilling and reskilling constantly. "Look at it (change in technology) as an enhancer, as an augmenter of your capacity and not as a threat."
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