IT major Wipro’s Executive Chairman Rishad Premji reiterated that company’s CEO Thierry Delaporte has the full support of the board. He was speaking at the Annual General Meeting held today.
“I want to re-emphasise that Thierry has my full support and the full support of the board as he takes the company forward,” said Premji, answering a question from one of the shareholders. He also noted that Delaporte, being based in France rather than India or the US, is a strategic call made by the organisation, to be based centrally, considering that the company’s business is spread across regions such as the US, Europe, and West Asia.
This comes as apprehensions over Wipro’s performance has been looming. In the last quarter, its profits declined by 0.4 per cent on year-on-year basis and rose only a meager 0.7 per cent on a quarter-on-quarter basis, amid a tough demand environment. Multiple senior-level exits seen in the recent past, and the turnaround of its large acquisitions, have also been points of concern.
Addressing the fall in profits, Premji noted: “Profitability is down because we made investments ahead of time, but we believe with the investments we’re making as a company, we’re moving very much in the right direction.” The Executive Chairman also commented on the performance of the stock, and said although the market movement is not under the control of the company, it hopes the stock movement will follow as the performance of the organization continues to develop on the investments we’ve made.
Premji, commenting on the current demand environment said that even as technology adoption as a whole remains secular, sectors like banking and financial services and technology are seeing clients spend more on cost optimization and less on discretionary spending.
“The macroeconomic environment last year was challenging and continues to remain so even as the pandemic receded, Ukraine War entered its second year, and global interest rates continue to remain high. These factors have impacted client spending, especially toward the second half of the financial year,” he said.
The AI bet
Wipro is betting heavily on AI, to drive growth. On July 12, it launched Wipro ai360, a AI-first innovation ecosystem that builds on its investments in artificial intelligence (AI) with the goal of integrating AI into every platform, tool, and solution used internally and offered to clients.
Along with the launch of Wipro ai360, the company also committed to making a $1 billion investment in advancing AI capabilities over the next three years. Wipro ai360, fueled by this new investment, will help unleash a new era of value, productivity, and commercial opportunities through the application of AI and generative AI, the company noted in its release.
Thierry Delaporte, MD & CEO, at the AGM said, “Our industry, like every other industry, is undergoing a seismic shift with the advancement of artificial intelligence. AI can and will fundamentally change every aspect of the business. We are already using generative AI for multiple use cases and we are ready for an AI-powered future.”
SHARE
Published on July 12, 2023
