Q&A: Girish Paranjpe, Joint CEO, global IT services, Wipro

'Luckily for us, our clients are getting stronger'

Wipro’s financial results for the April-June quarter (Q1) showed the management has been able to maintain operating margin and volume growth. Girish Paranjpe, Joint CEO of its global IT services, discusses this with Bibhu Ranjan Mishra. Edited excerpts:

How is the overall demand environment?
Fairly strong, based on disciplined spending by our clients. Luckily for us, the companies (clients) are going stronger. This quarter, while every other sector has grown, three sectors have done well -- financial services, telecom and retail & consumer products.

Your growth seems to be driven by existing clients.
True. For many years, our existing clients have always contributed more than 95 per cent to our overall revenue. The clients we are adding now will show traction over time.

Is business from Europe a major concern?
Most of the troubles are in the southern parts of Europe. The countries which joined the European Union late, such as Spain, Portugal and Greece, are still going through some pangs, as they have not reformed their public finances. However, our client base is really in the northern parts of Europe -- Germany, France, UK and the Nordics -- which are are much more stable economically. And, because the euro is depreciating, our clients’ products are 20 per cent cheaper compared to their market, and they are seeing a boom in demand.

Any change in your European strategy?
We have got a good client base and we have invested in creating a local leadership, empowering them to effect greater levels of localisation, within sales and delivery.

Your growth has been driven by India and West Asia this quarter.
We are making big investments in emerging markets. Whatever we have been able to do in India and Asia can be replicated in Africa and Latin America, where the growth could be led by sectors like telecom and banking. So, we are taking some of those services and capabilities that we have created in India to those markets.

Are you seeing any change in the spending habits of your banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) customers?
The initial parts of the spend by BFSI customers were driven by mergers and acquisitions. Now, it is also driven by two other factors. The first is for launch of new products, as many of their old ones have become obsolete and they are searching for new markets. The second is their thrust to comply with the new regulations.