Wipro chief growth officer Stephanie Trautman steps down amid restructuring

IT services company has given a muted sequential revenue growth guidance for the third quarter

Wipro said on Friday the leader of its Chief Growth Office (CGO), Stephanie Trautman, will step down on December 31, 2023 as part of the company’s ongoing transformation.

Thierry Delaporte, chief executive officer and managing director of Wipro, started the CGO as a focused unit to chase large deals. Trautman was hired to lead the office along with a small team.

“We established the Growth Office three years ago to reimagine our approach to large deals, account development, partnerships and sales processes, as well as to develop a blueprint for building strategic solutions for clients,” said Delaporte.

“The Growth Office helped us achieve a new level of consistency in large deal bookings. With this strong foundation built over the past three years, we are now taking the next step in the CGO’s evolution,” he said.

However, over the past few months, Wipro started integrating the Strategic Pursuits team, formerly under the CGO, into its strategic market units (SMUs). Wipro has created four SMUs: Americas 1, Americas 2, Europe, and APMEA (Asia Pacific Middle East & Africa). While Americas 1 and Americas 2 are organised by sectors, Europe and APMEA will be structured by countries.

“Embedding this function within the SMUs allows us to build on the processes and approaches developed by the CGO and bring this experienced team closer to clients and on-the-ground sales teams. This integrated approach will help us uncover new growth opportunities, enhance our speed to market as well as success rate in deal wins,” Delaporte said.

The remaining functions of the CGO will be overseen directly by Delaporte.

The restructuring comes at a time when Wipro has given a muted sequential revenue growth guidance of -3.5 per cent to -1.5 per cent in constant currency for the third quarter ended December, amid a cut in discretionary spending from clients.

“Q3 is a seasonally weak quarter due to the furloughs, so typically you have some bit of a dent in the third quarter and that is reflected in the guidance. I think the market is a bit mixed now where the volume of deals continues to be strong but discretionary spending has come down,” Delaporte told 'Business Standard' in an earlier interview.