Why Vivek Paul Left? and How does it affect Wipro?

My analysis of why Vivek Paul left Wipro begins about 6 years back when Vivek joined Wipro. At that time Wipro was a $150 million dollar company. Vivek articulated the 4X4 vision for the company ( achieving $4 billion by 2004), definitely a big audacious goal at that time. The goal energizes the organization and Vivek helped drive that vision for the next 5 years. Because of the tech meltdown, the actual numbers could not met, but Wipro did achieve lots of other goals. Now, when Wipro achieved $1 billion dollar plus in 2004, time was ripe for another vision, which would once again rejuvenate the company. This also meant, that Vivek needed to part of that vision, own that vision and drive the same for the next 4-5 years at Wipro. The vision had to be challenging enough. Vivek was unable to articulate another vision that could keep his attention for the duration of the vision goal. The challenge and dynamics of growing from $150 million to $1.5 billion is very much different from growing $1.5 billion to $5 billion. At this point, Vivek decided to call quits at Wipro and move on in search of better challenges. Now, with the exit of Vivek, Wipro lost a great ambassador and a spokesperson for the entire IT industry.


How does it affect Wipro?

In the short run, the continuing momentum will keep the company growing for the next 2-3 years. The real challenge will come after that. Will Wipro be happy with a YoY growth of 20-25% or does it need to reinvent itself to get into the next big league. The big league, where current processes need to be redefined and reinvented, the markets will be required to be treated differently. The size will bring its own problems of inertia in terms of resistance to change, the old mindset of the people. The real test will be 2 years down the line, which will determine the kind of growth trajectory Wipro takes. Can Wipro come up with another big hairy audacious goal (BHAG) that will charge the organization to take that giant leap and spurn it to the next Mount Everest?