Co-chiefs of Indian IT major Wipro resign as sales drop below estimate

India's third largest software exporter and outsourcing giant Wipro Ltd. has announced the resignation of the joint Chief Executives of its IT Business, Suresh Vaswani and Girish Paranjpe, following a disappointing sales quarter, which also showed it lagging behind closest rivals Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services in profit growth.

TK Kurien, who was serving as the CEO of Wipro's eco energy division in his most recent role would be taking over the reins from the Co-CEOs.

Reporting its third quarter (Q3) results on Friday, Wipro said that it had seen a 10 percent growth in profits to Rupees 13.2 billion. However, revenue grew by 12 percent to Rs 78.3 billion ($1.7 billion) in the quarter, falling significantly below analysts' estimates of Rs 80.1 billion.

Wipro earns more than 80 percent of its revenue from the United States and Europe. IT Services contributed to more than three-fourths of the total revenues of the company for the quarter ended December 31 and over 90 percent of its operating income. While Wipro has been performing reasonably well over recent quarters, the general feeling is that its show in the face of global recovery in outsourcing demand has not been good enough, and definitely not at par with rivals in the industry.

Vaswani and Paranjpe, both Wipro veterans of over 20 years, were promoted to the position of Joint CEOs in 2008 in a move that had witnessed significant interest. The company had stressed the power of two and diversity in thinking that the model would bring about as the outsourcing industry tried to navigate choppy waters in the wake of the global recession and consequent cuts in spending. However, as the two stepped down making way for Kurien, Wipro Chairman Azim Premji pointed to the need for a simpler organization structure given the changes in the global environment.

In September 2010, Wipro had announced the elevation of Rishad Premji, son of the Wipro Chairman, to the post of Chief Strategy Officer, leading to speculation over a hastening of his rise to the top. However, in an interview with Indian business daily Mint following the resignation, Paranjpe has denied any connection between that and the current development.