India HQ Wipro gets its first "Foreign" CEO

Wipro Limited, a leading global information technology, consulting and business process services company, headquartered in Bangalore announced its next chief executive officer and managing director. Thierry Delaporte, Capgemini’s COO and also a member of the group executive board, will be joining the Indian IT giant from July 6. Thierry Delaporte had an impressive career with Capgemini spanning across two decades where he helped drive Capgemini’s operations and strategic planning in several of its key business and led a number of key transformation programs. 

Earlier in 2020, Abidali Neemuchwala stepped down from Wipro's top post citing family commitments. He led the firm for four years, a period when the revenue growth stagnated and it lost its tag of being the Top 3 Indian IT firm to HCL Technologies. The market share kept falling further and further behind the rapid growth of TCS and Infosys. A quick comparison of the revenue growth between 2017-19 tells us the entire story. 

It all happened when Abid Ali Neemuchwala had set its target to achieve $15 billion revenue by 2020 when he joined Wipro as CEO in 2015/16. The FY2020 number, however, hovered around the ~$8 billion mark. 

How analysts are seeing this change? 

Rachael Stormonth, NelsonHall 

Thierry Delaporte brings to Wipro huge operational management experience from Capgemini , which was also the management training ground for Infosys CEO Salil Parekh. 

Phil Fersht, HfS Research 

[Thierry Delaporte] is an ambitious business leader with a strong finance background. He will bring strong operational and fiscal discipline to Wipro and has a lot of energy and leadership capabilities. 

Peter Bendor-Samuel, Everest Group 

Thierry [Delaporte] is an interesting choice for Wipro, signalling its move to be a true multinational and global player. Thierry faces many challenges as he assumes Wipro leadership; the biggest amongst them is to get Wipro back to industry-leading growth. To achieve this, he must increase accountability, and streamline decision making. 

Ray Wang, Constellation Research Inc 

Thierry [Delaporte] is a global leader and has worked with multiple cultures, across different types of companies. He has experience in the international environment and worked in similar types of company cultures. 

Pareekh Jain, EIIRTrend 

[Thierry] Delaporte will be expected to bring in large deals momentum, which Wipro needs. He will also be expected to bring-in stability.