We are seeing some softness in energy, utilities and BFSI businesses: Abidali Z Neemuchwala, Wipro

In a chat with ET Now, Abidali Z Neemuchwala, CEO & Board Member, Wipro, says the company has a good set of capabilities and in the long run, we have the ability to execute well and deliver results. Edited excerpts



ET Now: I am going to start with what markets are always curious about. Markets never look back. They always look forward. So let us start with your Q1 guidance and sincerely I was hoping for a better guidance. I was hoping for a fresh start considering that markets always do a relative numbers and we have heard good things from your peer competitors.

Abidali Z Neemuchwala: The Q1 guidance we have given is based on what we see right now and we are seeing a large number of opportunities which makes us optimistic about the one, two, three per cent guidance. At the same time we are seeing some softness in certain areas. It includes the energy and utilities business of us which is a significant part of our business. It includes certain parts of our banking and financial services business especially in Europe and we have incorporated all of that in terms of giving the guidance. So obviously, we do believe that we have a good strategy. We have a good set of capabilities and in the long run, we have the ability to execute well and deliver results.

ET Now: So as we start FY17, what are the big headwinds for Wipro and what are the tailwinds and which are some of your existing headwinds which can actually become tailwinds going forward?

Abidali Z Neemuchwala: Rather than talking in terms of headwinds and tailwinds, let me tell you what is happening in the environment that we see. Across our customers, we are seeing that the total IT spent is not going up significantly. But what is definitely happening is the IT spend is moving from what is the run part of customers business and it is moving to the change or the digital transformation phase. I feel very good about it because on the run part, a higher level of industrialisation and automation which we call hyperautomation is required. A certain level of service consumption-based model, cloud enablement kind of activities are happening and we are very well placed in these areas. Digital is becoming mainstream and with our capability to not only advice and consult on digital but also bring in design through our Designit acquisition and then execute on Agile, DevOps on the security and cloud area especially with some of the local investments we have made irrespective of our digital pod in New York or our digital pod in London or various other parts of the world where we are able to get clients together. Do customer journey engineering and deliver on the strategy and design piece. Some of the local centres we are setting up are in Mountain View, California in the US and in UK as well. Our acquisitions in Germany for local German workforce and through localisation in various other parts of the world, we are able to deliver Agile as well. So those are all of the opportunities that I see. Obviously, in certain sectors, in certain areas, time and again we see some softness which kind of converts into headwinds which I would not worry about too much right now. I think we are focussed on having a good strategy. We have identified six strategic themes and we are executing on it, investing in IT and I think we are very well differentiated in terms of capturing market share, in what is going on in the market.