Wipro at Crossroads: The Failed Dual CEO Structure
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Case Code: BSTR433 Case Length: 28 Pages Period: 2000-2013 Pub Date: 2013 Teaching Note: Not Available |
Price: Rs.500 Organization: Wipro Limited Industry: Information Technology and Consulting Countries: India Themes: Management Structure, Turnaround strategy, Organizational Restructuring, Managing external and internal challenges |
Abstract Case Intro 1 Case Intro 2 Excerpts
Background Note
Wipro was founded in 1945 as a peanut oil company by Mohammad Hasham Premji (MH Premji) in Maharashtra. It was called Western Indian Vegetable Products. After MH Premji's death in 1966, his son Azim Hasham Premji (Premji), who was then a student at Stanford University, took over chairman of the company. He was then 21. In the late 1970s, the Indian government passed a rule under which foreign companies could run their businesses in India through Indian affiliates. This gave Wipro an opportunity to get into technology, which was in its nascent stage, after US-based technology and consulting company, IBM, exited India.
Neither Premji nor his associates knew much about computers but this did not stop them from making them. In 1975, the company created its first minicomputer that was sold for less than an IBM mainframe though it did similar work. Within a year, Wipro got into the PC business and became the leading computer company in India. Soon the company offered engineering design, software programming, and back-office services to more than 500 of the world's largest corporations.
In 1975, the first diversification took place at the company. Wipro got into the business of fluid power at the suggestion of M Seethapathy Rao, a graduate of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.
In June 1977, the company was renamed as Wipro Products Limited.
In 1979, the consumer care business was expanded with Wipro diversifying into soaps, toiletries, baby care, and beauty products. The company then got into manufacturing hydraulic components for construction equipment...
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