Outsource Magazine Issue 33 - (Page 24)

INTERVIEW SEIZING THE FUTURE Shaji Farooq is Wipro Technologies’ SVP Advanced Technologies & Go-to-Market , Transformation, and a man for whom the future is the present… We got together with Shaji to ask him about his current role, the direction of his organisation, and how disruptive technologies mean wonderful opportunities for his clients… outsource: Shaji, thank you for joining us. What’s your focus right now? Shaji Farooq: My focus is on positioning Wipro for the future. Our core services will continue to experience pricing pressure, which is what one should expect from any maturing business. Commoditisation is inevitable as competition intensiﬁes, market penetration increases, and focus shifts from value to cost efﬁciency. So it is important to answer some obvious questions: where should we look for value in our business? What will drive our future growth in the face of reduced pricing power? Even as we look to drive efﬁciencies and bring down the costs in our core business through delivery automation and innovation, we need to invest in services that can drive business value for our customers, and are not just about reducing costs. The Advanced Technology portfolio is all about enabling business value for our customers by leveraging advanced technologies such as cloud, social, mobile, data analytics, and sensors. That's the business we are going after and, clearly, our marketing message is about positioning us as a superior provider of such services. o: So how do you ﬁnd the right balance between core business and growth areas? SF: I do not want to undermine or underestimate the importance of our core business – indeed we will continue to rely ❛EVEN AS WE LOOK TO DRIVE EFFICIENCIES AND BRING DOWN THE COSTS IN OUR CORE BUSINESS THROUGH DELIVERY AUTOMATION AND INNOVATION, WE NEED TO INVEST IN SERVICES THAT CAN DRIVE BUSINESS VALUE FOR OUR CUSTOMERS, AND ARE NOT JUST ABOUT REDUCING COSTS ❜ on it to drive our revenues. However, in the face of a tighter pricing environment, volume expansion will lead to diminishing growth rates. The focus in our core business is to drive higher efﬁciencies through innovation in how we deliver such services. The proﬁt margins have not dropped in a manner that is consistent: pricing reduction is itself evidence of service delivery innovation and efﬁciency gains. Development automation, reuse, tool-driven development, testing automation, etc, are all examples of delivery innovation. We have to continue to drive more such innovation in execution even as we expand into newer areas that are more value-driven. At the same time innovation also needs to happen in the area of business transformation (i.e. the business of our customers), and we need to leverage the aforementioned advanced technologies to drive such innovation with our clients. This then becomes the value part of our business. The opportunities in this area come about because business adoption lags the quantum jumps in technology capability that occur every so often. Internet technologies going mainstream at the turn of the century represent one such quantum jump in technology capability, and over a period of time disrupted business models in every industry. The same is happening once again with advanced technologies. These lags in business adoption can both create and destroy competitive advantage, “Whatever the device you use for getting your information out, it should be the same information.” – Tim Berners-Lee 24 ●● www.outsourcemagazine.co.uk http://www.outsourcemagazine.co.uk

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Outsource Magazine Issue 33

Keeping in Touch
Shaji Farooq
Manoeuvre the Maze of Cloud Confusion
E-Invoicing: Where Now and Where Next?
Rick Simmonds
Only Strong Leadership and Governance Can Deliver High Performance
A Healthy Development
Getting to We: Time for a New Negotiating Paradigm
NOA Round-Up
To Outsource or Not to Outsource
Big Data Hits HR
John Willmott
Show Us The Money!
GBS: a Game-Changer for Finance
Neil Pratley
Go East
The Talent Challenge
Head-to-Head
Top Ten
NelsonHall Round-Up
Online Round-Up
The Deal Doctor
Inside Source
The Last Word

Outsource Magazine Issue 33