The former vice-chairman of Wipro, Vivek Paul, was named among the world's 30 most respected CEOs. He found a place in the Time/cnn list of 25 Global Business Influentials for 2004 and, till recently, was India's highest paid CEO. After working in PepsiCo and GE, he joined Wipro six years ago, when it was just a $150 million company. He gave it a software focus, transformed it into a $1.4 billion global giant. So, when he quit Wipro recently, the news created a furore in corporate circles. In an exclusive interview with Arindam Mukherjee, he recounts his stint at Wipro, why he quit and the challenges in his new assignment at the Texas Pacific Group (TPG), a private equity firm.
Why did Vivek Paul quit Wipro?
In the last few months, several senior people have left Wipro, including Vikram Ghulati, Raman Roy and now you. What's going on?
But that pool is thinning?
When you joined Wipro in '99, Ashok Soota had just left with his team. What kind of a situation did you face then and what was your gameplan?
Did you achieve your goals?
What went wrong with your vision to make Wipro a $4 billion company?
What of Wipro's long-term prospects?
Coming to outsourcing, what's the situation in the US and the UK?
India is still doing low-end BPO work...
In the BPO space, how strong is competition from the Philippines and China?
What will you do at TPG?
And the next big wave...
