Does the Media APPLY THOUGHT?

If you are India’s richest man, anything that you do / say comes out in the media. Azim Premji and Wipro have been in the limelight for a variety of reasons. It started off with the resignation of two key executives (Vivek Paul and Raman Roy). The latest development is the resignation of Rich Garnik, Head of Sales for the US region. Wipro went on to announce its Quarterly results last week and as expected the media gave lot of coverage to this event. The results announcement was a bit different this time as the charismatic Vivek Paul was not there to answer the difficult questions posed by the media. At one of the earlier Quarterly earnings press meets, there was a question related to recruitment and bench strength. Vivek Paul said that recruitment is like a tap and they can open and close the same at ease. He also said that Wipro doesn’t believe in maintaining a big bench.

In the Indian IT industry there is an unwritten rule that Infosys announces their results first and the other IT companies follow suit. Wipro normally announces its results one week after Infy. It was during one of these Quarterly results that Premji made a statement about the poor infrastructure in Bangalore. It seems that the usually shy Premji was at ease with the media this time round. Press reports indicate that he even cracked a few jokes.

The press is notorious in blowing up even small things about such rich people. Some disclosure in the Wipro Annual report indicated that Premji has gone in for a housing loan. Some section of the media will report things like “India’s richest man uses borrowed funds to construct house”. But the media doesn’t care to write so much about the philanthropic activities of the Azim Premji Foundation.

As soon as Vivek Paul quit, BusinessWeek had an article on this issue. A short extract is given below

Premji is certainly a taskmaster who likes to keep his finger on the pulse of the business. His house stands next door to Wipro's sprawling campus in Bangalore, and he's often the first one in the office in the morning and the last out at night. He is a tightfisted manager who monitors the office supplies used at the company and makes random checks to see that workers turn off the lights at the end of the day. The 60-year-old chairman also shows no signs of slowing down, leaving little prospect for advancement for an ambitious No. 2. Premji declined to comment.

The above piece looks like a cynical view. Although Premji stays next door how does it matter to BusinessWeek? Are they saying that Premji exercises more control by staying next door? The office is not an ATM machine for him to keep a close eye. From what I understand, Premji preferred to stay closer to office so that he can avoid the traffic snarls that have become so common in B’lore.

Infy Vs Wipro

Infy has been a pioneer in the area of Stock Options and Performance linked bonuses. Wipro and the rest of the IT industry have tried to replicate some of these best practices in their respective companies. During the recent quarterly results, Premji has gone on record saying that Wipro’s structure is better than Infy. I don’t know the context in which Premji made this statement. I’m not even sure whether the press misquoted him. Did the press put the words in Premji’s mouth? I think this is probably the first time Premji has made an open remark about Infy.