On March 26, 2025, Wipro Ltd signed a $650 million contract distributed in the UK-based insurance company Phoenix Group, a company that is served by Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS), the largest IT Services company in India.
The Phoenix deal was another large contract in June 2024. Although Wipro has no named customers, it announced a $500 million five-year contract for a U.S.-based communications company.
There is no doubt that analysts and investors wonder whether the company’s lingering moderate growth problem was finally resolved under the custody of CEO (CEO) Srini Pallia, who completed a year on April 6. He has been Wipro’s eighth CEO since 2000. Pallia’s predecessor Thierry Delaporte resigned from his five-year term.
Pallia, a Wipro veteran for three decades, may have started, but faces tough challenges. Wipro’s turnaround time has been shocked over the past few years with radical cultural changes, growth and profitability, stable senior leadership exits, and underperforming stocks.
The lack of large deals, worth over $1 billion, made the company worse by the arrival of generative artificial intelligence. Wipro reported that its full-year decline for the 12 months ended March 2024, and its revenue is expected to decline again in 2025.
Can the company finally turn around under Pallia?
At least one agent is cautious.
“Wipro has had several false starts under the CEO of the past. It needs to continue to bring similar surprises (large wins like Phoenix) to keep the current turnover efforts credible,” Kawaljeet Saluja, Sathishkumar S. and Vamshi Krishna dated March 27, 27.
Mint Talked with eight executives, including four current employees, to summarize the work.
Wipro has no reply from Mint Seek clarification.
Return from Paris
Let’s take a step back and analyze some of Palia’s decisions last year.
His first step is to be related to human resources. He promotes internal talent and prioritizes internal leaders in top jobs. This is in stark contrast to Delaporte’s approach – the French rely on external talents to lead the company’s business organizations.
Seven of the 10 business leaders appointed last year were long-time Wipro, most of whom have worked in the company for more than a decade. All of these leadership positions were open after many of the senior executives appointed by Delaporte left the company.
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“Okay, Srini didn’t do much, nor did she try to fix something that wasn’t broken,” said the executive who has worked at Wipro for more than two decades. “Usually, the upcoming CEO is trying to do too much and too fast,” added the executive who does not want to be identified.
Under Delaporte, a “new and old” Wipro culture develops through the infusion of talent in other companies. The company’s older employees are wary of unemployment. “Now, the fear of losing a job is no longer there,” the second executive said on condition of anonymity.
Second, Pallia showed greater restraint when squandering the inorganic movement. During his first two years at Delaporte, Wipro spent more than $2 billion in buying a company. Executives say Wipro has avoided acquisitions over the past year.
According to an analyst, the company went back to doing things.
“Pallia is more conservative and focuses more on rebuilding morale internal Wipro agenda,” said Peter Bendor Samuel, founder of Dallas-based IT research firm Everest Group.
Another change is to view the image of the Paris office (Delaporte’s Legacy) as the company’s neural center. The company is strengthening Indian leadership because it does not want unfilled executives stationed in customer-facing locations such as Paris. Wipro’s office in the French city has now been moved to a smaller space with less than a dozen staff.
A new obsession
According to all eight executives Mint When talking to it, Pallia felt “obsessed” about improving the company’s profitability.
This emphasis on increasing profit margins by cutting costs has been further strengthened. Unless necessary, administrative travel plans have been put on hold or cancelled. To this end, expensive teams of offsites held at Marquee Hotels in Dubai, London and Paris have become a thing of the past.
Based on internal emails shared with employees and review Mintthe company may eliminate at least 1,000 employees during the April-June 2025 period. This includes savings of at least $4.28 million in cost benefits from business areas such as banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), manufacturing and utilities.
Under Delaporte’s leadership, Wipro’s operating margins have increased – from 19.1% to 16.4% from April to June 2020 to the end of March 2024. The 270 basis points this fall is the highest of its four larger peers. A basis point is a percentage point of one percentage point.
One analyst said Palia’s cost-cutting measures have achieved results. Indeed, he improved the company’s profitability (see chart).
“So far, these signs are positive. Spending on top employees and external marketing are starting to help improve financial situations. This is especially timely as the current market crisis surrounds our industry,” said Phil Fersht, CEO of Massachusetts IT consulting firm HFS Research.
Sales stadium
Wipro has a compound growth rate of 4.14% over the past decade, accounting for half of its larger peers. The compound annual growth rates of TCS, Infosys and HCL were 8.06%, 8.54%, and 9.43%, respectively. Even smaller competitor Tech Mahindra reported a CAGR of 7.35% at 7.35% during this period.
Therefore, the CEO was full of hands.
The latest change in Pallia is the business weapon for restructuring the company, which is called Global Line of Business (GBL). New business weapons include technical services, business process services, consulting services and engineering.
Pallia took a more hands-on approach to Wipro’s biggest customers. He has appointed the account director for the company’s 80 largest clients, known as the “Global Account Director.” In addition, 50 “must-have” customers have been identified and the leader in charge of GBL has commissioned the acquisition of these 50 accounts.
Wipro also prioritizes operating margins in conversations with customers, as it does not want to sign deals below its operating margin target of 17.5%.
An analyst summed up Pallia’s year at Wipro.
“He focuses on results, rewards elites, and is seen as a fair and technically competent leader. He focuses on large bets and profitable accounts,” said R’Ray’ Wang, CEO of Cartellation Research, a California-based technology research firm.
The story of the long tail
Are all these measures enough to extract wipro from the quagmire?
The company faces a lot of uncertainty.
First, it is not clear whether Wipro is mining more business from existing customers. Second, the Capco, which consulting firm Wipro acquired in March 2021 for $1.45 billion, has attracted people’s attention.
“The new CEO faces multiple challenges – retaining leadership, managing and developing the consulting portfolio that has been acquired and completing a long-lost turnaround journey,” Kotak analysts said in a note last April 8 last year. The note added: “The $1.45 billion acquisition of Capco is a big bet for Thierry. We don’t think the acquisition is fruitful and we’ve realized the synergy.”
It is not clear whether Wipro is mining more business from existing customers. Second, consulting firm Wipro bought Capco for $1.45 billion in March 2021.
The company wants to eliminate smaller accounts that don’t contribute much to profit margins and growth, known in the IT industry as “cutting long tail.”
But, according to one executive, Wipro’s decision went against the trend when it offered companies every opportunity to win business during a time of economic uncertainty.
Furthermore, because Wipro has been underperforming for many years, the company is the most vulnerable in the current macroeconomic environment. Companies around the world may set out to merge or reduce the number of their IT service partners.
Last month, Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp., a New Jersey-based headquarters, appointed former Infosys executives as CEO in January 2023 and held its annual investor meeting. Two years after the arrest revenue fell, Cognizant aimed again. It hopes to include the world’s top four IT service companies (Accenture plc, TCS, Capgemini SE and Infosys) at a rate of 2026-27.
Many analysts and investors believe that Cognizant’s update aggression poses a challenge to local IT companies, including lagging companies such as Wipro.
“CTSH’s focus on large and large transactions, coupled with the productivity of the technology through AI…and consolidating suppliers where possible, can, in our opinion, have an increased strength of Indian IT competition in the near-middle term,” Kotak analysts wrote in a note on March 27.
Six years, three CEOs
The changes made by Pallia and their results will determine the legacy of Chairman Rishad Premji.
Since taking over as the chair in July 2019, Wipro first saw Abidali Neemuchwala’s CEO be laid off, followed by Delaporte. Pallia is the third CEO in six years.
“Pallia’s success is crucial to Rishad. Pallia is facing a difficult task to position Wipro for the emerging AI-driven market. These are great demands and he will take time to adjust.”
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Wipro’s public investors are anxious.
Between April 6, 2024 and April 7, 2025, the company’s stock fell 49.95%, the most among its top five peers. During the same period, TCS, Infosys and Hcltech stocks fell 17.66%, 5.52% and 11.01%, respectively.
Only Tech Mahindra shares have pushed its share price up 2.03%.
To be sure, its stock has been falling in the last few days after U.S. President Donald Trump announced import tariffs. It’s at least erased ₹The market value of the five major IT outsourcing companies is 812.2 billion. Analysts say India’s IT services could slow down as the tariff war threatens to hurt large customers in the United States.
Inflation policy is expected to darken further in the United States. Wipro generates more than 60% of its business from the country – any disruption in the Americas can reach its revenue.
In the nine months ended December 2024, Wipro’s revenue fell 4.2% year-on-year to $7.78 billion.
Nevertheless, when there is macroeconomic stability, the actual test of Palia’s success can be measured.
“Srini Pallia’s testing will be the test of how Wipro will deal with its peers when demand is normal. He now needs to put in a barrier to ensure that Wipro starts running quickly once demand increases,” Nirmal Bang analysts Girish Pai and Suket Kothari wrote on April 7 of the previous year, April 7 after CEO CEE. “We think investors and promoters will give him three years of delivery, even though his term is set to be five years.”
The king of the sign also expressed a similar view, adding that the challenge exists.
“Cutting costs has helped, but Wipro faces are bigger than normal scripts. Service companies have to be prepared for an exponentially efficient world. You need to be 10 times better or 10 times cheaper to win a new business. In an exponentially efficient world, AI is the key to restoring double digits,” Wang said. ”
