ICCK

 Bengaluru: Wipro said it will adhere to the contractual agreements it enters into with its employees. This underscores its stance on upholding the terms outlined in the contracts signed by its employees. “We are very particular in ensuring that the contracts we sign with our colleagues and employees, we hold to. And that philosophy hasn’t changed and will not change going forward. We do try to give everyone opportunities within the company, but if they find better opportunities outside, these people leave,” Wipro chairman Rishad Premji said at the firm’s annual general meeting on Thursday. Recently, Wipro had sought Rs 25 crore from its former CFO, Jatin Dalal, for breach of contract after he joined Cognizant as CFO immediately after leaving Wipro in November last year. The claim is based on the value of stock units granted to Dalal since he became chief financial officer in 2015. The company had said in the court filing that every one of the grants came with the condition that for a period of 12 months after his last date of employment, Dalal could not directly or indirectly engage with a competitor, could not solicit a Wipro customer to move the existing business to another party, and could not solicit a Wipro employee to be associated with a competitor, supplier, or customer. Recently, Cognizant paid Rs 4 crore to its CFO, Jatin Dalal, to settle the lawsuit and related arbitration with his former employer, Wipro.

 Premji said Wipro has an entrepreneurial and decentralized mindset that will allow employees to run their operations. One of the shareholders asked him how Premji was planning to arrest the churn at the top level, to which he said, “We have bred many CEOs that have gone out to build organisations... Entrepreneurship has always been a part of the secret sauce of Wipro, and it continues,” he added. Premji said that the 2023-24 financial year has been challenging for the company. “The global economic fluctuations this past year have affected our clients’ technology spending and led to uncertainty in market demands. However, despite these challenges, I believe the fundamentals of our business remain unchanged, and we remain fully committed to investing in our future. Although discretionary spending was subdued in the first half of the year, we saw promising signs in our consulting business in the second half, which is a positive early indicator,” he said. Premji said there’s been a significant shift in how businesses perceive AI, especially GenAI. “What was once a topic of curiosity has now become a cornerstone of long-term strategies for creating value. AI presents a distinct opportunity to reshape industries, reimagine experiences, enhance efficiencies, and foster innovation.”

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