Most things about IT giant Wipro are process-driven. Even press conferences. Two minutes before the start, executives huddle near the dais of the firm?s extra large auditorium on its Sarjapur campus in Bangalore. Chairman Azim Premji walks in in the nick of time and sits in the centre chair; his executives take up seats on his left and right. Questions are usually directed at Premji who then delegates which executive should answer. Of late, reporters go mentally prepared to be snubbed. Premji wouldn?t repeat himself. If he spots the journalist arriving late, he could snap, ?You should have been here on time.? To speculative newspaper reports that appeared during the past quarter, he would get very very sarcastic.
We don?t know if it was a ?process? that kept the company from talking about its solar product during a recent press conference, or when questions about the firm?s EcoEnergy business were raised. Wipro is developing a hardware product that can improve the power generation of a solar plant by as much as 20%, as FE reported this week. The firm has bagged a couple of orders already but executives were rather uncomfortable with talking aloud. A lot of the information that this newspaper could report was gleaned because of a ?one-to-one? discussion with an executive, and even this involved a lot of persuasion. There was a lot of information that couldn?t be written about because it was ?strictly off the record?.
We are talking about an interesting product that will solve a critical problem for solar plants, and eventually lead to lower costs per watt. We believe the firm is wary of copycats?there are plenty of this breed in the technology playground. The less the product is known in the initial months, the more Wipro benefits in terms of market share and price. That would not be a bad thing. While Indian firms have excelled in technology services, success in products has been rare. Wipro?s solar product could be a valuable feather in India?s technology cap.