On China, or many other matters, there’s seldom a more incisive soundbite-giver than the richest Indian. So, want to hear why his immensely valuable Wipro is eyeing China? Then sample this one: “You won’t be pissing in your own soup bowl unless you have to!”So, guiding Wipro’s expansion behind the Great Wall, be it the decision to set up a marketing office in Shanghai, or software development centres in partnership with key clients sometime later (Premji won’t say when) is the fact that Wipro needs to keep its customers happy.Some months back, Premji had famously observed that he won’t go to China. Around the same time friend and competitor N.R. Narayanmuthy of Infosys had espoused a direct interest in setting shop there. Today, both companies seem have new insights on the subject, though at least Premji looks uneasy if you describe his latest moves as a U-turn.“If the issue was just costs, I could go to Bhubhaneswar,” Premji reporters here. “But in China, besides cost effectiveness, there could be systems integration advantages, or even support services needed for systems integrated solutions, (then) there could be a government insistence for a software exporting component, and there could be a geographical risk (spreading) advantage, which my customers like,”.In the same breath, that Premji won’t announce concrete investments plans for China, say, for one more year.
