Soaps-to-software major Wipro Ltd,countrys third largest IT company,has reported a 7.7 per cent growth in consolidated profit for the last quarter of 2011-12 and forecast a muted revenue growth for April-June period as it sees the business environment to be volatile. The company posted a net profit of Rs 1,480.9 crore for January-March quarter,against Rs 1,375.4 crore during the same quarter last fiscal. Its revenue grew by 18.84 per cent to Rs 9,836.30 crore for the quarter under review,from Rs 8,276.3 crore in the year-ago period. However,the earnings fell below market expectations with Wipro shares tanking 7.29 per cent to Rs 410.15 on the BSE on Wednesday. The company expects revenue from the IT services business to be in the range of $1,520-1,550 million for the first quarter ending June 30 compared to $1,536 million posted in fourth quarter of last fiscal (2011-12). Overall macro environment continues to be volatile. We have seen some signs of positivity in the environment in the last three months of the year. Customers however continue to be cautious, Wipro chairman Azim Premji said. Wipro has recorded a revenue of Rs 37,525 crore for the 2011-12 year,a growth of 21 per cent with a net profit growth of five per cent at Rs 5,573 crore. In my discussion with business leaders we have seen customers focused on globalisation and customers focused very aggressively on productivity. Some clients want to identify new growth opportunities. What they seek from us as a service provider is collaborative innovation and solutions that change the way they do business,bring in more revenue,reduce costs and improve customer insight, the Wipro chairman said. Wipro executive director and CEO for IT business TK Kurien said the firm,despite challenges,managed to deliver on its guidance range. Our pipeline is robust but given the nature of deals and proactive engagements our closures have taken time, he said. The IT business head echoed a recurring theme these days of the IT services business becoming like a commodity and lacking differentiators and the need for companies to shift strategies. We are seeing a fair degree of commoditisation happening in the business. Off-shoring,which used to be among the big differentiators that really built our businesses,has suddenly all become mainstream. For us productivity and technology are going to be disruptive and will keep us alive in the game and make us thrive, Kurien said. The company has announced plans to provide salary hikes for its employees in June this year and has said that it would be in tune with industry standards. Among Wipros peers Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has announced hikes for employees while Infosys has frozen hikes. Our strong belief is that irrespective of how the industry does it is important for leadership to stand up and build culture. When times are hard is when cultures are built not when times are easy. You cant head out to the hills when the times are hard, the IT CEO said.
