From IT to ET,Wipro is quietly taking the leap

Seated in this modest office is the stubble-faced,cotton kurta-clad Anurag Behar,41,whose title is CEO of Wipro Infrastructure Engineering at Wipro Ltd.

The title appears mysterious,given the growing importance of Behars role at the outsourcing giant.

Nearly two decades after a small family-owned vanaspati company transformed into a huge technology services brand,Behar is leading another game-changing move within Wipro to turn it into a global brand in eco-sustainable technologies and services,shifting away from traditional rivals TCS and Infosys Technologies.

Some industry folks are wagering that the new business will rake in the next few billions for Wipros billionaire chairman Azim Premji,currently the fifth-wealthiest Indian. Going green is in tandem with Wipros and Premjis much-espoused theme that good business ethics make great business sense.

The business of business is not only to make money, says Behar. We want to participate in genuine,deep change in society.

The unit has only a couple of hundred employees yet but Behar avers that this will be Wipros key business for the next 25 years. We are going whole hog.

Those watching are impressed. This is brilliant, says Sridhar Mitta,Wipros former global R&D head and now a venture capitalist. If executed well,this could be gigantic…much bigger than Wipro.

Mitta has worked closely with Premji and labels him a non-techie who barely understands technology. But he does two things extraordinarily well he knows how to count money and he knows how to pick people, says Mitta.

Premji chose Behar,mainly involved in Wipros social and community initiatives away from the corporate ladder,for this role. He hired Behar,an engineering graduate from Trichy and a post-graduate from XLRI,Jamshedpur,from General Electric seven years ago. In his new role colleagues say Behars career is on the ascendant. Rising star in Wipro is how Girish Paranjpe,Joint CEO at Wipro Ltd put it.

In helping companies go green,Wipro is extending its current product and service lines. Its consumer lighting business is focusing on eco-friendly LED lights.

Its information technology business will consult for its existing Fortune 500 customers for whom it cuts technology and operational costs through outsourcing.

Wipro will now offer them consultancy on getting more energy-efficient,cutting greenhouse emissions and reducing their carbon footprint. Additionally,Wipro is building clean energy and water units through acquisitions,and is already offering consultancy services in these areas. For instance,Wipro is offering engineering consultancy and implementation of geothermal cooling,green LED lighting and social power systems for a telecom data centre.

It has installed a hybrid solar and wind energy system at a school. It has set up a high purity water treatment plant for a pharmaceutical company. Further,Wipro maintains the solutions with 10-year warranties.

The demand for this service is enormous,says Behar. Since launching the consultancy in April this year,he has signed up a dozen customers.

In offering green solutions an idea probably crystallized during Premjis weekend passion of hiking the hills of southern India Wipro is walking the talk.

Its 45-acre Electronics City campus in the suburbs of Bangalore houses an Eco Avenue. Here a paper recycling plant converts all paper waste into re-usable note pads. A bio-gas plant converts the food and kitchen waste from the cafeteria into bio-fuel for the cafeterias kitchens. Rainwater is harvested to cool the campus air-conditioning systems. A small windmill powers the street lights on campus.

With the worlds businesses looking to go green,Wipro appears to have as compelling a business proposition as technology outsourcing. Wipros early commitment to eco-sustainability puts us in an advantageous position as the world wakes up to the reality that ecology is the real cap on human progress, says chieftain Paranjpe.