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 Suresh
Vaswani joined Wipro as a marketing executive in 1986. Sixteen
years later as the President of Wipro Infotech, he tells Pankaj
Mishra how professional challenges in the company have shaped his
career
“The
desire for a challenge prompts people to launch their own ventures,
but I found sufficient challenges at Wipro. Therefore the idea of
launching my own venture never materialised,” says Suresh Vaswani,
president, Wipro Infotech. After completing his BE from IIT Kharagpur,
he took up a job at SKF Bearings. He soon realised that a mere engineering
degree would not help him in achieving his dreams. He therefore
joined IIM Ahmedabad to pursue a two-year course in management.
“I believe that a person should work for four years after finishing
his engineering degree and then pursue a management course. This
helps in understanding one’s drawbacks in the area of business
intelligence and strategy,” he says.
After
completing his Post Graduation in Management, Vaswani embarked upon
a long stint at Wipro, which has already accounted for 16 years
of his professional life. Vaswani was among few Wiproites who conceived
and launched the company’s B2B exchange, 01 Markets. Today
01Markets is profitable, one of the few B2B exchanges that has survived
the dotcom meltdown. “Forming 01Markets was as good as launching
a start-up. The Internet as a medium of doing business was undergoing
a fundamental shift and we leveraged that to the hilt,” he
says. In October 2000, Vaswani was appointed as the President of
Wipro Infotech.
Vaswani
is not an avid reader, but he finds time to flip through business
magazines ‘Fortune’ and ‘Forbes’. “I believe
that real learning comes from customers. Whatever time I spend with
my clients is valuable.” In May 1992, Vaswani was asked to
assist Azim Premji in the corporate business development activities
for Wipro’s consumer products division. “This job was
very demanding because it was an alien territory for me.” Soon
afterwards in May 1993, he was promoted as regional manager for
the Western region. He played a key role in establishing Network
Integration business at Wipro, which is now a major revenue earner
for the company.
One
of the most challenging assignments for Vaswani at Wipro was when
he was made the chief executive of Wipro-Acer, a joint venture.
“The job taught me the basics of handling a JV and managing
relationships effectively. I also got an opportunity to understand
and interact with international partners, which is helping me today
in expanding Wipro Infotech.”
“My
current responsibility is to grow Wipro Infotech into a division
that can contribute substantial revenues to the group,” admits
Vaswani. He is now chalking out plans for expanding the division’s
business into the APAC region. “Wipro Infotech today is a very
complex division which has stakes both in products and services.
Coming years are going to be tough and demanding. It is definitely
going to be fun.” When asked what drives him, he is quick to
respond, “I am driven by restlessness. Moreover, I have also
developed the ability to work for hours at a stretch.”
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