Alpha Ideas

Ethiraj: You have been asked before about headcount, do you see it coming down?

Wipro CEO Kurien: I think it’s going to be tough given the social context. It’s easy to do using technology; it’s tougher using it given the social context in mind. We, as an industry, have evolved by adding head count. We have got a whole bunch of middle managers and senior managers who have seen that model. Once you see something happening for 20 years, you believe that’s the only reality. That’s the problem. So, I think it’s going to be the biggest problem that we are going to have in that area is going to be internal change management than the external change management.

Ethiraj: Are you also being self critical of your middle management?

Wipro CEO Kurien: I think that’s true. It’s not middle management by itself and I wouldn’t define middle management very clearly. There’s middle management that really adds to technology and I think that’s fabulous to have. We absolutely need those guys. And those are people we really treasure.

 There are other people who just manage people and that’s the game that you don’t want in the future. Because, having a person who sits as a router, routing traffic from one end to the other, communicating upward and managing downwards is not a function that you require long term. That particular skill set is not going to be required any more.- from Boom