We will get more ambitious: Neemuchwala

'Wipro's strength has been innovation and that will continue.'

Wipro chief executive-in waiting Abidali Neemuchwala on Monday said he has a well thought-out strategic plan for the company to get "more ambitious".

Neemuchwala, whose appointment was announced earlier this month, will start in his new role from February 1.

"Yes, I, along with my team, do have a very well thought out ambition and strategic plan. I will be sharing it in a little more detail when I'm ready to that. It is in the process of not only being brainstormed internally, but also putting a lot of execution details around it," Neemuchwala said.

He added that Wipro's strength has been innovation and that will continue.

"Along with that, we will get more ambitious, we will feel better as an organization, we will be more empowered as a company on the frontline, we will be faster in responding to our customers and our employees, we will invest in talent...we will grow talent more from within and also be aggressive in terms of if we need to get talent from the market," he added.

Wipro, the country's third-largest software firm, in a reshuffle of its top management earlier this month had announced the appointment of Neemuchwala while elevating T K Kurien as the executive vice chairman.

Congratulating Neemuchwala for his new role, 57-year-old Kurien said: "Abid brings some unique skills to the table, including his strong focus on execution."

"For each one of you who remained with me over these years, thank you very much for all the support. I was looking at a picture of myself five years ago and I clearly see that I did not need glasses to read the speech, now I do, plus I have added one white hair to my entire hair," he said presenting his last financial results for Wipro.

Neemuchwala, who joined Wipro as group president and chief operating officer from Tata Consultancy Services in April last year, will also be a member of the board of the company.

Responding to a question, he said any transformation would take a certain time and that he would give it a few quarters.

Neemuchwala said post the announcement of his appointment, he has had meetings with 15 direct reports and top hundred people in the company.

He added that the company not only has a good leadership team, but also a number of leaders across all levels and "so I don't see stability as a challenge".

In reply to a question, Kurien said circumstances under which he took over as CEO were very different from today.

He said five years back when he took over as CEO, the questions were about attrition, customer satisfaction, previous leadership and transition and was very little about business.

"If you look at questions then and the questions today, they are different. Today everybody is focussed and rightly so, on the state of the business. In the last couple of years from strategy perspective, we have defined everything we can do. Where we have fallen behind, is our execution," he said.