I recently met up with Roop Singh, who stepped into the role of global head (pro tem) for Wipro Consulting after the unexpected and untimely death a few weeks ago of Kirk Strawser, who had led Wipro’s global consulting practice since 2008 (see OffshoreViews Q2 2009). Strawser joined Wipro from Capgemini Consulting, and prior had been 17 years with Ernst & Young. Singh was previously running Wipro’s consulting businesses in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific.
Wipro Consulting runs as a separate P&L from the rest of Wipro’s IT operations, and has grown to some 1,400 consultants since it was established. The upper echelons of Wipro Consulting are populated from the ‘usual suspect’ consulting firms, but Wipro is now bringing across high-potential candidates from within the ranks of the core IT services business to ‘build the pyramid’ of junior consultants. I think this is spot on as it makes for an attractive career path for those smart eggs in the IT business that can potentially cut the mustard in ‘real’ consulting. Plus, of course, it reduces Wipro’s reliance on expensive external consulting hires.
Wipro is getting quite reasonable ‘downstream leverage’ from its consulting practice. Suitable engagements can typically generate revenues of two- to four-times those of the initial consulting project in follow-on IT services. Wipro Consulting contributes some $150m p.a. to the top line, about 2-3% of Wipro’s total revenues.