Wipro goes for cost-cutting measures

Wipro today said it has employed 30 cost-cutting measures, especially in the area of operational efficiency, to tackle the current downturn. Since the third quarter of this financial year, the company has adopted the measures “like any other sane-minded organisation”, said Pratik Kumar, executive vice-president (human resources).

“We had done it (cost cutting) at every opportunity earlier. However, we are now doing it more aggressively given the current scenario ‘in a very innovative way’,” he told mediapersons on the sidelines of a press conference in Hyderabad on Friday, while refusing to spell out further details.

The cost-cutting initiatives include reducing or cancelling executive business trips. Wipro is promoting video conferencing as one of the ways of cutting costs to reduce business travel expenses, a Wipro spokeswomen said, adding that the company's utilisation rate for the third quarter was 79.6 per cent, which will be increased further in the coming months.

Kumar said the company will honour the hiring commitments with “no timeframe and on the basis of requirement”. Wipro had given a hiring guidance of 8,000 for FY10. It had a gross hiring of 1,944 in the third quarter of this year.

“We are not making fresh offers and at the same time are not completely freezing on hiring. We will honour the committed offers by June-July. If that doesn't happen, they will spill over into the next year,” Kumar said. “It is a question of going back on your offer or honouring it. We have communicated to the freshers giving them a broader indication on when it will happen.”