Bangalore Tiger

These tigers unlike regular tigers prowl day and night, they sneak up quietly when they see their target and prey on them, they know no boundaries and are not afraid to venture out to new ones. These tigers are none other than Indian tech companies that are making their roar all over the world. Bangalore Tiger, a very comprehensively written book by Steven Hamm, is about Wipro, India's third largest tech company behind Infosys and TCS. Steve Hamm is a senior editor of Business Week and hence lends credibility to the book in the US media. The book tells the story of Wipro, how it started, grew and is still growing everyday.

Recently, Times of India Group, launched a website and Ad-campaign, India Poised. It talks about two India's, one that is apprehensive and other that is on-the-move to conquer the world. Bangalore Tiger belongs to the 'other' India.


Wipro is one of India's best success story in recent times. A small vegetable oil company transforms into one of India's tech giants. Although, Infosys and TCS are still ahead in terms of revenues and sheer size, Wipro still has made its place in the tech world. This book is clearly a public relations exercise to get into some PR into one of the most exciting markets of all, US. Wipro was listed on Nasdaq later than Infosys and the price difference is shares is almost 3 times (Infy: 58.06 and Wipro (NYSE): 16.83), it still is very significant. Unlike Infosys though, Wipro is bad in marketing and brand management (as the book agrees too) and so this book is a good way to create a buzz in the market.

Wipro's Floating Centre, India's only training centre partially submerged in water, in Bangalore

The book start of by explaining how Indian tech giants are taking on the western companies like Microsoft, IBM and Accenture, not head-on but by differentiating into service industry which is their expertise. Also, how a small company like Wipro is able to lead in multiple market and vertical business units. One of the reasons the book gives for Wipro's success is their ultra-strict ethics and value system, which is translated into The Wipro Spirit - The Intensity to Win, Act with Sensitivity and Unyielding Integrity. Wipro is very high on morals and it clearly comes from the top, Aseem Premji. He not only transformed a sagging oil company but did it without compromising on his moral values. He is one of the architects of new resurgent India. Premji believes on spending very little on frills and gimmicks but takes proper care of his employees without indulging too much in pampering them as some other companies do. Infact, even he flies first-class rather than business-class to make an example.

Wipro's campus in Hyderabad

Aseem Premji was studying engineering in US when he got a call from his mother that his father has passed away and he had to come back. This one incident changed his life forever. He was given a failing vegetable oil company and the first thing he did was to introduce metrics into the business. It was his engineering background that made him trust numbers more than guess-work that was rampant in oil business. For e.g. in order to decide price for buying peanuts for oil, someone would chew a peanut to decide how much oil it has and then price was decided. Premji used engineering methodology to transform that practice into something that could be measured and was far more accurate.

Premji giving one of his lectures virtually

The book is one of the most comprehensive guide into the BPO business or as the book likes to call it, transnational company, that works in virtually every country but most of the work is done remotely back in India with limited onsite people. Wipro had given unlimited access to the writer, Steve, about its business process, business structure, management style, technological details. Living in Canada, I knew a bit about the offshoring business but this book spells it out in detail, how it works, how they make money, how they expand, how they find clients, how they keep them happy.

One area that book recognizes Wipro needs to work on to succeed in long run is Innovation. Companies that innovate are the ones that survive. Premji also recognizes that and has started innovation projects on three levels, technology innovation, solution innovation and process innovation. Premji created Centre for Excellence for R&D into new innovating projects. Another area that Wipro lags is product development but Wipro is not very much interested to go into that because it conflicts with its current business model.


The book ends with following postive words about resurgent India, "The Indian people have the ingenuity to overcome huge obstacles. And from ingenuity comes innovation. You'd better get ready to make room for them"

"Little Church in the Backyard", a new photo post @ Kaarindah