Wipro

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Wipro

In 1994, Wipro was one of the top 100 publicly held companies in India. During this period the firm was going through a "paradigm shift", according to Premji. Changes in the government's economic policies and the resulting influx of MNEs led to fierce competition and a pressure to radically different.

Wipro followed an unrelated diversification strategy, due to regulatory barriers and to remain competitive.

Wipro has 7 industries:

1. Wipro Consumer Products - competition fragmented this segment and caused overcapacity. They competed with J&J, realising that the products were highly priced and retail channels were dissatisfied with the service. Wipro took advantage of this and used its image of quality and the strong links it had built up in its retail channel to directly compete with J&J (with its range of Baby Soft products)
2. Wipro Infotech (hardware) - In 1994 Infotech was the second largest IT company in India. It won awards for excellence, 4 years in a row. The firm's entry was spurred by the exit of IBM from India in 1977. Wipro developed a good relationship with Intel and Sun Microsystems and created innovations with its excellent R&D department. The company was facing competition from other firms creating alliances and realised that they had to go global or shut down
3. Wipro Systems (software) - In 1994, this company was one of the star performers of the Wipro portfolio. They saw themselves as a services company with a pool of talented engineers, and subsequently targeted the market for offshore development projects. They opened offices in the UK and in France
4. Wipro GE - In 1994, this was the second largest player in the medical systems market, being able to offer superior support to customers, "a key advantage in the highly competitive medical equipment market". They offered "total solutions"
5. Wipro Biomed - this was formed in 1988 to lead the company further into the healthcare arena. It expanded, with aims to becoming "a single comprehensive source"
6. Wipro Financial Services - In 1994, this was recorded the best performance in Wipro's portfolio. The company was able to leverage its expertise and intimate knowledge of technology and the needs and profiles of the customers. The company did not operate in consumer finance, but for businesses only
7. Wipro Lighting - a recent diversification, the company realise that "distribution is the key". It has excellent channels from its Consumer Products division which it can use for Lighting.

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