In the fast-paced technology landscape, Nagendra Bandaru emerges as a visionary leader at Wipro’s forefront. As President and Managing Partner of the Enterprise Futuring division, he shapes the organization’s strategic direction and redefines engagement with emerging technologies. With over two decades of experience, he has integrated diverse service lines while prioritizing collaboration and cohesion.
Nagendra’s leadership is characterized by a deep industry understanding and a commitment to nurturing the next generation of tech leaders, driving Wipro’s mission to create a future-ready enterprise.
A Journey of Ambition and Resilience in Leadership
In the competitive technology services industry, Nagendra Bandaru’s journey at Wipro exemplifies a transformative moment that shaped his leadership approach. His entry into the UK and Europe sales team in 1999 marked a pivotal point in his career. As the fourth employee at a company with a modest revenue of $10 to $20 million, he set his sights on a formidable target: the “186 K” opportunity, a $100 million single-year revenue deal.
“This was a big audacious goal I set myself, and it changed my thinking,” Nagendra recalls. At that time, Wipro was a little-known entity competing against giants like Accenture, KPMG, Cap Gemini, and Logica. Despite skepticism from colleagues, he rallied nearly 100 people to collaborate over two years.
“It required a village to win this deal,” he emphasizes, detailing the immense effort put into the pursuit. The team fought hard and advanced to the final round but ultimately fell short. Yet, Nagendra’s resilience shone through as he continued to push forward, embodying the principle that perseverance is crucial for overcoming obstacles.
“Sometimes, the right decision can also be the most difficult option,” he reflects. “But if you must have patience, you can persevere.” This mindset eventually led to success; within six months, the original competitor faltered in their delivery, and Wipro successfully secured the deal, marking a significant milestone with $100 million in single-year billing.
Nagendra’s experience serves as a vital leadership lesson: patience is essential. “There will be ups and downs, but you are running a marathon to deliver results for a company and results in life.” His journey illustrates the power of tenacity and strategic thinking, setting the tone for a leadership style rooted in determination and vision.
Cultivating Meaningful Connections in Work and Life
Nagendra understands that professional and personal lives are intrinsically linked, with each influencing the other. “Relationships are a continuous exercise,” he notes, highlighting the importance of discipline in enhancing the quality of these connections. Trust, he believes, is the foundation of any relationship and should ultimately simplify life.
To foster a positive atmosphere, Nagendra emphasizes the need for encouragement over criticism. “It is important to exercise a conscious effort to be an encourager instead of a critic,” he advises. He recognizes that positive actions in personal life can benefit professional endeavors and vice versa.
He also acknowledges the duality of experiences in life. “Positives and negatives come back-to-back, so you must be immune to both success and failure.” Advocating for a focus on creating meaningful impact, he emphasizes contributions to family, society, and pursuits that instill a sense of purpose. By maintaining this holistic approach, Nagendra integrates his professional responsibilities with personal fulfillment, cultivating a life that resonates with his core values.
Integrating Life and Work for Fulfillment
For Nagendra Bandaru, the notion of “balance” between professional and personal life is a misnomer. He emphasizes the importance of integration, recognizing that harmonizing these aspects is essential for overall well-being.
“I sleep 7 to 8 hours, exercise for 2 hours, work 10 hours, and travel often for work,” he shares. With such a demanding schedule, only a few hours remain for family, yet he remains committed to making that time meaningful. “I am a firm believer that you must give quality time to your family,” he asserts.
Nagendra stresses the value of shared moments, whether it’s having a meal with loved ones or staying connected with parents. “Start calling them every day before you go to bed because you never know when you won’t be able to anymore.” This approach reflects his deep appreciation for the fleeting nature of time.
He believes that cultivating positive habits is crucial, comparing them to daily routines like brushing teeth or waking up at the same time each day. “You must continue to hold these habits all through your life,” he advises. Nagendra champions the idea that individuals possess the power of habit and the present moment, encouraging others to use these tools wisely to foster connections and prioritize what truly matters in life.
Evolving Perspectives on Life’s Responsibilities
Nagendra reflects on how his approach to work-life balance has transformed over his 25-plus years at Wipro. In his early career, he focused primarily on professional growth and education, where responsibilities revolved around hard work and study. However, as he progressed through life, family commitments increased with marriage and children, prompting him to navigate both personal and professional landscapes.
He firmly believes in treating personal and professional responsibilities with equal care. “I personally believe that responsibilities must be uniform,” he asserts. This philosophy leads him to embrace a holistic view of life, where personal and professional spheres are interconnected.
Drawing on the Sanskrit concept of “Swadharma,” which signifies the responsibility to balance and integrate all aspects of life, he emphasizes, “There is nothing called priority. Yet, everything in our life is equally important.” This approach fosters a deeper understanding of how each responsibility contributes to a fulfilling life, enabling him to cultivate a more harmonious integration of his various roles.
Defining Success Across Diverse Business Landscapes
For Nagendra, measuring success in a vast and multifaceted business line is straightforward: it revolves around profitable volume growth. He asserts that “absolute profitable volume growth” serves as a clear benchmark, with a strong revenue trajectory and profitability indicating a positive business outcome.
However, his definition of success extends beyond financial metrics. “Success is also defined when our customers and employees are happy,” he emphasizes, highlighting the importance of satisfaction among stakeholders. This dual focus on profit and well-being underscores his belief that success encompasses not just numbers but also the human element within the business.
Additionally, he views growth as essential, not only for the organization but also for its employees. “This business is about people buying from people,” he notes, reinforcing the idea that meaningful relationships drive results. Ultimately, Nagendra believes that business success lies in delivering exceptional outcomes for both the organization and its customers, creating a cycle of motivation and inspiration that propels everyone forward.
Pioneering Integration for Enhanced Customer Experience
Nagendra considers his most significant achievement as President and Managing Partner of Wipro’s Enterprise Futuring business line to be the successful integration of diverse business components into a cohesive offering. He highlights the importance of merging processes, applications, experience, data, AI, and security to better serve customers in today’s rapidly evolving landscape.
“An AI-first world is about exponential experience and productivity,” he asserts, emphasizing that achieving this requires creating a secure environment where these elements work seamlessly together. Over the past year, he believes his team has made remarkable strides in this integration, resulting in revamped offerings, practices, and delivery capabilities that showcase Wipro’s strengths.
Through these efforts, Nagendra demonstrates a commitment to enhancing customer service and exemplifying the best of what Wipro has to offer, ultimately aiming to drive exponential growth and improved experiences in the enterprise sector.
Navigating Complexities in Enterprise Futuring Leadership
Leading Wipro’s Enterprise Futuring division presents unique challenges due to the diverse and distinct service lines within the business. Nagendra identifies the most significant hurdle as integrating these services into a cohesive, end-to-end offering while maintaining clarity in practices and solutions. “Ensuring clarity and growth in a crowded internal and external environment has been the single biggest challenge we have faced,” he admits.
In addressing challenges related to cybersecurity and AI, he describes these domains as “horizontal of horizontals,” emphasizing their pervasive impact across applications, data, infrastructure, processes, and devices. “Security and AI touch everything,” he explains, highlighting the complexity involved in their integration.
Organizing a cybersecurity business alongside AI requires careful decision-making. Nagendra navigated considerations about whether to centralize, decentralize, or create a distinct entity. “Ensuring the business was designed to be mutually beneficial across all units took strong governance and execution,” he reflects.
Over the past year, Nagendra believes significant progress has been made in fostering collaboration among teams. “I believe we have successfully designed a business where our teams are comfortable and more collaborative,” he states. This evolution has allowed customers to recognize the clarity and specialization in Wipro’s AI and security competencies, ultimately enhancing the overall service offering.
Cultivating Cohesion and Future-Readiness in Diverse Business Areas
Nagendra emphasizes the importance of prioritization and management across the diverse areas of digital operations, cybersecurity, and AI within Wipro’s Enterprise Futuring. This approach aims to create a future-ready enterprise that leverages unique assets and dominant capabilities, generating long-term impact for both the company and its customers. “The capabilities, practices, and competencies we build, how we build them, and most importantly, how we leverage and support each unit and each other is the most critical aspect of my prioritization,” he explains.
To maintain cohesion and alignment with Wipro’s overarching strategic goals, Nagendra advocates for a culture of shared success. “Cohesion comes when everybody wins, sees success, or receives credit,” he notes. He believes that distributing recognition and fostering a sense of winnability among units encourages collaboration. “The best way to ensure cohesion is to spread the credit and winnability across units that work together, and collaboration automatically follows,” he asserts.
This strategy not only strengthens internal relationships but also enhances the overall effectiveness of the Enterprise Futuring initiative, positioning Wipro for continued growth and innovation in a competitive landscape.
Inspiring the Next Generation Through Immersive Learning Experiences
Nagendra takes pride in initiatives that nurture STEM skills and foster professional development among students. He believes that immersing young talent in the business world brings them closer to industry realities and provides meaningful experiential opportunities. “Immersion is one of the best ways to learn,” he asserts.
A notable initiative is the recent community science fair, where students showcased their projects to Wipro executives and participated in the company’s AI summit. This event allowed students to demonstrate their innovative capabilities while enabling executives to witness the talent and creativity of the next generation. “This experience provided immense inspiration to both the next generation and the current generation,” Nagendra reflects.
He emphasizes that spending time in a corporate environment enhances students’ ability to connect academic learning with practical applications. This approach not only prepares them for future careers in STEM fields but also bridges the gap between education and industry, fostering a skilled and motivated workforce for tomorrow.
Shaping the Future of Technology Through Engagement and Patience
Nagendra envisions his work influencing the next generation of technology leaders and innovators through engagement and collaboration. “Engage with them. Bring their thinking to our business,” he emphasizes. He believes that while they can influence young minds, there is also much to learn from them, as understanding the younger generation’s perspectives on science and technology has significantly enhanced Wipro’s capabilities.
For aspiring leaders in the tech industry seeking to make a meaningful impact, Nagendra offers valuable advice: “It’s not only about the impact—enjoy the adventure.” He encourages upcoming leaders to focus on the journey rather than the challenges, embracing each step and learning from experiences while working collaboratively with their teams.
“Sometimes, you will need a village to achieve a dream,” he notes, recognizing the importance of collective effort in reaching goals. While acknowledging that people can become disheartened when results are slow to materialize, he stresses that “patience always pays.” This philosophy cultivates resilience and inspires a culture of perseverance and teamwork, essential for navigating the complexities of the tech landscape.
Conclusion
Under Nagendra Bandaru’s leadership, Wipro is well-positioned to navigate the complexities of the digital age, emphasizing innovation, collaboration, and strategic foresight. His commitment to engaging with the younger generation and fostering STEM skills is paving the way for a new wave of technology leaders, ensuring the industry meets current challenges while anticipating future opportunities.
As Nagendra continues to inspire and empower those around him, his impact resonates throughout the organization and beyond, solidifying Wipro’s position as a key player in the global technology landscape. In a world where change is constant, Nagendra’s vision and dedication stand as a beacon of hope and progress for the future of technology.
