Our PCMM® Started in the 1970’s: Wipro 

Many years ago, Wipro Technologies acquired the distinction of being the first ‘technology services’ organization to attain CMM® (software) level 5. It has now achieved another major feat by becoming the world’s first organization to get assessed at level 5 of People CMM®(conducted by Ajay Batra, Lead Assessor, QAI Ltd.). Ranjan Acharya, Vice president – corporate, Human resources development, Wipro Limited took Deepak Kumar through the pattern of channelization of thoughts and energies that helped in the accomplishment.

Tell us the story of People CMM® at Wipro.

In 1999, I did the PCMM® lead assessor course. The initial gap analysis was done in September ’99. That was for level 2. A hundred and thirty seven employees were covered in groups of 10 and 20, including both managers and process owners. 

In parallel, we went about building other pillars that had started earnestly. The most significant point to keep in mind is that we believe that any model shouldn’t be a solution looking for a problem. We have been establishing various processes for a long time – way before we came across PCMM®. All well developed… but stand-alone processes. For instance we had a great training development and design process – but this wasn’t built around any specific competency. Our selection and certification program was another example. 

I had become a personal evangelist and presented PCMM® to everybody. There were 2 takers in the group – Wipro Technologies and Wipro Infotech. It was an expansion of opportunities, and linked to the desire to build people leaders. We also wanted a quantifiable target, one that was external and involved a rigorous process.

How did it get transformed into organization-wide strategy?

We decided that we must develop individual competencies. We engaged the services of Saville and Holdsworth – one of the world’s top psycho-profiling companies, based in the UK. We went to London in ’96. 

We realized that the key thing to go into was ‘integrated human resources management.’ Every people process should talk to every other process – in the same language. That was the beginning. Meanwhile we had visited the SEI^SM and had heard that the People CMM® was in the making. Bill Curtis had come down to Wipro in April 1999 and personally presented PCMM® to Premji and other top people. So they heard it right from the horse’s mouth. 

How did Wipro get the aspiration for wanting to become a great ‘People Corporation?’ 

An interesting event took place in 1996. We had an internal HR conference. Everybody was inspired and became very excited: we wanted to become “HR No 1.” Somebody even composed a song “HR No 1” and everybody chanted it. After that, we started wondering how we could become “HR No 1.” We discussed it with several HR leaders. We met Arun Jain, who was with RPG and was a well known HR figure. He said “there’s no such thing as HR No 1. But there can be an Organization No 1.” We wanted to do something that would clearly establish our position and set us apart. 

In December ’96 Dilip Ranjekar, our HR chief, and I went to the US to conduct an in-depth study for Wipro. We went to AT&T, GE, Tandem, Acer, British Telecom, and other companies in search of ‘HR best practices of the world.’ It took some time for us to understand all that they were doing. “What’s this thing they called competencies,” we wanted to know. So we completed the activity only by 1999. 

Then we hit upon PCMM®. In Bombay, 5 of us attended the 3-day Introduction to PCMM® workshop. Later on, I did the lead assessor training. We said to ourselves: here’s a model that addresses all our needs. Thus we looked at PCMM® by intent.

In 1999, we were already into competencies we had prepared what may probably have been the country’s first ever ‘competency dictionary.’ The PCMM® itself does not require a dictionary. The dictionary went far deeper than what is necessary for PCMM®. It goes into 24 competency areas over 5 levels, the behaviors at each level and what to do to address them.

The Six Sigma was the second major initiative at Wipro, which began in 1997, alongside many others. On the people front, we had already embarked on the “e-enabling” initiative – for providing services to employees. It was a business need, as Wipro is spread over 20 locations world wide. 

What were other factors that galvanized Wipro onto building people capability? 

Two silent events contributed in establishing people leadership. One is top management support. The chairman has a personal commitment to HR, for developing leadership and managers from within. Action on this front had started in the 1970’s. It was based on Mr.Premji’s own beliefs. This has always been a strength of Wipro.

It’s not surprising that Wipro was one of the 1st companies in India to discuss performance appraisal. Wipro was also the 1st to do a 3600 feedback. Companies are normally very reluctant to invest in HR. Therefore nobody is surprised that Wipro has reached PCMM® level 5. 

The other important factor is that leadership is provided by both HR as well as the CEO – in terms of resources, review time, and attention. It’s highly, completely motivating. Vivek Paul, the CEO, has had a review on this every quarter for the last 2 years.

The earliest, we thought we could reach PCMM® level 5 was December 2002. But intense support and cooperation accelerated the process. A lot of things existed – it was PCMM® that gave alignment across the organization. 

Why did you choose PCMM®? 

Our opportunities (problem) related objectives were:

What people processes make both business sense as well as individual sense? 
And we wanted to be the best at it. 
The question was how? The obvious answer was to find some standards and measures that will tell us – objectively. 

The world is becoming ‘global.’ There is no sense in doing something that is applicable only in India. PCMM® is global. When we saw that it had that “Aha!” effect – here was the answer to all our needs. It is blessed by Carnegie Mellon University. It is measurable. It has best practices. It has a yes/no checklist and removes ambiguity. 

How was the PCMM® experience in terms of rigor?

We went through 20 KPAs, with 6 observations per practice. There were over 400 practices. It covered over 6000 employees. We went through and met 810 documents. On an average, there were 7 observations per practice. That should give you an idea of rigor. It’s not based on some general perceptions.

The interviews covered not just the managers – but corroborated by individual stake-holders, and by the documents and the services. Wipro actually doubled the rigor stipulated by PCMM®. We looked at the nitty-gritty of the processes. Even if one was missed out, it’d reflect the weakness of the organization. Thus we derived a lot of value. 

What was the most critical factor?

The most important thing is that any process that is with HR remains with HR. Right from level 2, we had task forces for fixing the gaps. The task forces consisted of line managers as well as corporate HR. It actually took us longer because we wouldn’t know where to stop. We’d pursue the issue till we got it right – sometimes haphazardly. The assessment team comprised of 7 line managers, 3 HR staff and 2 Quality staff. Initially we were targeting level 4, but the line managers induced us to go directly for level 5.

We had people from line-functions, including finance. Thus there was tremendous buy-in. Over 100 people have contributed to the PCMM® effort in the last 2 years. You got to realize that this is a “people capability” CMM® – you build that in order to build “organizational capability.” That’s what the final results should be. And Wipro Technologies has 9500 employees.

What have been your major gains? 

Attrition has certainly come down. You have better people joining. There is an excellent awareness of your own capability and competency. You can plan your strategy faster. It helps in deciding faster. 

There’s also the customer differentiation. Earlier, overseas customers were asking for a presentation on your recruitment policies, retention, motivation, etc. Now there’s no need to ask that question – you have just one answer to all their questions: PCMM® level 5. Others speak for you.

There has been a tremendous raise in the internal energy levels. The amount of pride PCMM® has generated is huge. Within a few days after the assessment, more than 300 people have posted messages, even though they were on a holiday. There is an overwhelming “Team Wipro” feeling! 

What’s your next step?

It is not just the feeling that we’ve done something. The certification goes far beyond the physical certification. The goal was to meet business and people objectives. Therefore the journey will continue. The next step forward will be to derive deeper value. We are looking at internalization and institutionalization of the practices. 

We’ll look at assessment for PCMM® v2.0. We may also look at other group organizations. It (assessment) was restricted for logistic reasons. Now rolling it across will be a lot easier. We had never kept anyone in the group out of the loop. Communications was 100% all the time.

Wipro Infotech launched their PCMM® efforts in October 2000. After the level 5 assessment for Wipro Technologies, their aspiration has shot up – they now want level 5, as well. Business needs will be the differentiating and deciding factor. All the units were anyway getting the benefits of competency-based practices. Whether a division goes in for an assessment or not, the learnings will definitely get rolled across the board.

Some of the benefits will also spill over to partners. PCMM® will get reflected in our partnership program too – it’s the partner who interfaces with the customer.