IT firms should innovate to survive: Premji

Wipro Chairman Azim Premji on Monday said Indian IT sector should continue to innovate to overcome challenges and survive in a globally-competitive world.

"Despite many obstacles, the Indian IT sector is growing stronger. However, innovation is the key driver of growth. There should be innovation in products, research and development, technology, organisational structure, business model and processes. Indian companies should follow this model to remain successful," he said delivering the keynote address of the Freescale Technology Forum here.

He pointed out that the lack of innovation could mean the end of the road for companies. "Standard and Poors prepared a list of world's top 500 companies in 1957. Only 79 of them were alive in 1997 since the rest failed to realise that the world is changing faster. Every company should have innovation as the core factor," he added.

Wipro set up an Innovation Council seven years ago to fund innovation within the company. "This is aimed at evolving new services and products. So far, we have made 70 invention disclosures," he said.

Premji pointed out that innovation was helping Wipro in improving its revenue significantly. "Today, projects based on innovation contribute 12 per cent of our revenue. In the next three years, we expect this contribution to reach 20 per cent," he said.