c
  





à
pÚ
ÚÚ
p
p

p
 
 



 

Ú


, chairman, 3
   
, a pioneer of the Indian InfoTech industry
is one of the most distinguished leaders of corporate India. Azim Premji is one of the world's
most successful businessmen, regarded as an Indian Bill Gates after transforming his father's
vegetable products company, Wipro, into a multi national computer giant, the company under
the flag of his leadership never failed to deliver its best. A personality revered by all the
software professionals and an icon to the aspiring youth of the country, who has never failed to
inspire the young entrepreneurs. Forbes has estimated his net worth US $ 17.5 Billion in 2010
making him India͛s second richest person after Mukesh Ambani, the Chairman of Reliance
Industries.




 c 
Azim Premji was born in 1945 in Karachi, Pakistan in Gujarati Khoja-Shia Muslim family. Right

now he is residing in Bangalore. His father was also a business tycoon who owned Western

India Products Limited (The Full form of WIPRO). The core business of WIPRO was vegetable oil

and fats.Azim Premji comes from a Business family and his grandfather was a rice king of

Burma.

Azim Premji completed his initial education from St. Mary͛s School, Mumbai and later on went

to study Electrical Engineering at Stanford University, California, USA where Larry Page, the

co-founder of Google has studied. But at the age of 21 years, he forced to leave his study

becauseof the sudden death of his father in 1966 who founded WIPRO as a vegetable oil and

soap company. After that, 30 years later after building a fortune, he finished his graduation

again back from Stanford University.

He was also adjudged the Business Man of the Year 2000 by Business India. He is a

member of the Prime Minister's Advisory Committee for Information Technology in India.

Mohamed Hasham Premji, according to India Today, had been invited by Muhammad Ali Jinnah

to come to Pakistan to serve as finance minister in the country͛s first cabinet.

Jinnah, of course, was Pakistan͛s George Washington. The invitation came after partition in
1947, when the subcontinent͛s Muslim-majority states split off to form Pakistan. In the end,

Hasham turned it down, opting to stay in India and take his chances, a decision any Muslim

businessman must have weighed carefully. Apart from any concerns he might have had over

disastrous sectarian relationsͶhundreds of thousands died in the violence as Hindus and

Muslims migrated to their respective sides of the new borderͶhe had the socialist agenda of

Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to consider.

Nehru͛s Congress government, in fact, forced Hasham out of the export business when it

nationalized the rice industry, a move that put him on the road to making vegetable oil. But if

independent India͛s first government forced the closing of one Premji business, a later one

provided the opening to diversify into another.

p
 p p


  

 p 

pp ppp
pp
p

p
p

p
pp
 p ppp

p
pp p p! "p p#ppp 
p

p#p
#pp$p#
ppp

p
 p
p
p
p
p#p

%p
pp
p#
p

pp
p p
pp
pp
#
p#p 

p

pp
pp#
p
p
p
pp&p
pp

p

ppp
p
ppp
#ppp'p
p(
ppp
p
#
p#
pp p)
p
pp
*
p
ppp
p+
p 

ppp
pp,$
p(
-p.
/p

p
Premji have two children, M

. Rishad is married to Aditi and is currently the Chief

Strategy Officer of IT Business, Wipro Technologies.

M
 


Rishad Premji joined WIPRO at the age of 30 in end of 2007.

Rishad Premji and his younger brother Tariq Premji, who works with Azim Premji͛s personal
investment firm, Premji Investp


 p



 



 
 is an Indian business tycoon and the chairman of Wipro Limited, a group company

that holds Wipro Technologies, one of India's largest software development companies.



has Estimated His V
3 

 in 2010 making him one of the richest

person in the world and India͛s Second Richest person.

Azim Premji Receives M


Ú  from his Company Wipro which is very

minimal salary in comparison to his over all Wealth.

In 2000, he was voted among the 20 most powerful men in the world by Asiaweek. He was also

among the 50 richest people in the world from 2001 to 2003 according to Forbes. In April 2004,

he was rated among the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine. His assets

include 74% of Wipro. Wipro Limited, which dealt in hydrogenated cooking fats along with

consumer products, grew from a company of US $2.5 million to a giant of $1.4 billion under

Premji's leadership. Wipro Technologies, one of its group companies, is one of India's largest

software companies and is ranked among the top 100 technology companies globally. Premji is

also often known as the Indian Bill Gates.

 Ú





Azim Premji, Chairman and Managing Director of wipro Tecnologies, Graduated in c 

 

c



 from 




USA when due to the sudden demise of his father, he

was called upon to handle the family business. Azim Premji inherited his father͛s $2 million

hydrogenated cooking fat company in 1966, repositioned it and created Wipro Ltd., a

Bangalore, India-based IT services organization with 2007 revenues of  !"

. As holder of

more than 74% of the company͛s stock, Wipro͛s Chairman and CEO has become one of the

world͛s wealthiest men with an estimated net worth of just under $17 billionͶa total that slots

him at number #$ % "

&

'#((
 )
3 '




Under Azim Premji's leadership Wipro (Western India Vegetable Products Ltd.) has

metamorphosed from a company in hydrogenated cooking fats to a pioneer in providing

integrated business, technology and process solutions on a global delivery platform. Today,

3
 
*  &



 &




M

+
*
 +



, 

Premji started off in Wipro with a simple vision ʹ to build an organization on a foundation of

values. Under his leadership Wipro ventured into a continuous phase of expansion and

diversification with consolidation. In 1975, before venturing into IT, the company diversified

from vegetable oils to hydraulic cylinders and fluid power components and its factory at

Amalner was used for production of soaps, toiletries, and baby care products. Wipro also

entered the lighting products market and started manufacturing light bulbs with General

Electric.

The company




 * 
 -

./ moving in to fill the void by the

withdrawal of IBM in 1977. Wipro started manufacturing computer hardware, later moving in

to software development under a special license from Sentinel, e-Security Inc's security

information management and compliance monitoring solution. The company began selling and

assembling products made by such well-known companies as Canon, Epson, Hewlett-Packard

and Sun Microsystems

As a result, the $2.0-million company in hydrogenated cooking fats grew within a few years to a

$1.76-billion diversified, integrated IT and ITeS Corporation. The company offers software

solutions, IT consulting, software design, and solutions, business process outsourcing services,

and research and development services in areas of hardware. With offices in 45 countries, the

company is the fourth largest in the world in terms of market capitalization in IT services




 


 
  

At the first annual general meeting of the company attended by Azeem Premji, a shareholder

doubted Premji's ability to handle business at such a young age and publicly advised him to sell

his shareholding and give it to a more mature management. This spurred Azim Premji and

made him all the more 




 -
3
 **
 And the rest is history. This

simply means that he was a tought minded person with very much control of his emotions and

belived in showing the results rather than being discourage by his emotions.

Premji is a workaholic and according to him, in a competitive environment, work is the only way

to success and survival. An exacting taskmaster, he expects competence from his people and

though he is forgiving about genuine errors of judgment, he simply does not tolerate

obfuscation or deception.
Premji firmly believes that ordinary people are capable of extraordinary things. He believes that

the key to this is creating highly charged teams. He takes a personal interest in developing

teams and leaders. He invests significant time as a faculty in Wipro's leadership development

programmes. He also makes it a point to deal directly with customers as much as possible.

Premji strongly "



+



+

&0+
 
* 
0 through world-class quality

processes. This belief has driven Wipro's pioneering efforts in quality practice adoption.

For instance, 3
 


)
 ),

+
*
* 

,  "


12

33
+
 ʹ the highest maturity level for any software process. The company earned this

certification in June 1999. It is also the world's first organisation to achieve PCMM Level 5

(people capability maturity model).

As the pioneers of Six Sigma in India, Wipro has already put in around five years into process

improvement through Six Sigma. A measure of quality, Six Sigma is a disciplined, data-driven

approach and methodology for eliminating defects (driving towards six standard deviations

between the mean and the nearest specification limit) in any process ʹ from manufacturing to

transactional and from product to service.

Premji's adherence to


&
 is legendary and he is known to be a stickler for it. He has

consistently refused to offer bribes to get things done; his oils business had to wait for 18

months to get an electrical substation for the vegetable manufacturing unit because he refused

to give in to demands for bribes. For 20 months the unit was run on captive power generation,

at an unbelievably high cost to the company. But Premji remained steadfast, preferring the

extra financial liability to breaking his strict code of adherence to values

 
 
 



  

 


  




  


 



 


 !
 




 




 


" 



 




 
 
# 

  







 

2
 
$%%%&


+
&) 
4*

*

 

 , and he realizes that he, and leaders like him,

set the tone for their organizations. During one of his lectures, he touched on several things he

believes Wipro can improve upon and talked about the steps being taken to make such

improvements.

514*

*

 */
'"
/6

 In a global economy, Wipro not only competes

with similar companies in India, but across the globe. Premji͛s goal is for Wipro to be the best

at what it doesͶperiod.


" 



   

 

  

 


 









 

& '
 
 




()


Premji firmly believes that ordinary people are capable of extraordinary things. He believes that

the key to this is creating highly charged teams. He takes a personal interest in developing

teams and leaders. He invests significant time as a faculty in Wipro's leadership development

programmes. He also makes it a point to deal directly with customers as much as possible.
Setting the standard for an organization is a necessary aspect of good leadership as well, and

Premji doesn͛t believe this is possible if the leader doesn͛t do so with honesty and integrity.

o
at you do todayͶcan you afford to see it in t
e newspaper tomorrow? Can you look in t

e mirror and talk to your wife about it? Talk to your parents about it?͟
e asks.

Premji takes a long-term view in terms of Wipro, not a view that͛s driven quarter by quarter.

 


** 

/3
 


"
5& "

65



&



/6 notes Premji. With 80,000 employeesͶ15,000 of them located outside of IndiaͶ

leadership needs to be culturally sensitive. Working in teams is also an integral part of how

Wipro does business, and an employee͛s ability to be a contributing member of a cross-cultural

team has become increasingly important to the company͛s success.

One of Premji͛s greatest talents is his ability to recognize talent. 5

'
-
& * *

7 * *
*&

 

  )







/6͞The

coaching model of leadership is important. It͛s essentially a ͚tough love͛ message. You invest in

talent to get more out of someone.͟ This has proven true of Premji. More than six-dozen

former Wipro employees have launched successful businesses around the world.

Premji believes self-confidence is a necessary part of good leadership. That confidence allows

leaders to take risks and learn from them, including lessons gleaned from the occasional failure

that accompanies risk taking.

One can say that he uses Free-Rein style of leader where the leader gives complete freedom to

his follower to establish their own goals. He believes that he empowers people.
͞ 







 

 


 








&(


  


 
 



 



 

 
 

 

 
 

 
 

 
 
 






 







  




&M



 


 



& '
 
 




(
 

In the past three decades, he has transformed the family vegetable-oil business into one of

India͛s top four technology services firms. When American newsweeklies run cover stories

about the rise of India, they͛re talking about successes like Azim Premji͛s. When U.S. politicians

and pundits wring their hands about the effects of outsourcing engineering work in nearly every

sphere to Indian companies, they͛re talking about Wipro and a handful of counterparts.

Premji is flattered by comparisons with Gates, an old acquaintance and collaborator. Microsoft

is one of Wipro's biggest customers in India, although Premji quashes speculation that the two

could join forces more formally: 'They're much too big to want to partner with us.' He and

Gates have also discussed pooling philanthropic work, particularly initiatives in education,

which is the specialty of the Azim Premji Foundation.

 
 !
 





*

1.Be alert for the first signs of change

2.Anticipate change even when things are going right

3.Always look at the opportunities that change represents

4.Do not allow to become change

5.Realise that fear of the unknown is natural

6.Keep renewing yourself

7.Surround yourself with people who are open to change

8.Play to win

9.Respect yourself; the world will reward you on your success

10.Never change your core values

In 2000 he was voted among the Ë#(  ,

)


, Ë by Asia eek. He was

also ranked among the "50 richest people in the world" from 2001 to 2003 according to Forbes.

Financial Times included him in the list of "top 25 billionaires who have done most to bring

about significant and lasting social, political or cultural changes". In April 2004, he was rated

"among the 100 most influential people in the world" by Time magazine and Business eek

(October 2003) featured him on its cover with the sobriquet "India's Tech King."
The Indian Institute of Technology-Roorkee, and the Manipal Academy of Higher Education

have both conferred honorary doctorates on him. He is also a member of the prime minister's

advisory committee for IT in India. 2#((

& +

 )2
  

,



/ one of the highest civilian awards in the country.

3 
+


 


M
,-$.&/



0

1$2







0


 


 
M
3./-

&


 


1%2M
1/1-&-


M
1$%/&$





 
 
  
 

The Azim Premji Foundation says it "Aims at making a tangible impact on identified social issues by

working in active partnership with the Government and other related sectors of society". The

Foundation was set up with financial resources contributed by Azim Premji. Programmes of the Azim

Premji Foundation focus on "creating effective and scalable models that significantly improve the

quality of learning in the school and ensure satisfactory ownership by the community in the

management of the school". Azim Premji Foundation says it "dedicates itself to the cause of

Universalization of Elementary Education in India". The organisation has over the years been

instrumental in improving the quality of general education, particularly in rural schools.

Citing a technology initiative, the Foundation reported: "Think of a single PC with three display

terminals, three keyboards and three 'mouses', which can be simultaneously used as if they are three

independent computers". This innovative idea from the Azim Premji Foundation is being deployed in the

computer aided learning centre at the Byatarayanapura Higher Primary School in Bangalore South

District and in another school.

Five new titles of educational CDs for Indian schools were produced earlier in 2005. They are: Friendly

Animals and Journey on the Clouds (English), Swatantra Divas, Fun with Chinchoo in Mathematics and

Khel-Mel (Hindi), released in February 2005. With these, the total number of master titles available is

70.

There are now 68 titles in Karnataka, 42 for Andhra Pradesh, 35 for Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry, 18 for

Urdu medium schools, six for Orissa, 14 for Gujarat, 3 for Punjab and 1 for Kerala.

This Foundation is also involved in computer-based assessment in Andhra Pradesh (50,000 students

took part in early 2005), a learning guarantee programme, and a policy planning unit in Karnataka.
 4 M(4
Azim Premji does a lot of charity work in India and a well respected man. He has made India proud by

establishing brand India through his company. His company is one of the top most information

technology companies in the world. He is a man of guts and I have been inspired by his works as well as

principles. I vote him as the most inspiring man. His actions speak louder than words. The

most inspiring personality of the Year.

The founder of Ford Company once said, ͞Life is a journey, enjoy the drive͟. Yes, indeed life is a journey

where there is a lot to be explored. But at certain points in life we may need someone to tell us what the

purpose of life is, someone to inspire us to take on the world and that we don͛t have to be mediocre.

He will come and change the way we think, he will change our perspective and help us to achieve what

we dream of. And that personality is ought to be called the͛ Inspiring person ͚of your life. That person

will polish up and lubricate our days With fluctuating values in daily life and diminishing importance to

ethics, it is tough to find a right ͚role model͛ or a person who can inspire for a teenager like me. Be it in

corporate world or political world, universally it is decaying. With one by third of the population below

14 years of age and more than 60 percentage of the population below 35 years of age, the need of the

hour in India is to have somebody to look up to. It is very important for the country in general and for

the young adults in particular to have somebody who holds values and principles tight and who can be a

source of inspiration like Gandhiji, Nehru, Abraham Lincoln or mother Teresa used to be. There is one

person in India who doesn͛t like to steal the limelight24/7. He is a man of few words, but his actions

speak louder than his words. He is the third richest manin the world. Yet he is simple. He is Azim Premji,

the founder of Wipro. He is the man I earlier talked about, a man who can kindle a fire in your belly and

who can change your life forever.


 


 
 
 



p 

pp#0
pppp
p



pp
p#p$p
p
p11 p 

p

0
p
p 

p2 pppppppp
#p

p
pp
pp#
pp$p0p#p
p
pp



p

#pp

p

p#ppp#pp
p
p#p
#
ppp
p
p0

p
p#0
p0p 

p
p#
p
pp
p
p


p2p#
p
p3111pp#p
p#p
#
pppp
p
0

p
p#0
p0p 

p
p#
p
pp
p
p 

p2p


p4p
p#
p
pp

p
p 

p2p
pp
 p
p0
p
#pp
p#p
p0p pp#
p
pp


pp

p

p
#pp
p#
p
pppp

pp#0pp
p
pp
$p0p
p
p
pp
pp#
p
p
p
&p
#
pp

pp



p
#p(0
#
5p
p
p0
#
pp
p 

p
2pp#
p
pp



p
#pp
p#p6
p

## ppp
p
p5pp%pp

p

p#p#pp

p#pp

p
#ppp

0p

pp2#
p



pp
p
*pp
pp#pp2#
p

ppp
pp#p0pp
p


pp
pp
p


pp
p#-p
 p
#pp



pp
7

p

p#

p
pp



p
#p
p 

p2ppp
8
pp
 pp0
p
#pp

p#p
p0p pp#
p
p
p
p9


pp
p

p
#pp
p#
8p$p0


pp8%#pp
p
p



pp
p



pp
ppp8pp

p
 p


p 

p:0 p

$p:


0
p114 p
p 

p0p1;p
pp:0 p
 p
ppp

p#
p

pp

p#pp
p0p 

-p
p


p
p<p$


p!p
p

p
pp0p
p$$$p=

 pp
p
*p
pp$$$p> p#
pp

:0 p6p7
#pp:0

ppp0
pp#

p

0
pp:0 p0
pp
p114p
p
p#

pppp# p0ppp


pppp:0 p#
p


p#p#
p
pp*p
p#pp


p

p

pp:0 p#pp
p
 pp 11p



p

p
 pp
pp p
p

ppp
p
p

&

p#pp



ppp
p#p
p#p

pp p
p
p

pp
pp

p
Ú à  
  

   
 

 


   !
"# 


  







  

 
 
$


pp:0 p
p

p 

pp#pp(#0
p11ppp0
p#

ppp

pp
pp0p

p

:0 pp
pp#

p#
pp
p 

ppp

pp
pp
pppp



pp#p
pppp:0 pp
pppppp
p

p
*
pp:
ppppppp


p 

pp?9p


p 

pppp#
p p
p4 111p#
p0
p#

p
p

p

pp
ppp0p
p


pp$p

pp0
#
p
p


p#p
p
pp
#p

pp0p
pp
pp

#
pp#p#
pp
p#p

$p# p
p

ppp


ppp

p



 


  



p 

pp
p
p

pp
p>
p0
p#pp$p)
p#

pppp

ppp
p)

p
p
p
p#


pp6
p 

p

p>pp@A3ppB# p   p
p p
p#
ppp
-p

0
pp#

p

p?$ (pp@ pp

pppppp
ppppCp
#
p

p
pp$-p
#p#
p
pp
pppD:pEpF3p>p##pp

p20
p11p

p)
pp
p 

p2p#pp
p0ppp

p

p)
ppp
p

pp
#

p

ppp
p

p0ppp

p?$ (ppp
p0
p> (p:
#
p
pp$p

p?ppp
p

p
pp11p
#p#

p0p.0p>
p?

/p

p)
pp
p
p>
p6pp
p+
p111p0p>
p$ppp
p>
p

p!

pp
p+
p11Ap0p
p%#
#p

p

p

p
p
p.p11A/pp
p
p11p
p
p

pp
pp

p$pGp113 p
p9


pp$p#

pp
p
p 
0 p
pp
p

p
p#ppp
p#p

 

   



-p p p ##
p p 

#
p #
p p p 


p p 


#
p

p#
pp 

p#
ppp
p p
0
p
pp
#p
p
 pp
##
pp

p 

-p
p
pp
p0
p
p
ppp
p
pp

&#

#
p#p
5p


p  
p p p p 
p

p p 0
p p p 
p p p 0
#
p p p p p

pp#p
pp
p

pp#
#pp
 

p


p  p 
p p p p 

p

p p p p


p 
p p 
p p $p # p p p

pp

pp
pp
pp'
p#

p
p'p?
pp p
p
ppp

p
pp
p
p
pp
pp


p
  p
ppp
p0pp
p

p

p!
pp
p#

p+pp

p
p
p

ppppp
#
p
pp
pp##
p p pppp
p
p
p0

p
p
ppp

pp
p
pp p
pp
ppp
p
p

p


p
p
pp
p
#
pp
p:



 p
pp
pp
#pp
pp

pp
p

pp


ppppp0p

pp
p
pp
p?
p
ppp
p

p 
p
ppp
p
pp
pp
&#

#
p(
ppp#
p
&#

#
pp
0p pp
p0

pp

pB

p
pp
pp

p%

pp


p !
p
pp

p
ppp
p#
pp
pp


p
p
ppp
pp

p0
p
pp#
ppp#


ppp
p
=
p
p
 p
 p#
pp
p
p
pp

pp

p
p p
ppp
p

p
ppppp
p

pp


p
ppp
p

ppp



p
 ppp p

pp
p
pp
p)
p 

pp
pp#
p
p

p p ?p ?p $p 
p 
p 

-p 
p p #



p  p 0

p 0
p
p

 p p #

p ##
p p p p p 

p p 
p #
p p p p 

p p


#
p#pp
p
#p
pppp0
5p

"%


 
  


 


  

  

 


 
 & 
 
  
 
  
   



 
 
 



  





 "

Ú à   

5M

"
/ 
, ,

 
, "


+

*6

Ú