Azim Premji

High Performance Leadership
Project submitted by:-

Leadership On Azim Premji
UNDER THE GUIDENCE OF Prof.

IYER
INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS STUDIES AND RESEARCH
PRESENTED BY:-
Group No.:-06
Group Name:- Smart Warriors
Group Members: - Roll No.
1. Avdhut Gadgil 02
2. Prasad Bhole 11
3. Rameshkumar Sharma 13
4. Karan Swar 25
5. Rakesh Acharekar 06
6. Sushilkumar Kamble 58
7. Nikhileshkumar Mishra 19
8. Tejal Vasani 31
9. Geetanjali Gaddeti 42
10. Seema Yadav 51
MMS-1st yr. 1
11. Megha Shinde

39
Azim Premji
Chairman of Wipro Technologies
Azim Premji (born July 24, 1945), an Indian businessman,

is the Chairman & CEO of Wipro, one of the largest
software companies in India. Its headquarters is in
Bangalore, "the Indian Silicon City".
Azim Premji was rated the richest person in the country

from 1999 to 2005 by Forbes. His wealth in 2006 was
estimated at $14.8 Billion which places him as the Fifth
Richest Indian. He is now considered to be worth closer to
17.1 billion.
Early life:
Azim H Premji attended St. Mary's School I.C.S.E. in

Mazagaon, Mumbai. Premji was just finishing his
undergraduate engineering studies at Stanford University
in 1966 when his father passed away. He immediately
returned to India where he took over the family's fledgling
vegetable oil business. Premji started off with a simple
vision: to build an organization on a foundation of values.
Premji eventually received permission to take
MMS-1st yr. 2
correspondence art courses to complete the requirements

for his bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering.
Awards and Accolades :
Premji has been recognized by Business Week as one of

the "Greatest Entrepreneurs of All Time" for his vision and
leadership that has been responsible for Wipro emerging
as one of the world’s fastest growing companies. Premji is
the only Indian to make it to the list.
In 2000, he was conferred an honorary doctorate by the

Manipal Academy of Higher Education. He was also
declared the Businessman of the Year 2000 by Business
India and is featured in the Business Weeks all-time top 30
entrepreneurs of the world in 2007. He is a member of the
Prime Minister's Advisory Committee for Information
Technology in India.
As of October 6, 2007, he is the 5th richest Indian, with a

net worth of $13.6 billion. Though Fortune Magazine
estimated his wealth as over 17 billion USD just 2 months
earlier...
He was awarded a Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.), an honorary

degree , from the Aligarh Muslim University on the 18th of
June, 2008 on the occassion of 58th Convocation
Ceremony of the University.
Family & Personal Life :
Premji is married to Yasmeen, the couple have two

children, Rishad and Tariq. Rishad is married to Aditi.
Premji is known for his modesty and frugality in spite of

his wealth. He drives a Toyota Corolla and flies economy
class, prefers to stay in company guest houses rather than
luxury hotels and even served food on paper plates at a
lunch honouring his son's wedding.
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Azim Premji Foundation :
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
MMS-1st yr. 4
in early 2005), a learning guarantee programme, and a

policy planning unit in Karnataka.
Achie
• Chairman of Wipro
Technologies; Richest Indian
forfrom
Electrical Engineering theStanford
pastUniversity,
several USA years;
Born on July 24, 1945, Azim Hashim Premji was studying
when
Honored with
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due to the sudden demise of his father, he was called
upon to handle the family business. took over Bhu
in 2005.
the reins of family business in 1966 at the age of 21.
At the first annual general meeting of the company

attended by Azeem Premji, a shareholder doubted Premji's
Azim Premji is Chairman of
ability to handle business at such a young age and
publicly advised him to sell his shareholding and give it to
Wipro Technologies, one of
a more mature management. This spurred Azim Premji
and made him all the more determined to make Wipro a
the largest software companies
success story. And the rest is history.
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inspiration to a number of
Under Azim Premji's budding entrepreneurs.
leadership Wipro has metamorphosed
from a Rs.70 million company in hydrogenated cooking
MMS-1st yr. 5
fats to a pioneer in providing integrated business,

technology and process solutions on a global delivery
platform. Today, Wipro Technologies is the largest
independent R&D service provider in the world.
Azim Premji has several achievements to his credit. In

2000, Asiaweek magazine, voted Premji among the 20
most powerful men in the world. Azim Premji was among
the 50 richest people in the world from 2001 to 2003 listed
by Forbes. In April 2004, Times Magazine, rated him
among the 100 most influential people in the world by
Time magazine. He is also the richest Indian for the past
several years. In 2005, Government of India honored Azim
Premji with Padma Bhushan
LEADERSHIP - Azim Premji Chairman Wipro

Ltd
Speech delivered by
Azim Premji Chairman Wipro Ltd at an interactive session

in Pune
"What I would like to talk about and I think it would be
useful to share some of these experiences, is my
experience with leadership. I think one of the most
important attributes for success is being in the right
industry at the right time, and being lucky and I don’t
think one should underestimate the extent of facilitation
and the extent of enabling luck does to success. In my
case it has been enormous, that is not to be modest of the
success that I have achieved but it is just to reinforce that
leader after leader I have spoken to seems to also
attribute a lot of their success to good luck.
Let me get into a point form in terms of what I consider
important in leadership. I think, most importantly,
successful leaders must be able to articulate a clear,
stated, committed vision for the corporation or the
company they represent, or the company which they lead,
and the vision must always be centered around the
customer. It cannot be centered around any thing else. It
must be powerful enough to ignite the imagination of all
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the troops in the organisation, not only the leadership in

the organisation. So the process of buildup of a vision
must be deft enough to get engagement for people who
are going to contribute towards its achievement and even
when it is articulated without a very broad based
engagement. I think it helps a lot that you institutionalise
the process to be able to bind in that kind of engagement
through forming forces and task forces and sub forces
within the organisation which are part of the
implementation of that vision and that’s not very difficult
to do because all visions require execution. The important
thing is that vision cannot be an impossible fantasy. It has
to be an executable dream. And that’s the most important
thing. It must supercharge an organisation, it must turbo
charge an organisation. It must put a lot of stretch in the
organisation but at the same time it must be an
executable dream but measurements in the organisations
must be based on plans. They cannot be based on a vision
because a vision by definition is something which is super
stretch, and you are questing towards it. So it is like a
quest. It is like an executable dream.
Second, success has to be built on a foundation of values
because if a company does not have a foundation of
values, it cannot have a sustained success. Values not
only make success enduring, but also help in building a
strong resilient organisation, strong resilient teams in the
organisations that can stand up to any crisis on the way.
Values need leaders to be absolute transparent in
whatever they do. If you are not willing to have leadership
which is absolutely transparent then values articulated up
front is more of a liability than an asset. It becomes a lot
of hot air. And the organisation sees through it
enormously fast. In an organisation in which the values
are articulated, leadership must walk the talk. Leadership
must be transparent, leadership must set the tenure and
the standards of what it is articulating. It must practice the
talk. To quote a cliché, you must walk the talk.
Third, successful leaders must have self-confidence. Self
confidence comes from a positive attitude, even in
adverse situations. Self-confident leaders assume
responsibility for their mistakes and share credit with their
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team leaders. They are able to distinguish between what

is in their control and what is not in their control. They do
not waste their energy and their time on events that are
outside their control. And hence they accept set backs as
a routine part of what happens in business practices. In
these dynamic times what sets a leader apart from the
rest is self-confidence. One cannot expect others to have
confidence in you, if you do not have self-confidence in
yourselves. Again a cliché, but very, very simply true.
Fourth, successful leaders need extraordinary physical
mental and some say spiritual energy to remain on top of
their demands made to them. I found that even my job
has become increasingly complex in the past three-four
years. And probably it has grown in complexity by a
dimension in the past two years what was not in the past
twenty. I am sure the majority of you would find this true
and the major challenge is, this is going to increase. It is
not going to decrease. The jobs are going to get tougher.
The jobs are going to get more competitive. The jobs are
going to get more complex and time is going to be the
essence of success or failure. There is no longer a debate
whether a person should work smart or whether he should
work hard. A person should work both smart and hard. If
he does not do that simultaneously, he cannot be
successful in the current environment. In a recent survey
at Davos, at the World Economic Forum, 99% of the
leaders surveyed, attributed their success to hard work.
You have to appreciate that competition is intelligent. You
have to outdo competition by being more hardworking
than competition is.
Fifth, successful leaders must improve their standards for
excellence in quality. There is no fixed standard in quality.
It is a moving target. What was excellence yesterday,
becomes your qualification, your entry pass to be in
business today. Customers all over the world, want more
quality for less cost. Absolute universal truth! While the
greatest contribution to globalisation has been demand for
higher quality, and we are feeling this now increasingly so
even in India. Japan used quality to achieve leadership in
the automobile industry. Similarly our software industry
has used quality as certified by SEI CMM Level Five to be a
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certificate for qualification in global markets and we are

doing it successfully. Out of the 32 SEI CMM Level Five
quality organisations in the world, 17 are from India.
Sixth, successful leaders know that strategy that equals
execution. All the great ideas, all the great visions of the
world are useless and worthless if they are not
implemented rapidly in time and cost effectively. Never
neglect details. Seemingly unimportant details can
completely alter the shape of the final outcome. They
must lead the implementation of high priority decisions
with completely focussed minds so that the decisions are
taken to the logical end. That is what leadership is; vision
and execution, one without the other is half baked.
Seventh, successful leaders are on the side of optimism,
always. I remember the story of a ship which got lost in
the sea. On board the ship, there was an optimist and
there was a pessimist. The pessimist was the first to get
up in the morning and announce that the ship would sink.
This depressed everyone on the ship. The optimist got up
last in the morning and announced that they would reach
the shore by the evening and made everyone feel much
better. Finally the passengers decided that they had
enough of the pessimist and threw him overboard. The
optimist continued to announce that they would reach the
shore that evening. In contrast to the pessimist the
optimist was welcome, but when they did not reach the
shore in the evening, all the people were disappointed.
Finally, in exasperation they threw the optimist overboard.
The moral is very simple. Stick to the side of optimism
even when you are realistic. Remember that the optimist
was the last to be thrown out. Optimism is very simple. It
is a force multiplier. The ripple effect of the enthusiasm
the optimism creates in the lead in the organisation is
awesome. So is the effect of cynicism and pessimism on
the exactly opposite side.
Eighth, successful leaders attract the best people and they
retain them. An organisation does not accomplish
anything, tiers do not accomplish anything. Organisations
succeed or organisations fail because of the people
involved. Only by attracting the best people, can you
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accomplish great deeds. Look for intelligence, look for the

ability to judge and most critically, the capacity to
anticipate and see around corners, very, very, critical
attributes of leadership. Also look for people with loyalty
though it is old fashioned now, integrity, a high energy
drive, a balanced ego and a overpowering desire to get
things done. Because management by the end of the day
is results. Successful leaders create leaders under them.
Winning organisations have leaders at every level.
Creating winning leaders is a personal payoff to the
master leader. When people retire, we do not remember
what they did in the first quarter of 99, the first quarter of
2000 or the first quarter of 2001, but what you remember
is how many people they have helped to build better
careers to dedication to their development. A very good
acid test of strong leadership in an organsation is how
many chief executives in and around your environment
have grown up in the organisation that leader had led. It is
a very good acid test. Look around, look at companies like
General Electric, they have leaders in something like 60-
70 Fortune 500 companies. I think we can boast a little bit
of this ourselves.
Lastly in terms of leadership, leaders play to win. They
always play to win. Playing to win is one of the finest
things you can do, playing to win stretches you and
everyone around you. It gives you a new sense of
direction and a new sense of energy. Playing to win does
not mean playing dirty. If you cut corners along the way,
you will miss out on personal satisfaction of winning. And
your team will miss out on a pride of that winning.
Because winning means reaching the depth of your
potential and utilising it to the fullest. Ultimately in any
business, in any competition, the biggest competition is
always your self.
Team Leadership at Wipro: Are Two

CEOs Better Than One?
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Take an organization with business divisions that overlap,

add rapid growth, and flavor with problems arising from an
uncertain environment. What you have, potentially, is a
recipe for confusion. At Wipro, India's third-largest
software services firm, however, little evidence of
confusion has appeared despite the turbulent winds that
have buffeted the company for the past few years.
Revenues have grown to nearly $4 billion today from
$1.35 billion in 2005, when former CEO Vivek Paul left to
join Texas Pacific Group, a private equity firm . Wipro has
had no CEO since Paul's departure, with chairman Azim
Premji -- who owns more than 80% of this Mumbai- and
New York-listed company -- combining the roles of both
chairman and CEO.
That situation changed when Wipro announced in mid-

April that it had appointed not just one CEO but two: Girish
Paranjpe and Suresh Vaswani. Paranjpe has been with
Wipro since 1990 and most recently was president of the
BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance) vertical of
Wipro's global IT business. Vaswani is a 23-year veteran at
the company and was, before his promotion, the president
of Wipro Infotech. In addition, he oversaw some areas of
the global practices of Wipro Technologies.
Wipro's organizational structure is complex and

sometimes baffles outsiders. The IT business has two
organizations -- Wipro Infotech and Wipro Technologies.
The latter handles the global business while Wipro
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Infotech serves India, West Asia and Asia Pacific. In

functional terms, the company has a matrix structure with
three verticals and two horizontals. The verticals are the
$1.06 billion technology business (which is in the product
engineering and the telecom service provider space); the
$1.4 billion enterprise business (targeted at
manufacturing, healthcare, retail, etc.); and the $799
million financial services business. The two horizontals are
the $1.1 billion global practices business (testing, package
implementation and technology infrastructure services)
and the $290 million BPO (business process outsourcing)
operation.
These verticals and horizontals are headed by executives

who were expected, after Paul's departure, to function as
CEOs. But, Premji got roped into the day-to-day
functioning, and inevitably he was overburdened. "It
pushed too much of the operating load on me and was
getting counter-productive," says Premji.
Premji is confident that the new arrangement will work. In

an interview with India Knowledge@Wharton, he said, "We
believe that two people who have worked together for
more than 10 years and been in the company for more
than 15 years would be able to work very well as a team.
The fact that 75% of our revenues come from global
markets, the fact that we are growing at 30% a year in a
service, highly people-intensive industry, we figured that a
two-man team at the top would be stronger than one man
at the top. I continue to be executive chairman, but they
are the joint CEOs of our IT business."
The two men occupying the hot seat -- or, in this case,
seats -- are equally gung-ho. Says Vaswani: "Given the
size of our business and the ambitions that we have for
our business, two is certainly better than one. We do
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believe that the power of two will help us so far as we are

concerned, given our environment." Adds Paranjpe: "Given
the enormity of the opportunity and the task at hand, we
felt it was worthwhile to have two of us trying to drive this
rather than leave it to one individual to try and do
[everything]. And from a personal perspective, it can get
very lonely at the top. So, having two people helps."
Two Views from Wharton
"The business environment in India gives an impetus to

this model of collegial and collective leadership," says Ravi
Aron, senior fellow at Wharton's Mack Center for
Technology Innovation, who has closely studied Wipro's
strategies for the past six years. Companies like Wipro
that are anchored in India face both an "Indian premium"
and an "Indian penalty" associated with doing business in
that country, he says.
The "premium" aspect for companies doing business in

India is the combination of access to a highly skilled labor
pool and attractive wage levels, says Aron. The "penalties"
are the uncertainties in the business environment with
respect to infrastructure, power availability, urban
transportation and stability in policy regimes. "Even
countries in Eastern Europe like Poland and
Czechoslovakia can more or less take for granted the
availability of urban amenities, power and transportation,"
he says.
Companies like Wipro need two CEOs because of the

complexity of doing business in India, Aron argues. "On
the one hand, you have to manage offshore client
relationships and business development by staying really
closely tuned to what is happening in international
markets. On the other, you have to be embedded in India
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to manage the country-specific challenges," he adds.

"Sometimes these two faces of complexity are quite
divorced from each other; they are different sets of
challenges. It may be difficult for the same CEO to handle
both ends."
Another reason such a "collegial leadership model" works

in some Indian companies is because of what Aron calls
the "founder effect." The founders of companies such as
Wipro, Infosys Technologies and HCL Technologies "are
entrepreneurs in some senses, and are more principals
than employees," he says. "They have very strong shared
values and they have seen their companies grow over the
years. Conflicts between CEOs often occur because of
vastly divergent visions and different skills; that's not the
problem with these people," Aron notes.
Aron believes the twin-CEO model should work well at

Wipro based on his personal knowledge of the relationship
between Vaswani and Paranjpe. "Suresh and Girish are
very compatible personalities," he says. "Both are hands-
on, have a great deal of discipline, never miss the details,
and have a strong sense of not going after expensive,
blue-sky ideas until they can be validated by research."
Aron says Premji, too, will be comfortable with the new
order because of what he describes as "an extraordinarily
numbers-driven environment" at Wipro where "a direction
will emerge" after individual executives make their
business cases. "Generally, a strategic direction emerges
whether you have two CEOs or one," he says. "There could
be tactical differences, but those can be resolved." In
addition, Premji will be involved in all key management
decisions, and has "always been part of the analytic filter
that all decisions must pass through," says Aron.
Wharton management professor Peter Cappelli sounds a
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cautionary note; he points out that he hasn't seen the

twin-CEO model work effectively in Western corporations.
"Generally, in the world of governance, this is a situation
to avoid," he says. "My guess is that what ultimately
happens is the co-CEOs confront the possibility of a
stalemate, but there is also the possibility of them
continuing to disagree, and so they may end up
negotiating settlements all the time. In principle, that is
not bad if they actually have the interpersonal skills to
negotiate conflicts as opposed to just stalemates."
Cappelli points out that in companies that have twin CEOs,

the board of a directors could help resolve disputes. The
real problem, though, comes up while trying to make
decisions that reinforce the company's culture or which
make for a consistent strategy. Cappelli warns that if the
two individuals differ about business direction, "you could
end up with practices that don't represent either vision
because the parties are negotiating compromises along
the way." That, he says, "is arguably the worst of all
possible worlds."
Cappelli also doesn't recommend shared power at the CEO

level by carving out two autonomous business units as a
way to retain top management talent. "You are basically
structuring a whole corporation around these two
individuals with the goal of trying to keep two people," he
says, adding that he doesn't approve of "turning the
organization on its head just to make that happen."
Like Cappelli, some observers in India are a shade

circumspect. "I believe that, in the long term, it is critical
for any business to have a single CEO," says Sudhir Sethi,
chairman and managing director of IDG Ventures India,
part of a global network of local venture funds. "Wipro
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may adopt this approach for two to three years." Sethi,

however, sees several positives. "Wipro's adoption of a
joint-CEO structure is a step indicating to internal senior
management the potential of rising to the top," he says.
"To the other stakeholders, this move signifies depth of its
management cadre in the IT business. The IT business is
large enough to need two CEOs."
The other side of the coin, of course, is the notion that this
is the easy way out. Wipro has lost some senior people
recently. Appointing an outsider as CEO -- or promoting
just one person -- could have led to further departures. "A
decision to opt for a joint-CEO structure sometimes also
implies that the two may have co-skills and that there is
no frontrunner," says Nandita Gurjar, group head of
human resources at Infosys Technologies. She makes it
clear, however, that she is not talking about the Wipro
duo, but in general terms.
Track Record of Co-CEOs
In 1999, Chief Executive magazine examined a number of

joint-CEO instances that had been created because of
mergers. Joint CEOs are regarded as one of the vehicles
that can help in the integration of the merged entity. Still,
the article raised questions about the viability of such
arrangements. "Historically, the co-CEO structure has a
dubious track record. Yet
companies continue to tinker with the concept," said the

article. "With prospects of success so grim, why (are
there) so many attempts to breed a healthy two-headed
behemoth? For one thing, the concept looks good on
paper. In theory, sharing the CEO chair should leave both
leaders sitting pretty, blending complementary skill sets
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and experience and easing the strain of overwhelming

responsibility. In practice, it's not that simple. As critics of
the dual CEO structure are quick to point out, failures
outnumber success stories by far."
Consider Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch conglomerate. For 75

years it functioned with one chairman in London and
another in Rotterdam. (The chairman of Unilever plc was
deputy chairman of Unilever N.V. and vice versa.) In 2005,
the company reported a fourth quarter loss, shareholders
were up in arms, and the joint leadership structure was
abandoned. Patrick Cescau was named sole chief
executive. "We hope the new structure will help us win in
the next couple of years," Cescau said at that time. "In
2005, we won't change the world, but we will make good
progress." In the past three years, Unilever has performed
much better.
"In earlier times, there was a hierarchy based on age and

tenure but that has now changed," says Gurjar of Infosys.
"Now the capabilities of individuals matter the most. An
organization can have only one king or queen. Otherwise,
each will create their own kingdom which could cause
conflict and pull the organization in different directions."
India's IT firms seem to be exceptions to this overall

pattern -- many of them have collective leadership
structures, which is why the Wipro arrangement is in good
company. For example, at Mastek, founder Ashank Desai
is still actively involved with the company, though the
chairman and managing director is Sudhakar Ram. Desai
took a year off to organize the PAN-IIT meeting (a yearly
event of alumni of the Indian Institutes of Technology)
held in Mumbai in 2006.
Premji cites the example of Infosys. "For all practical
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purposes, it has a very active team of three at the helm,"

he says. Infosys chief mentor N.R. Narayana Murthy,
Premji says, spends 80% of his time on Infosys; co-
chairman Nandan Nilekani is "completely active"; and then
there is Kris Gopalakrishnan, the CEO and managing
director.
Some family-run businesses also have joint CEOs. Brothers

Shashi and Ravi Ruia, who are now seventh on the Forbes
richest Indians list with a net worth of $12 billion, even
share the same office room. Neeraj Aggarwal, director and
partner at the Boston Consulting Group, is of the view that
leadership structure needs to be viewed in the context of
the organization, and it's hard to pass judgment from
outside. "Any structure can be made to work, and any
structure can fail," he says. "In the case of a joint-CEO
structure, a lot depends on the chemistry between the two
individuals."
"A joint-CEO structure can work if both of them have

worked together long enough to understand each others'
strengths, and if they have healthy respect for each
others' judgment and expertise," says Gurjar of Infosys.
"While organizational decisions are relatively easier to
make because of the rules of the game, it is the trust
between the two that impacts interactions and can make
or break the structure." But, she adds, "you can't go with
two CEOs beyond a certain period of time, say around 18
months. Beyond this, the joint CEOs would need to divide
responsibilities very clearly."
At Wipro, it is the practice to revamp the organizational

structure every two or three years, primarily because of
the company's rapid growth. The company goes through a
process of introspection to find out if it can have
something tighter and more effective. Should this happen,
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the joint-CEO system could potentially make place for a

new arrangement in the future. But for today, Premji
insists that he wants to make the co-CEO structure work.
"We will look at all structures after three years, but that is
not to say that we will collapse the two CEOs into one
CEO."
Meanwhile, Paranjpe and Vaswani have their work cut out

for them. In an interview with Bloomberg News on June 12,
the two CEOs announced that the company is currently
bidding on a dozen large contracts -- each worth $100
million or more. The goal, Vaswani noted, is "to be among
the [industry's global] top 10 in a three-to-five-year time
frame,' competing for large contracts with the likes of
Infosys, which is currently ranked number two.
Premji points out that Wipro is on its way to crossing $6

billion in revenues this year. An organization of this size
from India, he says, is equivalent to a European or U.S.
company that has $10 billion to $12 billion in revenues,
because of the billing rates and the global delivery model.
To run an organization of such business volume and
complexity, two heads are better than one, he says.
Wipro: Leadership in the Midst of Rapid Growth
MMS-1st yr. 19
Vivek Paul is, as the pundits say, a man on the move. In

2004, Time magazine picked him as one the year's 25
best young leaders. BusinessWeek named him as one
of the best managers of 2003. His resume is enviable:
Ten years at GE, most recently as head of GE's global
computer tomography business, reporting to GE's
current CEO; before that, positions at Bain & Co. and
PepsiCo.
Also enviable is his record at Wipro. As vice chairman of

the Indian conglomerate and CEO of its Wipro
Technologies, he took the global information technology
services company from $150 million in 1999, when he
joined the company, to its current $1.3 billion,
representing about 75% of the corporation's total
income.
Speaking at a recent Wharton West Leadership

Conference, Paul shared his thoughts on leading an
organization as it goes through such rapid growth, not
only in revenue but in employees. Wipro has been
adding about 2,500 new people per quarter, net of
replacement for attrition, with its total employee
population now at 39,700. It started as a vegetable
cooking oil business some 45 years ago, launched by
the father of its chairman, Azim Premji, who still owns
83% of the company.
The DNA of Talent
When he joined Wipro, Paul didn't start with something

as grand as a vision: "First we had to earn the right to
have a vision," he told conference attendees. "When I
came on board in 1993, the company wasn't performing
well on its operating metrics ... We had to just grind
away and improve those first."
MMS-1st yr. 20
But, when the vision came, it was grand indeed: To be

among the top 10 global technology service providers
by the year 2000. That meant massive changes in
scale, as well as in technical sophistication and quality
in three arenas: service lines, processes, and talent.
Talent was Paul's focus in his presentation to the
Wharton group.
"We knew we couldn't develop from a small local leader

to a large global leader if we didn't develop talent
inside the company. We could never hire all the talent
we needed," said Paul. So he and his team set out to
discover "the DNA of building talent." Given the
software engineering culture of the company, Paul
good-humoredly admitted that it was probably more
"nerd-like" than most. "Everything is process to us, and
the people side is one more clear, detailed process that
needs to be nailed down, element by element."
The Wipro team started with three propositions: Talent

can't be a goal in itself; vision and goals must go hand
in hand; talent and performance metrics must go hand
in hand. They adopted a framework for people
development, devised by the Software Engineering
Institute at Carnegie Mellon, which views employees in
five maturity levels, gradually evolving skills so that
they are not asked to implement behaviour without the
tools to do so successfully. Levels 1 and 2 are the
basics -- skills that managers need to simply manage
and develop people. Level 3 means defining specific
workforce competencies, over and above performance
metrics. Level 4 integrates competencies and
qualitative performance assessment; and level 5 is a
process of continuous improvement.
MMS-1st yr. 21
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Raman Roy, Father of Indian BPO --
To achieve Wipro's people-development goals and thus

its global vision, "we saw we needed training in four
areas," noted Paul. "First, we had been a software
factory and now our people needed to understand the
business context of their customers. Second, we
needed to be prepared for shifts in technology -- for
example, the growing need for web skills. Third, we
needed to provide a cultural toolkit for the 10,000 or so
employees who are working away from home at any
given point in time, on assignments ranging from three
months to two years. We have done that for the U.S.,
the U.K. and Japan. And, finally we saw the need for
behavioural skill training since there's a big difference
around the world in communication skills, interpersonal
skills and relationship management."
The effort has resulted in 40 state-of-the-art classrooms

on the sprawling Wipro campus in Bangalore -- India's
equivalent to Silicon Valley. It is a web-based "world
campus" where courses can be broadcast to 1,000
people at a time around the world, and where 240,000
person-days of training are held annually. How can you
take so many people out of the business, for so many
days? "We measure very carefully and practice tight
cost management," said Paul. "We ask ourselves: What
does training cost us as a percentage of sales? How are
we getting productivity out of it?"
And, if Paul had to cite a single factor that's most
MMS-1st yr. 22
important in deciding that training is critical in such a

high-growth environment, it would be responses to
regular employee surveys, which ask questions like:
Why do you stay at Wipro; what do you say about the
company to others; and what makes you aspire to do
your best here? "Among the top three answers to each
of those questions is, 'Wipro provides great learning
opportunities,'" said Paul. "The core of how employees
think about us and value us revolves around training. It
simply isn't something we can back off from."
Tethered Elephants
Given Paul's focus on learning, it was no surprise he

came prepared to share with conference participants
some of his own most important leadership lessons.
"The first I learned in the jungles of Bangalore, at an
elephant camp. When you visit such a camp you see
these gigantic elephants tethered with a small stake. I
asked the trainer: 'Why do they stay tethered when
they could so easily pull up the stake?' He told me:
'Well, the elephant is tethered as a small calf; when it
tries to pull up the stake, it learns it can't do it ... and it
never tries again.' That's an amazing parable about how
we always tend to underestimate ourselves. The lesson
for me is: Don't let self limitations hold you back.
"The second lesson was one I learned from Jack Welch

when I was at GE. Welch loved international trips.
Whenever he came back from one, he told people that
he would get out of the elevator at the office and say to
himself: 'This is my first day at GE as CEO. The previous
guy was a real dud. So how can I do better than he did?'
He understood that as a leader you always have to be
reinventing yourself; you have to have some tool that
MMS-1st yr. 23
helps you to abandon past behavior and look with fresh

eyes at your task.
"The third lesson has come out of my good fortune in

working with and observing lots of really good
managers in my career. But I have also seen that
success makes many of them blind. They refuse to take
feedback or be open to new ideas. They block off
opportunities for growth. What I [realized] from that is
the importance of taking your job seriously, but not
yourself."
In response to a question from the audience about

whether Indian technology companies still share a lot of
information with each other, as they did a few years
back, Paul responded: "We were like kids growing up
together in the same neighborhood. There was a lot of
sharing. There's a lot less now. Even three years ago,
there was only a small chance that we would be
competing. Now we are competing all the time."
Another participant asked whether the outsourcing
backlash in the U.S. has hurt the company. "We
certainly saw a lot of that [backlash] last year," Paul
noted. "We decided we shouldn't dive into the trenches,
so we did a lot of talking about it. During the worst of
the press, we grew 60%. Europe jumped in as it became
more aware of outsourcing. The perception of the
problem far exceeds the reality, since only about 3% of
job losses in the U.S. are related to technology
outsourcing."
Not being blindsided by either failure or success is

Paul's intention as he moves Wipro to the next stage of
its development. Asked what he sees as the biggest
challenges of the next five years, Paul cited two
"inflection points." The first is to finally reach his stated
MMS-1st yr. 24
goal of becoming a truly global business. Wipro's

employee base is still 85% Indian; he wants it to be 50-
50, Indian and non-Indian, throughout the organization,
from the board of directors on down.
Positive thinking of Azim Premji
In a world where integrity purportedly counts for naught,

Azim Hasham Premji symbolizes just that. The 55-year-
old Wipro chairman made international waves in 2000
ever since his group became a Rs 3,500-crore empire with
a market
capitalization exceeding Rs 500,000 million! If any

stargazer had been foolish enough to predict in 1966 that
a 21-year-old Indian at Stanford University would one day
achieve all this, he'd have been laughed out of business.
At that juncture, Premji was forced to discontinue his
engineering studies in the States due to the untimely
death of his father. Returning to India to take charge of a
cooking oil company, the youth infused new life into the
family's traditional mindset and trade.
Over the years, Premji diversified into sectors like

computer hardware and lighting, disregarding marketing
laws that extolled the virtues of core competence and
frowned on brand extensions into unrelated segments.
Despite all the success, the media-shy Premji maintained
MMS-1st yr. 25
a low profile, letting his work do all the talking. Until early
last year the media broke the story that Azim Premji had
become the second-richest man in the world… In spite of
his billions, however, he still travels economy class and
stays in budget hotels.
When the man was recently honored with the

Businessman of the Year 2000 award, he attributed his
stupendous success to the 12,000 people who work for
Wipro Corporation. Nor did he forget to mention his family.
The great man then shared some tips for success:
• Have the courage to think big.

• Never compromise on fundamental values, no matter
what the situation.
• Build up self-confidence, always look ahead.
• Always have the best around you, even if they are better
than you are.
• Have an obsessive commitment to quality.
• Play to win.
• Leave the rest to the force beyond.
Premji the businessman practices what he preaches. When

it comes to upholding personal values, there's no margin
for error. Wipro managers speak in awe of the time they
received a terse message that their chairman was flying
down to Bangalore for a meeting. It was clear that
something major was in the offing. Premji came straight to
the point. A senior general manager of the company had
been given marching orders-because he'd inflated a travel
bill. The man's contribution to the company was
significant; the bill's amount was not. Yet he had to go for
this solitary lapse. It was, Premji stressed, a matter of
MMS-1st yr. 26
principles.
Wipro's code of conduct for employees says it all: Don't do

anything that you're unwilling to have published in
tomorrow's newspaper with your photograph next to it.
It's that kind of integrity that has catapulted Premji and

Wipro to unprecedented heights.
Wipro’s Azim Premji on Leadership, Global Expansion, and the U.S.

IT Shortage
Azim Premji inherited his father’s $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 $3.4 billion. As holder
of more than 80% of the company’s stock, Wipro’s
Chairman and CEO has become one of the world’s
wealthiest men with an estimated net worth of just under
$13 billion—a total that slots him at number 60 on Forbes
magazine’s 2008 list of the World’s Billionaires.
Those who know Premji say he is low-key and it’s his
ability to relate to anyone –from prime minister to
gardener—that has contributed to his success. During a
recent visit to Emory University’s Goizueta Business
School as part of the 2008 Leadership Speaker Series,
Premji—named one of the “Greatest Entrepreneurs of All
Time” by BusinessWeek—shared his ideas on leadership
MMS-1st yr. 27
with students and several Atlanta-area business leaders,

including Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. (TBS)
Chairman and CEO Philip Kent, TBS CTO Scott Teissler,
and TBS Senior Vice President, Strategic Planning, Kevin
Cohen. In his presentation, Premji chronicled what he calls
his “simple lessons” of leadership. The most important
one of all? To dream big.
After the death of his father in 1966, Premji, then 21 years
old, dropped out of Stanford, returned to India and took
over his father’s company. He admits he was completely
unprepared for the experience. But when Premji walked
through the doors of the company, he did so with the
belief he could build a great organization. “If you dream
big, you can achieve more in life,” he explains, adding that
the dreams needn’t be realistic because the purpose of
dreams is to “turbo-charge you.”
Setting the standard for an organization is a necessary
aspect of good leadership as well, and Premji doesn’t
believe this is possible if the leader doesn’t do so with
honesty and integrity. He advised the audience never to
sacrifice integrity for short-term results. “What you do
today—can you afford to see it in the newspaper
tomorrow? Can you look in the mirror and talk to your wife
about it? Talk to your parents about it?” he asks.
Jagdish Sheth, a chaired professor of marketing at
Goizueta and author of “The Self-Destructive Habits of
Good Companies… And How to Break Them” [Pearson
Education, Inc. 2007], has observed Premji’s leadership
style for years. Sheth, also a Wipro board member,
explains that Premji takes a long-term view in terms of
Wipro, not a view that’s driven quarter by quarter. “He
does what he thinks is right and is willing to take the
consequences from Wall Street,” notes Sheth.
Wipro’s stock trades on the NYSE, and in the last year, the
stock dropped from hovering in the neighborhood of $16
per share to trading closer to $13 per share. The drop in
share price caused a sizeable decrease in Premji’s
personal wealth—about four billion dollars. But that’s not
what motivates him, says Sheth, who compares Premji to
Warren Buffet, founder of conglomerate Berkshire
MMS-1st yr. 28
Hathaway, noted philanthropist, and, as of early 2008, the

world’s richest man. Known for being unpretentious, Buffet
lives in Omaha, Nebraska in a house he bought in 1958.
“Leadership is about shaping expectations of all the
stakeholders—customers, employees, investors, suppliers,
the community,” adds Sheth. “Management is about
delivery and executing those expectations. They are
different skill sets.” Great leaders like Premji, says Sheth,
do both well.
Striving for excellence is also a Premji standard, and he
realizes that he, and leaders like him, set the tone for their
organizations. During his lecture at Goizueta, he touched
on several things he believes Wipro can improve upon and
talked about the steps being taken to make such
improvements. “Excellence is not an act, it’s a habit,” he
states. In a global economy, Wipro not only competes with
similar companies in India, but across the globe. Premji’s
goal is for Wipro to be the best at what it does—period.
To aid in this accomplishment, Wipro leadership must be
“globalized.” “This requires a huge adjustment,” notes
Premji. With 80,000 employees—15,000 of them located
outside of India—leadership needs to be culturally
sensitive. Working in teams is also an integral part of how
Wipro does business, and an employee’s ability to be a
contributing member of a cross-cultural team has become
increasingly important to the company’s success.
Premji is a champion of education, and he sees the
shortage of science and technology talent in the U.S. as a
huge problem. “Western education is not doing enough [to
get students] into science and engineering,” he says. This
year, India, with a population of 1.13 billion people, will
graduate approximately 500,000 engineers—or one
engineer for every 2600 citizens of India. With a
population of 303 million, the U.S. will turn out 75,000
engineers—one for every 4040 of its citizens.
The company employs approximately 8000 people in the
U.S. and recently opened its first American software
development center in Atlanta, GA. Within the next year,
Wipro plans to hire 200 employees for its Atlanta office.
MMS-1st yr. 29
That number is estimated to jump to 500 in the next three

years as Wipro recruits IT graduates from local schools,
trains them, and puts them to work. “Your business will
have a base wherever it can find the best value of talent
and cost,” explains Premji, who is also building capacity in
China and the Philippines. “Our biggest challenge is
scaling and maintaining uniformity of culture. The
uniformity of customer experience has to be the same. It
has to be consistent.”
One of Premji’s greatest talents, observes Sheth, is his
ability to recognize talent. “He’s just like a good coach.
Good coaches can get more potential out of an athlete
than the athlete realizes,” Sheth says. “The coaching
model of leadership is important. It’s essentially a ‘tough
love’ message. You invest in talent to get more out of
someone.” This has proven true of Premji. According to
Sheth, more than six-dozen former Wipro employees have
launched successful businesses around the world.
Not surprisingly, 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. Premji recently told a group of
graduates in Chennai India, “Self-confident people assume
responsibility for their mistakes and share credit with their
team members…. Remember, no one can make you feel
inferior without your consent.”
A lean 62-year-old, Premji is big on regular exercise. “You
need tenacity and energy to be in a leadership position,”
he says.
One of India's leading providers of system integration and
outsourcing services, Wipro also manufactures a variety of
consumer products, including hand soap. Operating in
nearly three-dozen countries, the company’s Wipro
Technologies division offers software development and
business process outsourcing (BPO) services,
management consulting and product engineering.
Successes tips by Azim Premji :
MMS-1st yr. 30
Lesson # 1: Always strive for excellence

There is a tremendous difference between being good and
being excellent in whatever you do. In the world of
tomorrow, just being good is not good enough. One of the
greatest advantages of globalization is that it has brought
in completely different standards. Being the best in the
country is not enough; one has to be the best in the world.
Excellence is a moving target. One has to constantly raise
the bar.
In the knowledge-based industries, India has the unique
advantage of being a quality leader. Just like Japan was
able to win in the overseas market with its quality
leadership in automobile manufacturing, India has been
able to do the same in information technology. t Wipro, we
treat quality as the #1 priority. This enabled us not only to
become the world's first SEI CMM Level 5 software
services company in the world but also a leader in Six
Sigma approach to quality in India.
Lesson # 2: Learn to work in teams

The challenges ahead are so complex that no individual
will be able to face them alone. While most of our
education is focused in individual strength, teaming with
others is equally important. You cannot fire a missile from
a canoe.
Unless you build a strong network of people with
complimentary skills, you will be restricted by your own
limitations.Globalization has brought in people of different
origin, different upbringing and different cultures together.
Ability to become an integral part of a cross-cultural team
MMS-1st yr. 31
will be a must for your success.
Lesson # 3: Take care of yourself

The stress that a young person faces today while
beginning his or her career is the same as the last
generation faced at the time of retirement.I have myself
found that my job has become enormously more complex
over the last two or three years. Along with mutual
alertness, physical fitness will also assume a great
importance in your life.
You must develop your own mechanism for dealing with
stress. I have found that a daily jog for me, goes a long
way in releasing the pressure and building up energy. You
will need lots of energy to deal with the challenges. Unless
you take care of yourself there is no way you can take
care of others.
Lesson # 4: Persevere
Finally, no matter what you decide to do in your life, you
must persevere. Keep at it and you will succeed, no
matter how hopeless it seems at times. In the last three
and half decades, we have gone through many difficult
times. But we have found that if we remain true to what
we believe in, we can surmount every difficulty that comes
in the way. Perseverance can make miracles happen
Lesson # 5: Have a broader social vision

For decades we have been waiting for some one who will
help us in 'priming the pump' of the economy.The
government was the logical choice for doing it, but it was
strapped for resources. Other countries were willing to
give us loans and aids but there was a limit to this.
In the millennium of the mind, knowledge-based industries
like Information Technology are in a unique position to
earn wealth from outside. While earning is important, we
must have mechanisms by which we use it for the larger
good of our society.
MMS-1st yr. 32
Thought provoking speech by Azim Premji

(Chairman, Wipro Technologies)
At the 37th Annual Convocation 2002, IIM,
Ahmedabad
While change and uncertainty have always been a part of life,

what has been shocking over the last year has been both the
quantum and suddenness of change.
For many people who were cruising along on placid waters, the
wind was knocked out of their sails. The entire logic of doing
business was turned on its head. Not only business, but also
every aspect of human life has been impacted by the change.
What lies ahead is even more dynamic and uncertain. I would
like to use this opportunity to share with you some of our own
guiding principles of staying afloat in a changing world. This is
based on our experience in Wipro. I hope you find them useful.
First, be alert for the first signs of change. Change descends

on everyone equally; it is just that some realize it faster. Some
changes are sudden but many others are gradual. While sudden
changes get attention because they are dramatic, it is the
gradual changes that are ignored till it is too late. You must
have all heard of story of the frog in boiling water. If the
temperature of the water is suddenly increased, the frog
realizes it and jumps out of the water. But if the temperature
is very slowly increased, one degree at a time, the frog does
not realize it till it boils to death. You must develop your own
early warning system which warns you of changes and calls your
attention to it. In case of change being forewarned is being
forearmed.
Second, anticipate change even when things are going right.
MMS-1st yr. 33
Most people wait for something to go wrong before they think

of change. It is like going to the doctor for a check up only
when you are seriously sick or thinking of maintaining your
vehicle only when it breaks down. The biggest enemy of future
success is past success. When you succeed, you feel that you
must be doing something right for it to happen. But when the
parameters for success change, doing the same things may or
may not continue to lead to success. Guard against complacency
all the time. Complacency makes you blind to the early signals
from the environment that something is going wrong.
Third, always look at the opportunities that change represents.

Managing change has a lot to go with our own attitude towards
it. It is the proverbial half-full or half empty glass approach.
For every problem that change represents, there is an
opportunity lurking in disguise somewhere. It is up to you to
spot it before someone else does
Fourth, do not allow routines to become chains. For many of us

the routine we have got accustomed to obstructs change.
Routines represent our own zones of comfort. There is a sense
of predictability about them. They have structured our time
and even our thought in a certain way. While routines are
useful, do not let them enslave you. Deliberately break out of
them from time to time
Fifth, realize that fear of the unknown is natural. With change

comes a feeling of insecurity. Many people believe that brave
people are not afflicted by this malady. The truth is different.
Every one feels the fear of unknown. Courage is not the
absence of fear but the ability to manage fear without getting
paralyzed. Feel the fear, but move on regardless.
Sixth, keep renewing yourself. This prepares you to anticipate

change and be ready for it when it comes. Constantly ask
MMS-1st yr. 34
yourself what new skills and competencies will be needed. Begin

working on them before it becomes necessary and you will have
a natural advantage. The greatest benefit of your education
lies not only in what you have learnt, but in working how to
learn. Formal education is the beginning of the journey of
learning. Yet I do meet youngsters who feel that they have
already learnt all there is to learn. You have to constantly learn
about people and how to interact effectively with them. In the
world of tomorrow, only those individuals and organizations will
succeed who have mastered the art of rapid and on-going
learning.
Seventh, surround yourself with people who are open to

change. If you are always in the company of cynics, you will
soon find yourself becoming like them. A cynic knows all the
reasons why something cannot be done. Instead, spend time
with people who have a "can-do" approach. Choose your advisors
and mentors correctly. Pessimism is contagious, but then so is
enthusiasm. In fact, reasonable optimism can be an amazing
force multiplier.
Eighth, play to win. I have said this many times in the past.
Playing to win is not the same as cutting corners. When you play
to win, you stretch yourself to your maximum and use all your
potential. It also helps you to concentrate your energy on what
you can influence instead of getting bogged down with the
worry of what you cannot change. Do your best and leave the
rest.
Ninth, respect yourself. The world will reward you on your

successes. Success requires no explanation and failure permits
none. But you need to respect yourself enough so that your
self-confidence remains intact whether you succeed or fail. If
you succeed 90 per cent of the time, you are doing fine. If you
are succeeding all the time, you should ask yourself if you are
MMS-1st yr. 35
taking enough risks. If you do not take enough risks, you may
also be losing out on many opportunities. Think through but
take the plunge. If some things do go wrong, learn from them.
I came across this interesting story some time ago:
One day a farmer's donkey fell down into a well. The animal
cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out
what to do. Finally he decided the animal was old and the well
needed to be covered up anyway it just wasn't worth it to
retrieve the donkey. He invited all his neighbors to come over
and help him. They all grabbed a shovel and begin to shovel dirt
into the well. At first, the donkey realized what was happening
and cried horribly. Then, to everyone's amazement he quieted
down. A few shovel loads later, the farmer finally looked down
the well and was astonished at! what he saw. With every shovel
of dirt that fell on his back, the donkey was doing some thing
amazing. He would shake it off and take a step up. As the
farmer's neighbors continued to shovel dirt on top of the
animal, he would shake it off and take a step up. Pretty soon,
everyone was amazed as the donkey stepped up over the edge
of the well and totted off! Life is going to shovel dirt on you,
all kinds of dirt. The trick is too not to get bogged down by it.
We can get out of the deepest wells by not stopping. And by
never giving up! Shake it off and take a step up!
Tenth, in spite of all the change around you, decide upon what
you will never change: your core values. Take your time to
decide what they are but once you do, do not compromise on
them for any reason. Integrity is one such value. These have
contributed to our success, including our parents and others
from our society. All of us have a responsibility to utilize our
potential for making our nation a better place for others, who
may not be as well endowed as us, or as fortunate in having the
opportunities that we have got. Let us do our bit, because doing
one good deed can have multiple benefits not only for us but
MMS-1st yr. 36
also for many others. Let me end my talk with a small story I
came across some time back, which illustrates this very well.
This is a story of a poor Scottish farmer whose name was
Fleming. One day, while trying to make a living for his family,
he heard a cry for help coming from a nearby bog. He dropped
his tools and ran to the bog. There, mired to his waist in black
muck, was a terrified boy, screaming and struggling to free
himself. Farmer Fleming saved the boy from what could have
been a slow and terrifying death. The next day, a fancy
carriage pulled up to the Scotsman's sparse surroundings. An
elegantly dressed nobleman stepped out and introduced himself
as the father of the boy Farmer Fleming had saved. "I want to
repay you, "said the nobleman. " Yes," the farmer replied
proudly. "I'll make you a deal. Let me take your son and give
him a good education. If he's anything like his father, he'll
grow to be a man you can be proud of." And that he did. In
time, Farmer Fleming's son graduated from St. Mary's
Hospital Medical School in London, and went on to become
known throughout the world as the noted Sir Alexander
Fleming, the discoverer of Penicillin. Years afterward, the
nobleman's son was stricken with pneumonia. What saved him?
Penicillin. This is not the end. The nobleman's son also made a
great contribution to society. For the nobleman was none other
than Lord Randolph Churchill, and his son's name was Winston
Churchill. Let us use all our talent, competence and energy for
creating peace and happiness for the nation."
Technology & Process

Azim Hashim Premji, founder of Wipro Limited, India’s
biggest and most competitive IT company based in
Bangalore
MMS-1st yr. 37
The Amalner-based vanaspathi manufacturing company,

the Western India Vegetable Product later became Wipro
Products Ltd, Wipro Technologies and Wipro Corporation.
Under Premji’s leadership Wipro embarked on an
ambitious phase of expansion and diversification. The
Company began manufacturing light bulbs with General
Electric and other consumer products including soaps,
baby care products, shampoos, powder etc. In 1975, Wipro
Fluid Power business unit manufacturing hydraulic
cylinders and truck tippers was started. But Premji’s
ambitions did not stop there. In the 1980s Wipro entered
the IT field, taking advantage of the expulsion of IBM from
the Indian market in 1975. Thus, Wipro became involved
in manufacturing computer hardware, software
development and related items, under a special license
from Sentinel. As a result, the $1.5 million company in
hydrogenated cooking fats grew within a few years to a
$662 million diversified, integrated corporation in services,
medical systems, technology products and consumer
items with offices worldwide.
The company’s IT division became the world’s first to win
SEI CMM level 5 and PCMM Level 5 (People Capability
Maturity Model) certification, the latest in quality
standards. A large percentage of the company’s revenues
are generated by the IT division. Wipro works with leading
global companies, such as Alcatel, Nokia, Cisco and Nortel
and has a joint venture in Medical Systems with General
Electric company.
Premji’s story of success and prominence clearly shows
how determination and perseverance, when coupled with
knowledge, clear vision and proper planning, enable one
to reach the peak of success and leadership. A straight
forward person, he doesn’t believe in resorting to bribery
MMS-1st yr. 38
or corruption to get things done and associates quality

with integrity. He is an absolute workaholic and according
to him work is the only way to success and survival in a
competitive environment. A tough employer, he expects
his employees to be competent and will not tolerate lies or
deception from anyone.
Azim Hashim Premji finds himself in the Forbes
Billionaire List 2000, placed in 41st position with a wealth
of $ 6.4 billion. Over the years, Azim Premji has been
privileged with many honors and accolades. He was
chosen as the Business India’s ‘Businessman of the Year
2000’, He was named by Fortune (August 2003) as one of
the 25 most powerful business leaders outside the US,
Forbes (March 2003) listed him as one of ten people
globally, Business Week featured (October 2003) him on
their 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 Information
Technology in India.
In the year 2001, Premji established Azim Premji
Foundation, a not-for-profit organization with a vision of
influencing the lives of millions of children in India by
facilitating the universalisation of elementary education.
The foundation works closely with the state governments
of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh etc and
the programs cover over 5000 rural schools. Premji
contributes the financial resources for the foundation
Chairman of Wipro Technologies; Richest Indian for the
past several years; Honored with Padma Bhushan in 2005.
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 determined to make Wipro a
success story. And the rest is history.
When Azim Premji occupied the hot seat, Wipro dealt in
MMS-1st yr. 39
hydrogenated cooking fats and later diversified to bakery

fats, ethnic ingredient based toiletries, hair care soaps,
baby toiletries, lighting products and hydraulic cylinders.
Thereafter Premji made a focused shift from soaps to
software.
Under Azim Premji's leadership Wipro has
metamorphosed from a Rs.70 million company in
hydrogenated cooking fats to a pioneer in providing
integrated business, technology and process solutions on
a global delivery platform. Today, Wipro Technologies is
the largest independent R&D service provider in the world.
Azim Premji has several achievements to his credit. In
2000, Asiaweek magazine, voted Premji among the 20
most powerful men in the world. Azim Premji was among
the 50 richest people in the world from 2001 to 2003 listed
by Forbes. In April 2004, Times Magazine, rated him
among the 100 most influential people in the world by
Time magazine. He is also the richest Indian for the past
several years. In 2005,Government of India honored Azim
Premji with Padma Bhushan.Under his leadership, a Rs.70
million company in hydrogenated cooking fats has grown
to a $500 million diversified, integrated Corporation in
Services, Technology Products and Consumer Products
with leadership positions in the businesses it is in.
A role model for young entrepreneurs across the world,
Mr.Azim Premji has integrated the country's
entrepreneurial tradition with professional management,
based on sound values and uncompromising integrity.
Mr.Azim Premji's strength lies in bringing together and
building charged teams of high potential-high performing
people. His vision and pragmatism have helped Wipro
Corporation to become the #2 most competitive and
successful company in India as rated by Business Today, a
leading business magazine in India Today, Wipro in terms
of market capitalization is among the top 10 Corporations
in India.
Mr. Premji very strongly believes that the most important
contributors to Wipro's success have been the
articulations and faithful adherence to core values, a
shared vision for the future, identification and
MMS-1st yr. 40
development of Wipro leaders through clearly defined

Wipro Leaders' Qualities.
A hands-on business leader with standards of excellence
in everything that the Corporation does, Mr. Premji is
almost fanatical about delivering value to customers and
his willingness to sacrifice business and profits to hold on
to "Our Promise".
Mr. Premji was the Prime drive behind Wipro's decision
to achieve "Six Sigma" status in the next six years. In his
address to the top management of Wipro Corporation on
May 2. 1997, he said, "The end objective of our 'customer-
in' concept is that we want to build the voice of the
customer in our products and services. This is opposite to
the concept of 'product-out', which is the way the world
has been operating for some time." In this journey of
achieving the near defect-free products and services, Mr.
Premji is very clear that as a world class organisation,
what Wipro needs to be concerned about is the process,
not merely the results.
Here's another example of a change leader-Azim

Premji, CEO of Wipro.
On the sudden demise of his father in 1966, Premji took on
the mantle of leadership of Wipro at the age of 21. At that
time, Premji had only one vision - that was to build an
organization on a foundation of values
Premji seems focused on just one goal: even more
success. Wipro has grown from a small producer of
cooking oil founded by his father in 1945 to a colossus by
Indian standards: 23,000 employees, $902 million in
revenues, and $170 million in profits for the fiscal year
ended in March. Sales have increased by an average of
25% a year and earnings by 52% annually over the past
four years.
Today Wipro is an IT Services company ranked among the
top 100 technology companies globally (by Business
Week). In the past two years Wipro has also become the
largest BPO services company in India. Wipro's growth
MMS-1st yr. 41
continues be driven by its core values.

Premji firmly believes that ordinary people are capable of
extraordinary things. 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 programs.
Premji has a fanatical belief in delivering value to the
customer through world-class quality processes. It is this
that has driven Wipro's pioneering efforts on quality.
Wipro was the first Indian company to embrace Six Sigma;
the first software services company in the world to
achieve SEI CMM Level 5 and recently it became the
world's first organization to achieve PCMM Level 5 (People
Capability Maturity Model). Premji equates quality with
integrity - both being non-negotiable.
Today, Azim Premji proudly says, "The future will see
significant changes in technology, economy and society.
But what will remain unchanged is the need of the
customer for an organization with a human face. We have
built Wipro with the core human values in mind, along with
integrity, innovative solutions and value for money, and
we will use these values to grow into the future." Premji's
track record suggests no one should doubt his ability to
fulfill his strategic vision.
Thus Azim Premji proves that, the most important thing
needed for an organizational success is, a vision
accompanied by a good leadership
According to John Kotter, the key responsibilities of a
leader in building an organisation that copes up with
change are to
* Create a sense of urgency
* Create a guiding coalition
* Develop a vision and strategy
* Communicate the change vision
* Empower broad based action
* Generate short-term wins
* Consolidate gains and produce more change
* Anchor new approaches in the culture
MMS-1st yr. 42
Any leader who fails in any of these activities may not be

successful. Leadership failure may be caused because of
poor strategy decisions, inappropriate technology choices
or failure in execution.
A leader must be committed to his work. He can be a role
model for other employees, as he serves as a live example
of commitment. A leader who is not passionately
committed to the cause will not draw much commitment
from others. The world will make way for someone who
knows what he or she wants, because there is not much
competition when it comes to passionate commitment.
Nelson Mandela did not become a leader for black
freedom because he was handsome or charismatic. He
forged his influence across, sat in prison, refusing to
compromise his commitment to freedom – because he
believed it was not just an issue for himself, but not for all
people.
One of the examples of an unsuccessful leader in change
programs is Jacques Nasser of Ford Motors. His
stewardship of Ford, which lasted for about 2 years and 10
months, was probably the most tumultuous one that the
company had witnessed in the recent past.
Nasser's leader ship had come under scrutiny since the
late 1999. By mid –2000 ford's market share profits, and
share price began to fall. The diversification into service –
related businesses also lead to conflicts with ford's dealer.
In mid –2001 Nasser and bill ford began to share
responsibilities in the day-to-day management of the
company. However, this power sharing agreement
between bill ford and Nasser did not work and Nasser was
terminated in October 2001. Analysts felt that Nasser was
avoiding being sandwiched between his critics from
consumer and safety groups. Ford's sales dropped by 11%
in 2000, more than twice the decline of the overall auto
market in the U.S there. There were also problems on the
employees' front. The grading system adopted from G.E
had become unpopular.
Nasser wanted to transform Ford Motor Co., an automobile
manufacturer, into an automotive consumer giant. To
achieve this, Nasser brought in marketing professionals
MMS-1st yr. 43
from other industries and diversified into service-related

businesses. However, some analysts felt that Nasser,
tough and tested by his years in Ford, was the automotive
world's Jack Welch, a high-energy change agent who
transformed the automaker from a 19th century metal
bender into a consumer-focused corporation that
developed long-lasting relationships with car buyers.
The Jacques Nasser example reflects the classic leadership
dilemma posed by Warren Bennis about achieving a
balance between transformational leadership and
transactional leadership. Nasser was caught between the
need to appear futuristic and the need to manage the day-
to-day activities. While he presented an illumination
vision, he proved to be a mediocre-if not-poor- manager of
day-to-day affairs. While a motivating vision definitely
boosts the morale of an organisation, the basic
parameters of the organisation too must look up.
Inspiration
Azim Premji is the third richest man in the world according

to a recent study and is the founder of Wipro private
limited. He 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 of the year. 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 drive”. Yes, indeed life is a journey where there
is a lot to be explored. But at certain points in life we may
need some one to tell us what the purpose of life is,
someone to inspire us to take on the world and that we
don’t 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 the’ Inspiring person ‘of your life. That
person will polish up and lubricate our days.
MMS-1st yr. 44
With fluctuating values in daily life and diminishing

importance to ethics, it is tough to find a right ‘role model’
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 doesn’t like to steal the
limelight 24/7. He is a man of few words, but his actions
speak louder than his words. He is the third richest man in
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. He inspired me to look forward to life and face the
challenges .
So what makes Azim Premji the most inspiring personality
of the year as well as in my life? What is so special about
him? Let me explain it. Becoming the third richest man in
the world is no small thing by any means. But did any one
find him breast beating on that fact? Did any one find him
on the cover of leading magazines the very next week?
The answer is a big no. But why didn’t that happen? The
answer is because his ways are not that kind. That single
incident was an evidence of his simplicity. Can some one
point out another person that simple and modest? What a
lesson for the generation of my times, who doesn’t know
to even respect elders. Have anyone made a teaching like
that before? I learned the lesson. I was really touched by
his ways. How I wish that the whole young adults in India
follow his ways! Some body has to set an example for the
following herds and Azim Premji did for us in immaculate
way.
Education has made India a power in the world. But that
same thing is a pie in the sky to crores of children in India.
MMS-1st yr. 45
With no quality education they are like soldiers unarmed.

They don’t have the power to change their life. People,
who waste crores to entertain others, don’t think of these
unprivileged citizens. But one man believed that he can
change the fate of these children. He firmly believed in his
duty and is doing what is a glowing illustration for others
in corporate world. His name is Azim Premji. The theme of
quality education to rural students is being carried forward
by the Azim Premji Foundation. It is an individual initiative
and through that he is making a difference in society. He
is touching lives of a million students through his
foundation. I can only appreciate his honest engagement
with the society.
This fact made me to think of the purpose of our lives.
Isn’t this the real purpose of life, living for others? My life
is a success only if I have made someone else’s life
happier. And he has made a million lives happier and
meaningful. How can I not be inspired by this great man?
But not many knows about his work which is laudable
In his corporate life, Azim Premji is one among the few
who still thinks business ethics comes before profits. He
thinks business should engage society. He thinks that
every decision made by corporate world has an impact on
the people and on the society around it. So he advices
about business ethics and preaches that trust should be
the soul of every business. Can any other businessman of
our times be able to say this deep from the heart and
honestly? When maximizing the profits is the solitary
objective of business leaders, to find an important person
like this is the luck of students akin to me. He is indeed a
shining star who talks less.
Inspiration not always comes from fiery speeches.
Inspiration is an insight, a thinking process, which on
completion produces desired changes and helps to excel
in life. In Azim Premji I found the inspiring man. The way in
which he made India proud, round the world, the ethics
and principles he believes in, the way in which he asks
people to walk along him and not behind him, the way in
which he fulfills the duty towards the society indubitably
makes him the most inspiring man of the year.
MMS-1st yr. 46
He certainly has changed the way I live and my beliefs.

No, he inspired me to transform. I wish all and sundry
stops and take notice, for their own good. He educated
me, not through words but through work, what life is all
about and what are the core values one should keep
closer to heart. Thus I find him as he most ‘Inspiring
Person’ of the year. He is a true Indian, a true gentleman
and a true philanthropist.
This is one interview in a series with some of the leaders in business

and government in India today.
"...Many other industries, including

traditional ones like pharma and auto
components have begun to feel that if IT can
do it then so can they..."
Premji offered his perspectives on the FORTUNE Global

Forum "Indian Leaders Series" questions.
FGF: How does the job you're doing impact the

future of India?
Premji: The first impact is with respect to ambition,

which, at least in part, has been pushed to new levels by
the success of the Indian IT industry. Many other
industries, including traditional ones like pharma and auto-
components, have begun to feel that if IT can do it then so
can they. The global dream seems more plausible now
than ever before.
The second is with respect to the economic contribution.

In 2006-2007, according to the industry body NASSCOM, IT
contributed 5.2% to the national GDP.
The third is with respect to the social impact both in the

areas of employment and education. Wipro, apart from
being one of the top three Indian software exporters is one
MMS-1st yr. 47
of the largest employers in the private sector today with

more than 75,000 people employed in India and across
the globe. Our businesses are growing rapidly, fueling the
demand for skilled resources in India. In Education, we are
investing through the initiatives of the Azim Premji
Foundation; Wipro Cares and Wipro Applying Thought in
Schools. Through the Azim Premji Foundation, we work
primarily with rural schools towards the goal of
Universalizing Primary Education. In Wipro Applying
Thought in Schools, we are working with a few selected
schools to replace learning by rote with more creative
approaches to learning.
FGF: How will India strike a balance between

maintaining its unique culture and competing in a
global economy?
Premji: The culture of our country is such an integral part

of who we are. The core will remain even as we evolve
with changing times. Today, there is far more knowledge
and appreciation of Indian culture than there was earlier.
There is a growing importance in the West given to
meditation, Indian music, yoga, dance and art.
Indian society as a whole, I think is more respectful of age

and family is an integral part of our lives. India is also a
melting pot of many religions, races and cultures, so, we
bring certain strengths of more humane tolerance. Anyone
who studies our people and culture closely enough will
understand how today we are constantly trying to strike a
balance between our values, culture and the growing
global influences in our lives. It is not an either-or
situation, in fact just the opposite. I think that our culture
inherently gives us a complexity arbitrage. We handle
ambiguity very naturally. We are also home with different
languages since every Indian knows at least three
languages. This is an enormous leverage while competing
in a global economy.
Also, due to our educational system and the pervasiveness

of Hollywood, many educated Indians are aware of
American or European cultures, and are able to blend this
MMS-1st yr. 48
with their Indian roots. Lots more Indians travel overseas

and that helps them to imbibe some of the practices.
FGF: Poverty in India is a reality. How do you

foresee this challenge being dealt with during the
next decade?
Premji: Entrepreneurship and the process of wealth

creation are fundamental to eradicating poverty. You need
to create wealth to distribute it. Companies like Wipro are
helping in the process of wealth creation - every job we
create, in turn creates employment for five more people in
the ecosystem and this filters down the levels. Wealth
creation in turn feeds consumerism that leads to more
houses, cars, the need for more products and services and
in turn more and better employment. We are able to see
the results of the past decade of economic growth that IT
has created in India. We can also see its effects in
improving the living standards of people in even remote
villages, who have directly or indirectly benefited by this
growth.
The next decade will be crucial as more educated people

will join the mainstream economy and India will have more
avenues to propel economic growth beyond IT. In fact, the
US has recently reclassified India as a "transforming
economy" from being a "developing economy".
FGF: In some cases, government and private

enterprise must work together to realize India's
economic goals. What examples can you site when
this has been successful?
Premji: At Wipro and the Azim Premji Foundation we are

working with the Education system and its stakeholders in
India. Our emphasis is on improving the Quality of
Education. The vision of the Foundation is to "Significantly
contribute to achieving quality universal education to
facilitate a just, equitable and humane society". Our aim is
to make a tangible impact on identified social issues by
working in active partnership with the Government and
other related sections of the society.
MMS-1st yr. 49
We have a three-pronged strategy at the Foundation

namely, Intervention by means of engaging with schools
and other bodies to understand and impact elementary
level systemic change, Network to build an ecosystem of
those who desire change to work together and Advocacy
to provide a radical stimulus to influence the education
system.
Our Foundation today touches over 2.6 million students

and 45,000 teachers in over 16,000 schools across India
and slowly, but surely, is making an impact on the system.
Through our programs, not only are we educating people

better, but I think we are contributing indirectly, to family
planning: smaller families, and in some ways a better
environment for family healthcare because, in education,
we have to work with communities. We have to work with
the father and the mother in the community, to explain to
them why they should keep their child in school, why they
should not put the child in domestic labor, why they
should not put the child in farm labor to supplement the
father's requirements of farm labor in hard times.
FGF: What is the biggest change you've observed

in India since the 1994 reforms began?
Premji: One of the biggest changes the reforms have

brought for India is a global outlook and a significant level
of self confidence in our ability to compete in the global
arena. In the past ten years, Indian companies have not
only emerged as a force to reckon with in areas like IT
outsourcing and automotive exports, but are emerging as
global organizations in their own right, from acquiring
global companies and brands to pioneering innovations
and best practices that are making them potential world
leaders in several industries.
FGF: What advice do you have for the CEO of a

foreign company considering doing business in
MMS-1st yr. 50
India?
Premji: India is very unique - we are one nation, but we

officially speak over 18 languages and culturally every
state in India is very diverse. Looking at India as a single
marketplace is like looking at Europe in a similar light. I
would also say, do not look at India only as a market but
also as a storehouse of talent and resources. Take time to
understand the country and blend into it. What works in
some other emerging markets may not work here. For
doing business in India, you have to make new templates.
MMS-1st yr. 51

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High Performance Leadership

High Performance Leadership

Project submitted by:-

UNDER THE GUIDENCE OF Prof.

Group Members: - Roll No.

11. Megha Shinde

Chairman of Wipro Technologies

Azim Premji (born July 24, 1945), an Indian businessman,

Azim Premji was rated the richest person in the country

Azim H Premji attended St. Mary's School I.C.S.E. in

correspondence art courses to complete the requirements

Awards and Accolades :

Premji has been recognized by Business Week as one of

In 2000, he was conferred an honorary doctorate by the

As of October 6, 2007, he is the 5th richest Indian, with a

He was awarded a Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.), an honorary

Family & Personal Life :

Premji is married to Yasmeen, the couple have two

Premji is known for his modesty and frugality in spite of

Azim Premji Foundation :

The Azim Premji Foundation says it "Aims at making a

Citing a technology initiative, the Foundation reported:

Five new titles of educational CDs for Indian schools were

There are now 68 titles in Karnataka, 42 for Andhra

This Foundation is also involved in computer-based

in early 2005), a learning guarantee programme, and a

At the first annual general meeting of the company

When Azim Premjiin India.

fats to a pioneer in providing integrated business,

Azim Premji has several achievements to his credit. In

LEADERSHIP - Azim Premji Chairman Wipro

Azim Premji Chairman Wipro Ltd at an interactive session

the troops in the organisation, not only the leadership in

team leaders. They are able to distinguish between what

certificate for qualification in global markets and we are

accomplish great deeds. Look for intelligence, look for the

Team Leadership at Wipro: Are Two

Take an organization with business divisions that overlap,

That situation changed when Wipro announced in mid-

Wipro's organizational structure is complex and

Infotech serves India, West Asia and Asia Pacific. In

These verticals and horizontals are headed by executives

Premji is confident that the new arrangement will work. In

believe that the power of two will help us so far as we are

Two Views from Wharton

"The business environment in India gives an impetus to

The "premium" aspect for companies doing business in

Companies like Wipro need two CEOs because of the

to manage the country-specific challenges," he adds.

Another reason such a "collegial leadership model" works

Aron believes the twin-CEO model should work well at

Wharton management professor Peter Cappelli sounds a

cautionary note; he points out that he hasn't seen the

Cappelli points out that in companies that have twin CEOs,

Cappelli also doesn't recommend shared power at the CEO

Like Cappelli, some observers in India are a shade

may adopt this approach for two to three years." Sethi,

Track Record of Co-CEOs

In 1999, Chief Executive magazine examined a number of

companies continue to tinker with the concept," said the

and experience and easing the strain of overwhelming

Consider Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch conglomerate. For 75