LEADERSHIP QUALITIES OF AZIM PREMJI

Submitted By: Navjot Singh Bindra (91010) Sandeep Agarwal (91048) Shefali Srivastava (91050) Shweta Gangwani (91052) Swagat Kumar Panda(91058)

AZIM PREMJI

CHAIRMAN OF WIPRO, one of the largest software companies in India.

 Born on July 24,1945 in Bombay (now Mumbai), to a Gujarati Muslim family Completed his initial education at St. Mary's School, Mumbai Was Studying Electrical Engineering from Stanford

University, USA, but due to the sudden demise of his father, he was called upon to handle the family business.

START OF HIS CAREER

1966-Inherited fathers $2 million hydrogenated cooking fat company. Repositioned it and created Wipro Ltd., a Bangalore, India-based IT services organization. Holder of more than 80% of the companys stock, Wipros Chairman and CEO has become one of the worlds wealthiest men. Holds a slots at number 60 on Forbes magazines 2008 list of the Worlds Billionaires.

BUSINESS DIVERSIFICATION
Hydrogenated cooking fats

Bakery fats, ethnic ingredient based toiletries, hair care soaps, baby toiletries, lighting products and hydraulic cylinders software

Today, Wipro Technologies is the largest independent R&D service provider in the world.

ACHIEVEMENTS TO HIS CREDIT

 In 2000, Asia week 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. In 2005 honoured with Padma Bhushan Awarded a Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.), an honorary degree , from the Aligarh Muslim University on the 18th of June, 2008.

LEADERSHIP TRAITS

PATH-GOAL LEADER
Leader Behavior

Directive Supportive Participative Achievement - Oriented

BUILD ON YOUR STRENGTHS

Build on your strengths: Azim Premji is the icon for integrity and integrity is his "strength". He certainly leveraged this strength well.

DIVERSIFYING
What you build is far more valuable than what you inherit Azim Premji was passionate about diversifying into the risky business, when the business he had inherited was doing well.

LEARN FROM FAILURES

Enjoyed success but let it not go to the head, learned from failures: Learnt when the attempts at change were failing miserably. Premji had to change the leadership twice in two years before he zeroed in on a general manager who delivered.

HUMILITY
Simple living, high thinking Premji did not have any "airs" about him. He was perhaps the richest Indian even in those days, but he lived very simply.

EXCELLENCE
Striving hard for excellence When he set targets for the annual plan everyone would think he was just being pushy, but he was able to deliver each of these ambitious targets and more.

ADVERSITY
Don't give up in the face of adversity: Wipro Finance lost Rs 120 crore in the early nineties when most other finance companies folded up. Premji insisted on repaying every depositor and used his personal wealth to do it.

IMPLEMENTOR
Have faith in own ideas: Premji had vision and always believed in his ideas and was able to translate them into a resounding success.

DOWN TO EARTH:
He is low-key and its his ability to relate to anyone from prime minister to gardener that has contributed to his success.

TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADER Idealize Influence Inspirational Motivation Intellectual stimulation Individual consideration

SETTING STANDARDS:
Setting the standard for an organization is a necessary aspect of good leadership as well, and Premji believes this is possible if the leader do so with honesty and integrity.

TALENT RECOGNITION
His ability to recognize talent: Hes just like a good coach. Good coaches can get more potential out of an athlete than the athlete realizes.

CHARISMATIC LEADER
Sets the vision and articulate it clearly. Willing to take personal risk Sensitive to followers need and show unconventional

behaviour

LONG TERM VISION

Premji takes a longterm view in terms of Wipro, not a view thats driven quarter by quarter. He does what he thinks is right and is willing to take the consequences.

SELF CONFIDENCE
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. Azim Premji is full of self confidence.

VISIONARY LEADER
His ability to create and articulate a realistic, credible attractive vision of the future for the organization and improve upon the present.

CONCLUSION
Managerial competence Ability to stimulate others to high performance A blend of personal humility & professional will Emphasis on merit. Create an environment of enthusiasm ( convert average performers to high performers) Strong leader- set a vision and enthuse people to achieve those vision.