Azim Premji
Azim Premji
Azim Hashim Premjiis an Indian business tycoon, investor and philanthropist, who is the chairman of Wipro Limited, informally known as the Czar of the Indian IT Industry. He was responsible for guiding Wipro through four decades of diversification and growth to finally emerge as one of the global leaders in the Software Industry. In 2010, he was voted among the 20 most powerful men in the world by Asiaweek. He has twice been listed among the 100 most influential people...
NationalityIndian
ProfessionEntrepreneur
Date of Birth24 July 1945
CountryIndia
You must get engaged with people who are far less privileged than you. I think you must devote your time if not your resources... Because it is very, very important from the point of view of the development of our country.
How can you contribute towards building the Indian society and the Indian nation? No better way than to upgrade the quality of young people in school, particularly the schools which are run by the state government in the villages.
With the attention I got on my wealth, I thought I would have become a source of resentment, but it is just the other way around - it just generates that much more ambition in many people.
My company believes in hiring people based on merit.
People are the key to success or extraordinary success.
Leadership is the self-confidence of working with people smarter than you.
You have students in America, in Britain, who do not want to be engineers. Perhaps it is the workload, I studied engineering, and I know what a grind it is.
The three ordinary things that we often don't pay enough attention to, but which I believe are the drivers of all success, are hard work, perseverance, and basic honesty.
Over these years, I have irrevocably transferred a significant part of the shareholding in Wipro, amounting to 39% of the shares of Wipro, to a trust.
Our experience is that it is not terribly difficult to do business in China. But the issue is, how much stability do you have in terms of what you negotiate up front and when you've got your feet and your investments on the ground.
We've always seen ourselves as Indian. We've never seen ourselves as Hindus or Muslims or Christians or Buddhists.
We entered the global market only in the end-'80s, and that was because imports became more liberal.
The concept of the strong linkage to the family is breaking down in Western nations.
As an advisor, I can say what I want. If I were a politician, I would constantly have to compromise, and I'm incapable of doing that.