Leadership - Wipro Infrastructure Engineering

azim-premji

Azim H Premji

Founder Chairman - Wipro Limited and Wipro Enterprises

Azim Premji, a graduate in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, USA has been at the helm of Wipro since the late 1960’s, turning what was then a $2 million hydrogenated cooking fat business into the $ 13 billion Revenue global company across IT, BPO, R&D Services, Consumer Care & Lighting and Infrastructure Engineering with a presence in 58 countries.

Premji has been driven by one basic idea – to build an organization deeply committed to Values, with the firm belief that success in business eventually but inevitably follows. Unflinching commitment to Values continues to remain at the core of Wipro. Premji strongly believes that ordinary people are capable of extraordinary things when organized into highly charged teams and takes keen personal interest in developing leaders and teams.

Wipro’s business success has been driven by keeping the client at the core of everything it does. Combining its deep expertise in technology with an equally clear understanding of client industries, Wipro attempts to deliver business value to its clients consistently. This consistency is driven by its pioneering efforts in service quality and predictability. The underlying tenets that drive this overall culture are that of speed, simplicity and excellence.

Premji firmly believes that business organizations have a social responsibility not only to employ ethical, fair and ecologically sensitive business practices but also to actively engage with fundamental societal issues. This has led to Wipro’s global leadership in sustainability, and its extensive community and social programs, across the world.

In 2001 Premji set up the Azim Premji Foundation. Over these years he has progressively donated most of his wealth to the Foundation, which is committed to a vision of “contributing towards a just, equitable, humane and sustainable society”. The Foundation has extensive operations of its own and also supports other not-for-profits with financial grants. Its own operations range from improving public school education in multiple state systems (with over 350,000 schools) and running universities, to, public health and livelihoods improvements of the vulnerable. It supports over 1000 not-for-profit organizations that work on matters of equity, justice, and a range of vulnerabilities, through multi-year grants. The Foundation’s endowment is valued at about Rs 240,000 crores or USD 29 Billion (in April 2023).

Over the years, Azim Premji has received numerous honors and accolades, which he considers as recognitions for Team Wipro. BusinessWeek featured him on their cover of the October 2003 issue with the sobriquet “India’s Tech King” and listed him amongst the top 30 entrepreneurs in world history in July 2007. In October 2005, Financial Times included him in a global list of 25 people “dramatically reshaping the way people live, work or think”. Time listed him amongst the world’s 100 most influential people in April 2004 and in April 2011, citing his contribution to improving the public education system in India. He was named by Fortune (August 2003) as one of the 25 most powerful business leaders outside the US, by Forbes (March 2003) as one of ten people globally with most “power to effect change”, and by the Journal of Foreign Policy (November 2011) as amongst the top global thinkers.

Premji became the first Indian recipient of the Faraday Medal and has been conferred honorary doctorates by the Michigan State University and Wesleyan University (in the US), Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Roorkee and Kharagpur amongst others. The Republic of France bestowed upon him the “Legion of Honor” and Forbes India honored him with its inaugural “Outstanding Philanthropist of the Year’ award in November 2012. He was conferred in January 2011 with Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian award in India. In September 2013 Premji received All India Management Association “Managing India Award” for his inspiring business values and his contribution to society. He was honored with the Asian Business Leaders Award by Asia House (UK) in October 2013. In December 2013, Economic Times bestowed Mr. Premji with Life Time Achievement Award. The Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy was bestowed on him in 2017, hailing the “conscience, integrity, and compassion that have guided his visionary giving…….(with) invaluable benefit to both that nation and to the world.”