Azim Hashim Premji (born July 24, 1945) is a former chairman of Wipro Limited and an Indian businessman, investor, engineer, and philanthropist. Premji remains a non-executive member of the board and the company’s founder. He is known colloquially as the Czar of the Indian IT Industry.
He was in charge of guiding Wipro through four decades of diversification and growth, eventually establishing the company as one of the world’s leaders in the software industry. In 2010, Asiaweek named him one of the world’s 20 most powerful men. He was named to Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people twice, once in 2004 and again in 2011. For many years, he has been named one of The 500 Most Influential Muslims.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, he is one of India’s wealthiest people, with a net worth of $32.8 billion. By signing the Giving Pledge in 2013, he agreed to give away at least half of his wealth. Premji began by donating $2.2 billion to the Azim Premji Foundation, which focuses on education in India. He was ranked first on the EdelGive Hurun India Philanthropy List for 2020. After donating a large sum to charity, he fell from second to 17th place on the Forbes India Rich list in 2019.
Here are he top quotes by Azim Premji:
- Excellence endures and sustains. It goes beyond motivation into the realms of inspiration.
- 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.
- The customer is a remarkably selfish person: He takes the relationship to where the execution is in his favour.
- The important thing about outsourcing or global sourcing is that it becomes a very powerful tool to leverage talent, improve productivity and reduce work cycles.
- Talent is in short supply everywhere. At Wipro, we are training non-engineers to be engineers.
- When you are under pressure, you make the bold steps faster; you don’t make the bold steps slower.
- All our hiring staff are trained to interview in English. They’re trained to look for Westernized segments because we deal with global customers.
- Character is one factor that will guide all our actions and decisions.
We invested in uncompromising integrity that helped us take difficult stands in some of the most difficult business situations. - The responsibility of philanthropy rests with us. The wealthier we are, the more powerful we get. We cannot put the entire onus on the government.
- People are realistic enough to appreciate what the market values of different people are.
- People are the key to success or extraordinary success.
- One of the prerequisites for children becoming proactive and responsible citizens is the availability of enough role models inside and outside the school.
- You cannot mandate philanthropy. It has to come from within, and when it does, it is deeply satisfying.
- The test of our social commitment and humanity is how we treat the most powerless of our fellow citizens, the respect we accord to our fellow human beings. That is what reveals our true culture.
