Premji eventually sought—and received—permission to study arts courses by correspondence to complete the requirements for his bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering. The Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee and the Manipal Academy of Higher Education (2000) have both conferred honorary doctorates on him. At the first general body meeting of the company a shareholder had doubted Premji's ability in handling the company and had advised him to hand it over to mature management!! This spurred Premji and made him all the more dertermined to make WIPRO a success story! Success story indeed it has been, under his leadership WIPRO has grown a lot. Starting with the family business of vegetable oil, WIPRO later on diversified to get into various fields. From Vegetable oil it diversified into 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. Today WIPRO is a household name as a huge software company.
Under Premji's leadership, WIPRO has grown from a Rs 70 million company in hydrogenated cooking oil 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. It also ranked among the top 100 companies globally with a turnover exceeding 2.3 billion US Dollars.
Premji started off in WIPRO with the simple vision to build an organization on a foundation of values.
Premji believes that ordinary people can do extraordinary things, the key to achieve the extraordinary is creating highly charged teams. He takes personal interest in building teams and leaders. He devotes significant amount of 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. This belief 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 it also became the world’s first organization to achieve PCMM Level 5 (People Capability Maturity Model). Premji equates Quality with Integrity – both being non-negotiable. In 2001, he was voted among the 20 most powerful men in the world by Asiaweek. He was also among the 50 richest people in the world from 2001 to 2003 according to Forbes. In April 2004, he was rated among the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine. His assets include 84% holding in Wipro Technologies (the remaining belonging to the co-founder of Wipro). In January 2006, he was the 10th richest man in the world. He has been awarded the prestigious Padmabhushana award in 2005 from the Govt of India. He is also a member of the Prime Minister’s Committee for Trade and Industry in India. Premji in put up in Bangalore, and has a family comprising of Wife: Yasmeen Premji Sons: Rishad Premji married to Aditi Premji; Tariq Premji Azim Premji Foundation
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 sections of the society". The Foundation was set up with financial resources contributed by Azim Premji. It believes that "Education is the vital element in the development and progress of our nation".
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."
These are changing times. Yet in the middle of all the changes there is one thing that constantly determines success. Some call it leadership. But to my mind, it is the single-minded pursuit of excellence.
Excellence endures and sustains. It goes beyond motivation into the realms of inspiration. Excellence can be as strong a uniting force as solid vision.
Excellence does not happen in a vacuum. It needs a collective obsession as I have experienced the benefits of excellence in my own life. Excellence is a great starting point for any new organisation but also an unending journey. What is excellence? It is about going a little beyond what we expect from ourselves. Part of the need for excellence is imposed on us externally by our customers. Our competition keeps us on our toes, especially when it is global in nature.
But the other driver of excellence is internal. I have found that excellence is not so much a battle you fight with others, but a battle you fight with yourself, by constantly raising the bar and stretching yourself and your team. This is the best and the most satisfying and challenging part about excellence.
How does one create excellence in an organisation?
First, we create an obsession with excellence. We must dream of it not only because it delivers better results but because we truly believe in it and find it intrinsically satisfying to us.
We must think of excellence not only with our mind but also with our heart and soul. Let us look outside, at the global standards of excellence in quality, cost and delivery and let us not rest till we surpass them.
Second, we need to build a collective self-confidence. Organisations and people who pursue excellence are self-confident. This is because excellence requires tremendous faith in one's ability to do more and in a better way. Unless, we believe we can do better, we cannot.
Third, we must understand the difference between perfection for its own sake and excellence. Time is of essence. Globalisation has made the customer only more impatient. This may seem like a paradox: should we aim for excellence or should we aim for speed?
Excellence is about doing the best we can and speed lies in doing it quickly. These two concepts are not opposed to each other; in fact, speed and timeliness are important elements of quality and excellence.
Fourth, we must realise that we cannot be the best in everything we do. We must define what we are or would like to be best at and what someone else can do better.
Excellence is no longer about being the best in India. It is about being the best in the world. We have to define what our own core competencies are and what we can outsource to other leaders. Headaches shared are headaches divided.
Fifth, we must create processes that enable excellence. Today, there are a number of global methods and processes available whether it is Six Sigma, CMM or ISO. Use them because they are based on distilled wisdom collected from the best companies in the world.
Also, we must build a strong foundation of information technology, because in this complex, dynamic world, it is imperative that we use the most modern tools to keep processes updated.
Sixth, we must create a culture of teaming. I have found that while great individuals are important, one cannot have pockets of excellence. Quality gives ample opportunities to build a culture of teaming. Cross-functional teams that are customer facing can cut through an amazing amount of bureaucracy, personal empire building and silos and deliver savings that one would not have imagined possible.
The other advantage of building teams focused on quality is that the teaming culture eventually spreads to the rest of the organisation and teaming becomes a way of life.
Seventh, invest in excellence for the future. Future always seems to be at a distance. But it comes upon you so suddenly that it catches you by surprise, if not shock. What constitutes excellence in the future will be significantly different from what it is today.
In these days of severe market pressures, there is big temptation to sacrifice the future to look good in the present. We must certainly trim our discretionary expenses, but we must ensure that our investments in strategic areas that lead to excellence in the future are protected.
Finally, excellence requires humility. This is especially needed when we feel we have reached the peak of excellence and there is nothing further we can do. We need an open mind to look at things in a different way and allow new inputs to come in.
Otherwise, there is a real danger of becoming complacent or even downright arrogant. I would like to end my talk with a story that illustrates this very well.
A brilliant young professor went to meet a famous Zen master to have a discussion with him on Zen. He found himself in front of a modest house. He rang the doorbell and waited. A while later, he heard shuffling footsteps and the door was opened by the Zen master.
He invited the professor to sit with him on the dining table. The professor was a little disappointed with the shabby appearance of the Zen master. He started quizzing him immediately on comparative philosophies and the Zen master gave some brief answers.
When the professor began to debate with him on those answers, the Zen master stopped speaking and kept smiling at him. Finally, the professor got angry. He said, "I have come from a long distance just to understand the relevance of Zenism. But apparently you have nothing to say. I have not learnt anything from you at all."
At this point, the Zen master asked the professor to have some tea. When the professor held the cup, the Zen master started pouring tea into it. After some time, the tea started spilling and the professor shouted, "Stop! The cup can contain no more."
The Zen Master stopped and then, once again smiling, he said, "A mind, full of itself can receive nothing. How can I speak to you of Zenism until you empty your mind to learn." The professor understood and apologized to the Zen master. He parted from him, the Zen master -- a wiser man.
The author is Chairman & Managing Director, Wipro Limited.
src:http://www.rediff.com/money/2005/jan/17spec.htm
src: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azim_Premji http://www.answers.com/topic/azim-premji http://www.rediff.com/money/2005/jan/17spec.htm http://www.wipro.com/webpages/aboutus/azim.htm http://www.iloveindia.com/indian-heroes/azim-premji.html
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