Azim Premji: The Success Story of Philanthropic Titan
A Glimpse into the Life and Legacy of Azim Premji
It’s truly said that “If you want to become successful in life, you need to dream and never stop working on it”. A true example of this statement is everyone’s favorite businessman, Azim Premji. Almost every student and person going to different universities know the background stories of Mukesh Ambani, Ratan Tata, and Aditya Birla, but there are more unsung heroes who have worked hard for themselves and the country. One of the best examples of this is none other than Azim Premji.
Azim Hashim Premji is none other than an Indian businessman and philanthropist. He has been part of many international and big projects. Interestingly, he has played a major role and changed the face of those industries wherever he worked.
Azim Premji was born in Bombay which is currently known as Mumbai. He was born into a Kutchi Indian Muslim Shia Islam family from Gujarat. He got a lot of inspiration from his father, as his father was also a noted businessman and he was known as the Rice King of Burma.
Did you know? Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who was the founder of Pakistan had invited his father, Muhammed Hashim Premji to come to Pakistan. The most interesting part is Azim’s father turned down the request and he chose to remain in India. Now, that is something we as countrymen could be highly proud of irrespective of our relation to the business world.
When his father was so down-to-Earth man so we expect nothing less from his son. His journey ever since he was a child to a 77-year-old man has surely been very hardworking and inspiring to all the generations who came before and after. He has expanded deeply when it came to his business and did quite a lot for his country.
From Tech Visionary to Education Reformer: The Azim Premji Story
Azim Premji is best known as the founder and chairman of Wipro Limited. But, the main question arises what and how was the journey for him from starting a tech company to becoming an education reformer?
As we already know, Azim Premji’s father had his company in Maharashtra. The name of the company was Western India Vegetable Products. By the name, one can easily figure out that, the company manufactured cooking oil by the name of Sunflower Oil and laundry soap. Yes, the business was not very bad and it was at its peak level during that time when Azim was small.
Azim completed his studies in Mumbai, he pursued Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. When it comes to his education qualification, he just got the best from his family. The story changed when he was 21 years old and got a call bout his father’s sudden death.
Now, to take care of his father’s business he was bound to come back to India and look after the great business. Yes, this highly affected his studies as he had to drop his engineering course midway.
He did face lots of trouble operating his father’s company at that young age. But, slowly he started to gain knowledge related to the field and was learning slowly. When IBM left India back in 1977, it became a good opportunity for Azim. He was doing very well on his father’s business, it was earning good profit.
He took advantage of IBM leaving India and his company started manufacturing IT hardware, software, IT services, and many more. He soon changed the company’s name to Wipro. Wipro then started giving various software solutions as well for the consumers who needed the most. Yes, his business after starting Wipro was and is still going very well.
In 2000, Azim Premji started a foundation to work on primary education in India. He had already built Wipro into a multi-billion dollar technology outsourcing firm. At this turn of the century, he took the first step to put that money to good use, for society in general, and education in particular.
In the last 15-17 years Azim Premji Foundation has expanded to 40 districts across six states and one union territory. Yes, this has been a great journey for AAzim Premji, and working on his dreams.
Azim Premji: The Journey of a Business Mogul and Humanitarian
The moment he took full responsibility for his father’s company, it was from that moment his life in the business world changed forever. Before starting Wipro, Azim’s business had already started making multiple new products such as electric products, hydraulic cylinders, and many more. This helped him to gain more knowledge related to the field when IMB left India and he started Wipro.
Initially, when he started Wipro it was mostly into IT services but, later it started manufacturing products. Over time, Wipro started making microcomputers and started selling to various markets around the world. In the year 1989, Wipro joined hands with General Electric and both started a company with the name of Wipro G Medical System.
This company further manufactured medical Imaging products for customers. Many of us will know what kind of workplace is Wipro. It has a very fun and loving working environment and it was only possible because of the loving founders. As we know, Azim Premji is a Philanthropist, it is their work to donate time, money, experience, skills, or talent to other people. This is what he has learned and is currently sharing with the whole world.
The Remarkable Achievements of Azim Premji: A Success Story
Operating a huge business for a year-old child was not very easy. Adaptability, leadership quality, and efficiency are what made Azim Premji a great leader and a great businessman. After the sudden death of his father, he had to learn all these and was bound to inherit all these important skills within for him to become successful along with his father’s business.
Now, this is the biggest achievement that he has received in his entire life. Facing the problem and coming out from it by solving it is what we all must learn from Azim Premji. After he started Wipro, he began to steer the company more toward the computer business. That is how his company established a number of successful international partnerships during the 1980s to help build computer software to help India.
Other than this, Azim is the first Indian recipient of the Faraday Medal. He was awarded honorary doctorates by Michigan State University, Wesleyan University, and the Indian Institutes of Technology at Bombay, Roorkee, and Kharagpur. These are some of the remarkable awards and achievements received by Azim Premji. The Republic of France awarded him their highest civilian award, Knight of the Legion of Honor.
Azim Premji’s Impact on the IT Industry and Beyond
Did you know? Azim Premji is known as ‘The Czar of the Indian IT Industry”. Ever since he stepped into the software or IT industry he has changed the technique, process, and face of the industry as a whole. Yes, this did not happen in a single night it took lots of time and courage for Azim Premji. Yes, there was a huge hand to all those employees who have been faithful towards the company.
This man has guided the company for over four decades of diversification and growth. Today, we know the famous and well-known Azim Premji and Wipro have become. He surely is a visionary businessman who was always ahead of his time. This is one of the reasons why other than IT services he started manufacturing computers.
As a philanthropist, he understood the people not only financially but, emotionally as well. During the 70s and 80s, Wipro under the management of Premji made a strategic shift from lifestyle products to software. Yes, this changed the face of the IT industry today.
The Giving Billionaire: Azim Premji’s Philanthropic Endeavours
Azim has always been a people person and a people’s favorite. He always understood the people from within or emotionally. This is one of the reasons why Wipro treats their employee so well and they stand out as compared to other IT companies in the whole world.
It was his philanthropic studies or effect which encouraged him to shift change from the IT industry to the education sector. He set up a foundation back in 2001 which was called Azim Premji Foundation. Over the past years, he has irrevocably donated most of his wealth for various philanthropic purposes. He created a philanthropic endowment which was valued at approximately USD 29 billion to fund the work of the foundation. This figure is as of January 2023.
Azim Premji’s Leadership Philosophy: Lessons from a Visionary
Here are some beautiful and impactful lessons from Azim Premji:-
- Always maintain your values. The foundation of a person’s business is their value system. We have always seen Premji upholding morals repeatedly because he was adamant.
- Always know your strengths and this is what Azim Premji has always followed. This is what helped his father’s $2 million company into a $7 billion company today.
- Always stay grounded. Everyone can be successful with hard work but, do not let success go to your head. Premji has always advised young entrepreneurs to remain down to earth.
- Always think of the future. This philanthropist believes that change is inevitable. He has always advised others to develop their own early warning system, which sets the alarm for someone to change.
Transforming Lives: Azim Premji’s Contribution to Education
As mentioned above, Premji has and still believes that change is inevitable. Yes, everyone must adapt to change in a positive manner. He himself has changed his business from the IT industry to opening a foundation focusing on the education sector.
It was at the 19th Polestar Awards that Azim Premji gave an amazing speech on how he wants to change the Indian education system. Back in December 2010, Azim had pledged that, he would donate US$2 billion for improving school education in India. Yes, he has taken the step as he pledged and he is doing it very successfully. This pledge has been done by transferring 213 million equity shares of Wipro Limited, held by a few entities controlled by him to Azim Premji Trust.
The Azim Premji Foundation’s Field Institutions are spread across 7 states with over 3,50,000 schools. In addition, Premji’s foundation also works closely with seven states in the northeast of the country to help improve the equity and equality of the state school systems.
Azim Premji: A Visionary Leader Who Redefined Corporate Social Responsibility
Azim Premji is surely one of the best visionary men in the world today. With more than 1700 employees, his foundation is active in more than 48 districts of six states and one union territory. He has an annual donation of Rs 9,713 crore, which when calculated comes down to Rs 27 crore every day.
He has always believed that companies should actively participate in CSR activities. Premji also received the Managing India Award for Corporate Citizen of the Year at the convention. Premji had once also felt that a distinction should be made between personal philanthropy and CSR, which is a company activity.