Azim Premji Quotes

Powerful Azim Premji for Daily Growth

About Azim Premji

Azim Premji, a titan in India's information technology (IT) sector and a renowned philanthropist, was born on July 24, 1945, in Mumbai, India. He is the chairman of Wipro Limited, an Indian multinational corporation that deals in various sectors including IT services, software, and consumer goods. Born into a family business, Premji's early influences were his father, Mohammed Hussain, who founded Wipro, then a cooking oil company. After completing his Bachelor of Science degree from Stanford University on a scholarship, Premji returned to India in 1966 and joined the family business with an ambition to transform it. In 1980, under Premji's leadership, Wipro ventured into the IT industry, focusing on exports and soon becoming one of the pioneers in the sector. His visionary leadership propelled the company from a cooking oil manufacturer to a global IT powerhouse with operations spanning over 6 continents. Premji's quotable quotes reflect his practical wisdom and business acumen. One of his most famous quotes is, "Globalization will be the greatest leveler in human history, but only if we use it to our advantage." This reflects his belief in the transformative power of globalization for developing economies like India. Another influential quote by Premji is, "The secret of business is to know something that nobody else knows." This underscores his strategic thinking and competitive edge that has driven Wipro's success. Beyond business, Premji is known for his philanthropic endeavors. He founded the Azim Premji Foundation in 2001, a not-for-profit organization focused on improving education in rural India. Today, he stands as an icon of Indian entrepreneurship and a beacon of social responsibility. His life story serves as an inspiration for many aspiring entrepreneurs and philanthropists worldwide.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"The ultimate goal of business is not just about making money, but it should also aim at the betterment of society."

This quote emphasizes that the primary purpose of businesses isn't solely to generate profit; they should strive for societal improvement as well. In essence, it suggests that a successful business model should balance financial success with social responsibility, demonstrating a commitment to making a positive impact on society and its people.

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts."

This quote underscores the resilience needed for success in life, business, or any endeavor. It suggests that while success is significant, it should not serve as a final destination; rather, one should continually strive to grow and improve beyond it. Conversely, failures are inevitable but should not deter us from moving forward. Instead, one must find the courage to learn from mistakes and keep pushing towards their goals. The true measure of success lies in the persistence to continue despite setbacks or obstacles.

"Entrepreneurship is a state of mind and heart."

This quote by Azim Premji suggests that entrepreneurship is not just about setting up a business or taking financial risks, but rather it's a mindset and an emotional disposition. It implies that being an entrepreneur involves thinking innovatively, having the courage to face challenges, and caring deeply about the success of one's ventures. In essence, it's about more than just starting a company; it's about embodying a spirit of creativity, resilience, and passion.

"The greatest wealth is to live content with little."

This quote by Azim Premji highlights the value of simplicity and inner satisfaction over material possessions. It suggests that true wealth lies not in accumulating wealth or goods, but rather in finding contentment with what one has. This perspective encourages a mindset that values experiences, relationships, and personal growth over external validation from wealth or possessions. Living modestly can lead to a more fulfilling life and promotes a sustainable lifestyle for both the individual and society at large.

"Always challenge the status quo, innovate and be adaptive."

This quote by Azim Premji emphasizes the importance of challenging the existing norms, continuously innovating, and maintaining adaptability in one's thinking and actions. Essentially, it encourages individuals to embrace change, question established practices, and develop new ideas and solutions that can better serve their purposes or improve current situations. This mindset promotes growth, progress, and resilience in both personal and professional spheres by fostering a culture of creativity, problem-solving, and openness to new possibilities.

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.

- Azim Premji

Leverage, Very, Reduce, Global

If there are differences of views or divergence of ideas, they can be resolved through discussion and dialogue.

- Azim Premji

Through, Divergence, Discussion

We get first-rate faculty members from the leading engineering and science institutes to train our people.

- Azim Premji

Engineering, Leading, Our, First-Rate

The customer is a remarkably selfish person: He takes the relationship to where the execution is in his favor.

- Azim Premji

Selfish, Execution, His, Remarkably

Ecology and economy are becoming inextricably entwined, and the world is becoming more conscious of this fact.

- Azim Premji

World, Becoming, Ecology, Entwined

When I took over the family business, it had already been a publicly traded company for 20 years. During one of the first annual meetings I attended, one shareholder stood up and advised me and everyone in attendance that I should resign.

- Azim Premji

Been, Had, Stood, Traded

Being in the consumer business helps us groom talent in areas like marketing, finance and logistics. We can benchmark our outsourcing business to our consumer business and its best practices.

- Azim Premji

Business, Like, Groom, Logistics

A girl child who is even a little bit educated is more conscious of family planning, health care and, in turn, her children's own education.

- Azim Premji

Education, Own, More, Family Planning

Despite widely differing perspectives and agendas, there seems to be a remarkable global consensus that has built up over a fairly short period of time that climate change and ecology is one of the truly defining issues for humanity.

- Azim Premji

Issues, Global, Short Period, Defining

We've always seen ourselves as Indian. We've never seen ourselves as Hindus or Muslims or Christians or Buddhists.

- Azim Premji

Never, Always, Christians, Hindus

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.

- Azim Premji

Trust, Over, Transferred, Irrevocably

We entered the global market only in the end-'80s, and that was because imports became more liberal.

- Azim Premji

Market, Imports, Became, Global Market

Saudi Arabia has proved to be the growth engine for Wipro.

- Azim Premji

Growth, Arabia, Proved, Engine

You have got the right strategy, the right geography; you have got the right customers. You need to prioritise them better; we need to grow them better, mind them better. We need to give more value to them, and we need to execute a lot of areas in the organisation where we are not executing.

- Azim Premji

Mind, Grow, Give, Executing

There's a reasonable amount of traction in college education, particularly engineering, because quite a lot of that is privatized, so there is an incentive to set up new colleges of reasonably high quality.

- Azim Premji

College, New, Amount, High Quality

Certain product lines are more suited to be manufactured in proximity with the customer, while others are more suitable to be manufactured in India.

- Azim Premji

Product, More, While, Suited

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.

- Azim Premji

Treat, Test, Social, Powerless

It is the strength of our culture that we can have Sonia Gandhi, who is Catholic, a Sikh prime minister, and a Muslim president.

- Azim Premji

Strength, Muslim, Prime, Gandhi

If one has been blessed or have been fortunate enough to have got much more than normal wealth, it is but natural that one expects a certain fiduciary responsibility in terms of how that wealth is applied, used and leveraged for purposes of society.

- Azim Premji

Wealth, Normal, Been, Expects

Interestingly, many Indian companies where there's a father-and-son combination are being run as joint CEO organizations because the father has not given up running the company and the son is actively involved in running the company, and there is division of responsibilities.

- Azim Premji

Father, Run, Joint, Actively

I feel that business leaders with their ability to create businesses, with their ability to scale, need to play an important role in social service.

- Azim Premji

Business, Play, Role, Business Leaders

You cannot mandate philanthropy. It has to come from within, and when it does, it is deeply satisfying.

- Azim Premji

Within, Mandate, Does, Satisfying

We understand how to build and manage businesses that involve technology, engineering, and people at a large scale on a global platform.

- Azim Premji

Understand, Scale, Large, Large Scale

Private sector cannot substitute the role of the government in primary education.

- Azim Premji

Private, Private Sector, Primary

I am particularly interested in primary education because the state of affairs in primary education in this country is a cause for concern.

- Azim Premji

Country, Cause, Particularly, Primary

Customers are now driven by trying to optimize value.

- Azim Premji

Trying, Driven, Now, Optimize

Excellence is a great starting point for any new organisation but also an unending journey.

- Azim Premji

Journey, Excellence, New, Unending

If the United States wants access to Chinese, Indian or Vietnamese markets, we must get access to theirs. U.S. protectionism is very subtle but it is very much there.

- Azim Premji

Access, United States, Very, Vietnamese

Inflation is taking up the poverty line, and poverty is not just economic but defined by way of health and education.

- Azim Premji

Education, Health, Line, Defined

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.

- Azim Premji

Work, Pay, Which, Drivers

I can speak English. I can speak Hindi. I can understand one or two other languages.

- Azim Premji

Other, English, Languages, Hindi

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.

- Azim Premji

Business, Feet, Negotiate, Stability

We are partners to leading organizations across industries and have delivered marquee and transformational programs.

- Azim Premji

Leading, Partners, Across, Industries

Western companies want access to Indian talent. That is why they outsource; that is why they come to India to set up base.

- Azim Premji

Want, Access, Set, Base

I was studying at Stanford University with two quarters left to go before receiving an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering. Then, I got the telephone call from my mother. I had no choice. I went home, and I jumped into the company feet first, right from day one. There was no time to grieve my father.

- Azim Premji

Feet, Before, No Time, Stanford

The Indian community in Canada has integrated much better than the Indian community in United States. They've become really Canadian at the same time as keeping all their Indian characters and customs and social groups.

- Azim Premji

United, United States, Indian

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.

- Azim Premji

Young, Nation, Contribute, Indian

The public/private partnerships are taking various forms in India. It is individuals who are socially oriented are setting up schools. They're setting up colleges. They're setting up universities. They're setting up primary-education schools in the villages, particularly the villages their original families came from.

- Azim Premji

India, Individuals, Setting, Forms

Colleges produce more sports therapists than engineers. Perhaps because America is a sporty country: a lot of outdoors.

- Azim Premji

Sports, Country, More, Outdoors

There are 600 districts in India. Every district in India has a teacher-training institute.

- Azim Premji

India, District, Districts, Institute

The importance of this success of Wipro has become manifold more, because it's the success of Wipro that enables the possibility of making a difference to some of the most disadvantaged people in the world.

- Azim Premji

Some, Making, Disadvantaged, Possibility

I can't have my employees sitting in traffic when they should be in the office. Spending two-and-half hours in the car is a huge waste of productive time.

- Azim Premji

Office, Waste, Hours, Sitting

Our managers need to have a strong integration of managerial skills and technical understanding. One cannot substitute for the other.

- Azim Premji

Strong, Other, Technical, Managers

To have strongly integrated managers who have a deep understanding of technology is a rare and difficult combination to build. You have to invest a lot in selecting and training these people.

- Azim Premji

Deep, Difficult, Invest, Managers

Even if a media of a TV is not available in a home, there's this concept of community homes, where a reasonably well-off villager will have a TV - and a nice TV - and he'll keep it outside the house in the evenings.

- Azim Premji

Will, TV, Evenings, Reasonably

You cannot have a society where you spend more than you earn. I mean, it's just fundamentally not viable in the long run.

- Azim Premji

Run, More, Long Run, Viable

I.B.M. was not really bringing their best technologies to India. They were dumping old machines in the country that had been thrown away in the rest of the world 10 years before.

- Azim Premji

Rest, Country, Been, Machines

I think the advantage of democracy is that it makes us less dependent on a group of leaders.

- Azim Premji

Think, I Think, Advantage, Dependent

We run courses for government school teachers on Sundays. These teachers pay for their own food and stay; the kind of commitment you find in these people is remarkable.

- Azim Premji

Kind, Own, Courses, Sundays

All our hiring staff are trained to interview in English. They're trained to look for Westernized segments because we deal with global customers.

- Azim Premji

Deal, Hiring, Trained, Interview

When you are under pressure, you make the bold steps faster; you don't make the bold steps slower.

- Azim Premji

Bold, Pressure, Faster, Slower

There are three lessons in philanthropy - one, involve the family, especially the spouse. She can be a remarkable driver of your initiative. Two, you need to build an institution, and you need to scale it up. Choose a leader for philanthropy whom you trust. Three, philanthropy needs patience, tenacity and time.

- Azim Premji

Trust, Leader, Scale, Lessons

People have to take control of their own lives. Education is key because it also raises other social indicators like healthcare.

- Azim Premji

Education, Other, Lives, Key

I have always felt intuitively that somehow such wealth cannot be the privy of any one person or any one family.

- Azim Premji

Wealth, Always, Felt, Intuitively

People are the key to success or extraordinary success.

- Azim Premji

Success, Extraordinary, Key

I inherited the company from my father after he died very unexpectedly from a heart attack in 1966. He was just 51 years old, and I was 21.

- Azim Premji

Old, Very, Unexpectedly, Inherited

The Western world loves liberalisation, provided it doesn't affect them.

- Azim Premji

World, Loves, Affect, Western World

Our business model is primarily that of consulting, engineering, system integration, and managed services.

- Azim Premji

Business, System, Consulting, Integration

I think the most important reason for our success is that very early in our quest into globalisation, we invested in people - and we have done that consistently and particularly in the service business.

- Azim Premji

Think, Reason, Very, Invested

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.

- Azim Premji

More, We Cannot, Rests, Philanthropy

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.

- Azim Premji

Excellence, Going, Imposed, Customers

Even if I was to give my children a small part of my wealth, it would be more than they can digest in many lifetimes.

- Azim Premji

Wealth, Small, Give, Lifetimes

You need a commitment which is long term and a commitment to leadership, because that's the only way you build excellence.

- Azim Premji

Excellence, Need, Which, Long Term

Talent is in short supply everywhere. At Wipro, we are training nonengineers to be engineers.

- Azim Premji

Talent, Short, Everywhere, Engineers

The West is not producing enough engineers.

- Azim Premji

Enough, West, Producing, Engineers

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.

- Azim Premji

Want, Britain, Studied, Engineers

The principal challenge we face is to go up the value- and domain-skill chain and build a strong consultancy front end and, also, to globalize our leadership much more.

- Azim Premji

Strong, More, Chain, Front

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.

- Azim Premji

Engaged, Devote, Very, Our Time

The U.S. is a complex country. It has a high predominance of immigrants who have been eminently successful.

- Azim Premji

Country, High, Been, Immigrants

Excellence endures and sustains. It goes beyond motivation into the realms of inspiration.

- Azim Premji

Excellence, Goes, Endures, Sustains

I think that any wealth creates a sense of trusteeship... it is characteristic of the new generation which has created wealth to have some amount of responsibility for it.

- Azim Premji

Wealth, Generation, Which, Characteristic

Excellence can be as strong a uniting force as solid vision.

- Azim Premji

Strong, Vision, Solid, Uniting

Wipro Arabia is a joint venture company with Dar Al Riyadh, a well-diversified group in Saudi Arabia.

- Azim Premji

Company, Arabia, Joint, Al

The old boys' club of closed tennis court relationships is on the way out.

- Azim Premji

Relationships, Old, Club, Tennis Court

People are realistic enough to appreciate what the market values of different people are.

- Azim Premji

Different People, Market, Realistic

Wipro is one of the fastest growing companies regionally and globally, and I am personally very excited with our journey in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

- Azim Premji

Journey, Excited, Very, Saudi

The concept of the strong linkage to the family is breaking down in Western nations.

- Azim Premji

Strong, Nations, Concept, Western

My dad told me he wanted me to join in the business, but nothing was firm. He was quite young when he died, so we hadn't talked about it in depth.

- Azim Premji

Business, Young, Dad, Depth

What we are doing is we are putting in significant training into the people we have currently to upgrade their skill resources, upgrade the presentation resources, and upgrade what we expect from them in terms of not business as usual.

- Azim Premji

Doing, Upgrade, Putting, Skill

The job of nation building, the job of nation leadership in a difficult, complex coalition has worked.

- Azim Premji

Leadership, Nation, Worked, Coalition

I strongly believe that those of us who are privileged to have wealth should contribute significantly to try and create a better world for the millions who are far less privileged.

- Azim Premji

Wealth, Believe, Contribute, Millions

You can do clean business in India.

- Azim Premji

Business, Clean, You, India

This whole issue of Hindu-Muslim in India is completely overhyped.

- Azim Premji

Issue, Whole, India

Frankly, I don't know how many companies there are, globally, which are truly global.

- Azim Premji

How, Which, Frankly, Globally

The U.K. and the U.S. are quite similar in that they have high-productivity, English-speaking workforces who don't mind working long hours. Working in those countries is not a problem.

- Azim Premji

Mind, Hours, Similar, Long Hours

I have never had the need or thrill for being wealthy.

- Azim Premji

Never, Need, Wealthy, Thrill

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.

- Azim Premji

Wealth, Thought, Other, Ambition

In any software work, you have IT consultancy competence required to build the systems.

- Azim Premji

Software, Build, Systems, Competence

Technical people tend to be more 'techie,' and management people are more 'managerial.'

- Azim Premji

More, Technical, Tend, Management

You cannot underestimate the value of luck in success in life. And I've really learned to appreciate that.

- Azim Premji

Luck, Appreciate, Learned, Underestimate

I don't think being a Muslim or being a non-Muslim has been an advantage or disadvantage.

- Azim Premji

Think, Been, Disadvantage, Advantage

The success of Wipro has made me a wealthy person.

- Azim Premji

Success, Person, Made, Wealthy

We believe that two people who have worked together for more than 10 years and been in the company for more than 15 years would be able to work very well as a team.

- Azim Premji

More, Been, Very, Two People

Parents realize their wealth should be used for social good rather than children's good.

- Azim Premji

Children, Social, Rather, Wealth

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