The Information Technology 100

23
Wipro
Coming off its strongest year since 2000, Wipro grew at 43% in 2004. The company has branched
out from offerings such as software development, R&D, and applications maintenance to providing
remote infrastructure management, financial services, and applications and product testing. All that
while maintaining its position as the world’s largest third-party R&D provider. Wipro, which gets the
majority of its revenue from the U.S., is pushing further in Europe and expects to make some
acquisitions there this year. At home, the company’s back-office operation, Wipro BPO, got a jolt
when Chief Executive Raman Roy quit in early June to start another business. The $150 million
operation, mostly call-center work, will move into higher-end back-office jobs such as insurance
processes in order to achieve greater profitability and to stem the high employee attrition to new
foreign players.

Company Info
STOCK INFO WIT
REVENUES* $1.9 BILLION
REVENUE 39.2%
GROWTH
RETURN ON 27.9%
EQUITY
TOTAL RETURN 41.4%
PROFITS* $363
MILLION
INDUSTRY SERVICES
CORPORATE WEB SITE

All figures are for the most recent available 12 months.

* Latest available data for the 12-month period ended Dec. 31, Jan. 31, Feb. 29, Mar. 31, or Apr. 30. For companies that do not
report quarterly, the most recent annual data were used.

DATA PROVIDED BY STANDARD & POOR'S COMPUSTAT, BUSINESSWEEK

Company Snapshot
Wipro Limited, through its subsidiaries, provides IT services worldwide. It offers software solutions, IT consulting,
business process outsourcing services, and research and development services in the areas of hardware and
software design. The company operates in three segments: Global IT Services and Products, India and AsiaPac IT
Services and Products, and Consumer Care and Lighting. The Global IT Services and Products segment provides IT
services to customers in the Americas, Europe, and Japan. The India and AsiaPac IT Services and Products
segment operates in the Indian IT market and offers IT products and services to the companies in India, Asia-Pacific,
and the Middle East region. Consumer Care and Lighting segment engages in the manufacture and sale of consumer
care and lighting products. The consumer care products include soaps and toiletries, baby products, talcum powders,
and hydrogenerated cooking oils. The lighting products include light bulbs, flourescent tubes, and luminaries. Wipro
Limited was founded in 1945.The company is headquartered in Bangalore, India
Azim H. Premji
BIO

Azim H. Premji has been Wipro Ltd.'s Chairman of the Board and Managing Director since September 1968. Mr.
Premji holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. Currently, he is also a Director
of Media Lab Asia.

Azim Premji
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Azim Premji

Azim Premji at the World Economic Forum in Davos, 2007

Born 24 July 1945 (age 65)

Mumbai, India

Residence Bangalore, India[1]

Alma mater Stanford University (dropped out in 1966, completed in

 1999)[1]

Occupation Chairman of Wipro

Net worth US$18.42 billion (2010)[2]

Religion Islam

Spouse Yasmeen Premji

Children 2[3]

Azim Hashim Premji (Gujarati: અઝીમ પ્રેમજી) (born 24 July 1945) is an Indian business tycoon and the

chairman of Wipro Limited, a group company that holds Wipro Technologies, India's third largest software
development companies. According to Forbes, he is currently the second richest Indian with a personal wealth
of US$17 billion in 2010.[2][4]. In 2000, 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.[2] In April 2004,
he was rated among the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine. His assets include 74%
of Wipro. Wipro Limited, which dealt in hydrogenated cooking fats along with consumer products, grew from a
company of US $2.5 million to a giant of $1.4 billion under Premji's leadership. Wipro Technologies, one of its
group companies, is one of India's largest software companies and is ranked among the top 100 technology
companies globally.[5]

Contents
 [hide]

1 Personal life

2 Honours and

awards

3 Azim Premji

Foundation

4 See also

5 References

6 External links

[ edit]Personal life
Premji was born in Karachi, Pakistan, to a Gujarati Khoja Shia-Muslim Muslim family. His father M. H. Premji
owned the Western India PROducts (which later became Wipro Ltd.) which made hydrogenated vegetable oils
and fats. His grandfather was the rice king of Burma. His father had declined an invitation from Muhammed Ali
Jinnah to go to Pakistan.[6] While he completed his initial education at St. Mary's School, Mumbai, Premji was
forced to leave his studies in electrical engineering from Stanford University, California, USA at the age of 21 to
take over the family business when his father, M.H. Premji, suddenly died in 1966. He has since after a gap of
over thirty years completed his degree in Electrical Engineering. [7]

When Azim Premji occupied the hot seat, Wipro dealt in hydrogenated cooking fats and later diversified 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. [8] The Amalner-based vanaspathi
manufacturing company, the Western India PROduct later became Wipro Products Ltd, Wipro Technologies
and Wipro Corporation. Under Premji’s leadership Wipro embarked on an ambitious phase of expansion and
diversification. The Company began manufacturing light bulbs with General Electric and other consumer
products including soaps, baby care products, shampoos, powder etc. In 1975, Wipro Fluid Power business
unit manufacturing hydraulic cylinders and truck tippers was started. But Premji’s ambitions did not stop there.
In the 1980s Wipro entered the IT field, taking advantage of the expulsion of IBM from the Indian market in
1975. Thus, Wipro became involved in manufacturing computer hardware, software development and related
items, under a special license from Sentinel. As a result, the $1.5 million company in hydrogenated cooking fats
grew within a few years to a $662 million diversified, integrated corporation in services, medical systems,
technology products and consumer items with offices worldwide. The company’s IT division became the world's
first to win SEI CMM level 5 and PCMM Level 5 (People Capability Maturity Model) certification, the latest in
quality standards. A large percentage of the company’s revenues are generated by the IT division. Wipro works
with leading global companies, such as Alcatel, Nokia, Cisco and Nortel and has a joint venture in Medical
Systems with General Electric company.[7]

Premji is married to Yasmeen, the couple have two children, Rishad and Tariq. Rishad is married to Aditi and is
currently the Chief Strategy Officer of IT Business, Wipro Technologies. [9]

Premji is known for his modesty and frugality in spite of his wealth. He drives a Toyota Corolla and
flies economy class, prefers to stay in company guest houses rather than luxury hotels and even served food
on paper plates at a lunch honouring his son's wedding.[10]

[ edit]Honours and awards

Premji has been recognized by Business Week as one of the Greatest Entrepreneurs[11] for being responsible
for Wipro emerging as one of the world’s fastest growing companies.

In 2000, he was conferred an honorary doctorate by the Manipal Academy of Higher Education.

During 1999-2005, Premji was the richest Indian on earth. As on March 9, 2010, he was one of the wealthiest
people in India, with a net worth of $17 billion. [12]

He was awarded a Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.), an honorary degree, from the Aligarh Muslim University on the
18th of June, 2008 on the occasion of 58th Convocation Ceremony of the University.

In 2009, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut for his
outstanding philanthropic work.[13] In 2005 the government of India honored him with the title of Padma
Vibhushan for his outstanding work in trade and commerce.

[ edit]Azim Premji Foundation

The 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 sectors of society". The Foundation was set up with
financial resources contributed by Azim Premji.

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"[citation needed]. The organisation has over the years been instrumental in improving
the quality of general education, particularly in rural schools [citation needed].

Citing a technology initiative, the Foundation reported: "Think of a single PC with three display terminals, three
keyboards and three 'mouses', which can be simultaneously used as if they are three independent
computers"[citation needed].

Five new titles of educational CDs for Indian schools were produced earlier in 2005. They are:

 Friendly Animals and Journey on the Clouds (English)

 Swatantra Divas

 Fun with Chinchoo in Mathematics

 Khel-Mel (Hindi), released in February 2005.

With these, the total number of master titles available is 70 [citation needed].

There are now 68 titles in Karnataka, 42 for Andhra Pradesh, 35 for Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry, 18

for Urdu medium schools, six for Orissa, 14 for Gujarat, 3 for Punjab and 1 for Kerala.

This Foundation is also involved in computer-based assessment in Andhra Pradesh (50,000 students took part
in early 2005), a learning guarantee programme, and a policy planning unit in Karnataka.
IDEAS OF PREMJI
Azim Premji has led Wipro since 1966. Then a  USD 2 million hydrogenated cooking fat company, Wipro Limited is
today a USD 5 billion revenue IT, BPO and R&D Services organization with presence in over 50 countries.

He started at Wipro with one basic idea - to build an organization which was deeply committed to values, in the firm
belief that success in business would be its inevitable, eventual outcome. Unflinching commitment to values
continues to remain at the core of Wipro.

Premji strongly believes that ordinary people are capable of extraordinary things and that the key to this is creating
highly charged teams. He takes a personal interest in developing teams and leaders and invests significant time as a
faculty in Wipro’s leadership development programs.

In Premji’s view, the Wipro brand promise of ‘Applying Thought’ is the driving force for delivering value for customers
- which is the heart of business success. This has driven Wipro’s pioneering efforts in Quality, culminating in the
‘Wipro Way’, which integrates the methods and practices of Six Sigma, PCMM, CMMi and Lean amongst others. It
also drives Wipro’s focus on applying innovation for direct customer benefits - improving their time-to-market,
enhancing their predictability and reliability and cutting their costs.

He is firmly committed to the belief that business organizations have deep social responsibility and that this must be
discharged by conducting ethical and fair business, by involvement with community issues and by building an
ecologically sustainable business. Wipro is deeply involved in trying to improve the quality of school education
through its ‘Wipro Applying Thought in Schools’ initiative, in local community causes through ‘Wipro Cares’ and is
determinedly committed to a journey which weaves ecological sensitivity in every aspect of its business and
organization.

Over the years, Azim Premji has received many honors and accolades, which he believes are recognitions for each
person who has contributed to Wipro. Business Week listed him amongst the top 30 entrepreneurs in world history
(July 2007), and featured him on their cover with the sobriquet ’India’s Tech King’ (October 2003). Financial Times
included him in the global list of 25 people who are “dramatically reshaping the way people live, work or think” and
“have done most to bring about significant and lasting social, political or cultural changes” (October 2005, November
2004). Time listed him as one amongst the 100 most influential people in the world (April 2004). He was named by
Fortune as one of the 25 most powerful business leaders outside the US (August 20030, Forbes listed him as one of
ten people globally, who have the most “power to effect change” (March 2003). He was adjudged the Business
Leader of the Year 2004 by the Economic Times.

In 2005, he became the first Indian recipient of the Faraday Medal. The Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee and
the Manipal Academy of Higher Education have both conferred honorary doctorates on him, while XLRI, Jamshedpur
has conferred the Sir Jehangir Ghandy Medal for Industrial and Social Peace. In 2000, the Visvesvaraya
Technological University conferred the Sir M. Visvesvaraya Memorial Award on him and the Institute of Electronics
and Telecommunication Engineers conferred on him its highest honor - the Honorary Fellowship. He is a non-
executive Director on the Board of the Reserve Bank of India. He is also a member of the Prime Minister’s Committee
for Trade and Industry in India. In January 2005, The Government of India conferred upon him the Padma Bhushana,
one of the highest civilian awards in the country.

In the year 2001, Premji established the Azim Premji Foundation, a not-for-profit organization with a vision to
significantly contribute to quality primary education for every child, in order to build a just, equitable and humane
society. The financial resources to this foundation have been personally contributed by Premji. The current programs
of the Azim Premji Foundation engage 2.5 million children in more than 17,000 schools across India. In October
2006, the Foundation was recognized as the Corporate Citizen of the year by the Economic Times.

Azim Premji is a graduate in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, USA.