Richest man

Chapter 32 Asia: Azim Hasham Premji (1)
——Azim Hasham Premji: The person who bears the hope of IndiaIn the world of wealth, India is a country with a different experience.

On the one hand, because it has been under British colonial rule for a long time, and the western-style democracy and enterprise system prevails in the country, it has inherent institutional advantages in the development track of modern companies.But such advantages did not bring prosperity to India. On the contrary, for a long time, the country was surrounded by poverty, hunger and war.An astonishing statistic is: In India in the 35s, 60% of people lived below the poverty line, [-]% of households had no electrical equipment, and nearly one in every two people was illiterate.

But such a situation has undergone some changes in the 90s. In 1991, the Indian government decided to implement an economic revival plan similar to China's reform and opening up. India hoped to realize the revival of the country and the nation by taking the lead in developing the software industry and then driving the development of other industries.The topics we are talking about today, such as "the advantages and disadvantages of "Made in India" and "Made in China" and "Can India catch up with China" are the product and continuation of that kind of reform.

When India establishes such a development idea, it is destined that the software industry will become a key industry to sustain India's rise, and a key leader and savior will also be born in this industry.After more than ten years of cultivation, saplings have finally grown on this moist soil. They are a group of well-known software companies in India, such as Vipro, India Information System Technology Co., Ltd., etc., and among them Taking Vipro as the most representative, its founder, Azim Hasham Premji, has now become one of the richest people in India. In the 2005 "Forbes" global rich list, he Ranked 67th with a net worth of $58 billion. In [-], his wealth continued to climb, ranking [-]th with $[-] billion.Although the emergence of an unexpected figure, Lakshmi Mittal, made him give up the throne of India's richest man, it did not affect his status in India at all.

Today, Premji is one of the icons of wealthy-hungry Indians and, to some extent, a poster child for Indian economic thought.The reason for this situation is, on the one hand, Premji’s huge wealth, and on the other hand, his legendary entrepreneurial history and maverick style.

From an oil seller to a software king
History is often full of drama, and it often creates the same episode in different times and places.The growth history of Premji is strikingly similar to that of the richest man in other parts of Asia.For example, South Korea’s Samsung was originally a small trading company engaged in aquatic products, but eventually became a leading company in the electronic technology industry; Taiwan’s Wang Yongqing was an unknown soldier who sold rice at the beginning, but eventually became a giant in the petrochemical industry... Such an experience, You can also find it on the bodies of many richest men in other regions.

India Vipro is also an example.Before 1977, it was only a small enterprise engaged in the production and sales of edible oil, but its founder, Premji's father, was a legendary figure. In 1945, Premji Sr. founded a small business specializing in the production of everyday foods. In 1947, India and Pakistan were partitioned. As an Indian, the old Premji was highly regarded by the father of Pakistan, Jinnah. He wanted their family to settle in Pakistan and invited them as the Minister of Finance. For reasons still unknown, Premji the Elder rejected Jinnah's invitation to remain in India to continue his career.

In 1966, Premji Sr. died suddenly.Therefore, Premji, who was only 21 years old at the time and was still studying engineering at Stanford University in the United States, interrupted his studies and rushed back to India reluctantly to take over his father's work, because according to his original idea, he was looking for a job in the United States. bank job.However, Premji, who took over the oil factory, gradually showed his talent for doing business. By expanding the variety of supplies and promoting sales, he managed the factory left by his father to a great extent.

During this period, Premji met an important person - Narayana Murthy.This is a computer engineer with outstanding computer skills and a unique vision. He later founded India's second largest software company, India Information Systems Technology Co., Ltd., but he lacked business experience at the time.Needless to say, two people with complementary advantages became important partners, and an event that happened at the same time pushed their lives to a climax.

India implemented a planned economy in the 80s and 1977s, and all resources and commodities were regulated and controlled by the government.A major feature of this system is monopoly, and monopoly often means huge profits and extensive dumping.Therefore, in the Indian IT market at that time, companies like IBM sold a large number of cheap mass electronic products that were difficult to sell elsewhere to the Indian market, and India became a processing ground for low-end electronic products.Until [-], due to political reasons, the Indian government decided to expel IBM from the country, thus creating a possibility for the development of the Indian IT industry.

Premji and Murthy are keenly aware of the business opportunities behind this. They both believe that the emerging computer industry will become the pillar of India's new economy.Therefore, Premji boldly made a decision that changed his life: he changed the company's name to Wipro, and cooperated with Murthy to fight for the IT cake left by the huge vacuum left by IBM after being driven out.

Premji said bluntly: "We can make up for the gaps in the market." He quickly took action: at first he represented Canon, Epson, Hewlett-Packard and other companies' high-tech products, and later focused on the computer hardware market. In 1979, his company began producing its own computers. In 1981, he took the lead in selling the first finished computer in India - Premji is gradually making steady progress towards his predetermined goal.

However, historical changes brought another variable to Premji at this time. In the early 80s, the Indian computer hardware market opened up, and products from Japan and the "Asian Tigers" poured into India one after another. The competition in the computer hardware market was extremely fierce, and the profits of Vipro's computer production began to decline sharply.At this time, Premji faced another choice: whether to stay in the computer hardware market, or to transform
Like the original decision to switch from cooking oil to IT, Premji seems to have a natural talent for taking risks, and most importantly, this is not just a rash and impulsive adventure.After much deliberation, Premji decided to transform his company again. In 1984, he decided to venture into the more profitable software development business.In the same year, Vipro launched the first combined program of blank form program software and word processing, knocking on the door of the software empire since then.In the 90s, Vipro basically realized the development strategy with software as the core. On its service list, there are many famous companies in the world's top 500 such as Microsoft, Sony, Nokia, and General Electric. In 1999, Premji moved Wipro's technical headquarters to Santa Clara, California, and hired a former General Electric executive as CEO.

Of course, these are not the ultimate goals of Premji. In Premji’s mind, he wants to make Wipro the best IT company in the world. Make great strides to implement the expansion plan and enter into multiple fields. In November 2002, Vipro spent 11 million US dollars to acquire an American management system consulting company, becoming the first Indian company to make a major acquisition in the United States.Afterwards, he non-stop acquired a technology consulting company in Boston, a microprocessor company in Cincinnati, Nerve Wire, a financial services consulting company in Massachusetts, and the 2400-person energy business unit of American Management Systems Corporation. In July 2002, Premji invested 7 million US dollars to form the largest call center in India.In addition, he also seized the opportunity of the unpopularity of American software companies in the Middle East to enter the Arab market-Wipro is advancing towards its goal at an unstoppable development speed. In February 9000, India's "Business Standard" magazine ranked India's benchmark enterprises, and Vipro ranked first. The reason for the award given by "Business Standard" is "seven consecutive years of impeccable growth, leading the industry forward".

The most interesting thing is that until today, residents living in India can still use daily consumer products such as cooking oil and soap produced by Vipro, although Vipro is now India's largest software company.This is because Premji has always believed that these businesses will not only not involve his energy, but also allow the Wipro brand to take root in the hearts of Indians forever.And these old businesses have indeed returned their trust in Premji as always. Every year, these industries can also bring Vipro 1.8 million US dollars in revenue.In this regard, Premji proudly said: "As long as the relationship between quality and price is right, these products can also be profitable. People can't live on software alone!"

a humane capitalist

Today, the greatest hope of this man who carries the dream of Indian prosperity is to build India into a humane capitalist society, and he himself wants to become a humane capitalist.One of Premji's famous sayings is: "Progress must start somewhere, and only then can society move forward." For this reason, he personally practiced and vigorously promoted social progress, and because of this, he and his Vipro company have become a lot A benchmark for Indian companies.

Due to historical reasons, bribery is still prevalent in India. This situation was even worse in the early stages of economic reform. Many companies have obtained advantages in resource allocation through bribery.But from the beginning, one of Premji's codes of conduct for Vipro was no bribes.Of course, this has also caused Vipro to suffer a major blow in the history of development. In 1987, Premji offended the dignitaries by refusing to pay bribes. Wipro's factory had to supply its own electricity for 18 months, and the problem was resolved through the court.And even if we talk about this matter again today, Premji will still solemnly say: "Principles never negotiate."

Such behaviors have created a maverick image of Premji, but he has much more than this. In the eyes of Indians, he is more often a contradictory complex of a capitalist and a philanthropic role model.

Premji is known in the business world for his frugal and undemanding lifestyle.He owns 84 percent of Vipro and had a net worth of $2004 billion in 67.But as a corporate tycoon, he is rarely seen at social occasions such as cocktail parties. He prefers to trek alone in the mountains of Bangalore in his free time.His home is located in a small courtyard of a bungalow in Bangalore, a city in southwestern India.Every morning at 4:30, he will get up on time.After a simple cup of espresso, he would fire off e-mails to managers in branch offices on four continents. At around 7 o'clock, he habitually walked 250 meters to work at the headquarters of Wipro, which covers an area of ​​5 hectares. There was his office, but there was only a desk and a chair in the room, and there were no decorations on the walls.He was wearing the company uniform—jeans and no tie.There is no fixed parking space in front of the building, but Premji doesn't worry about it because he doesn't have to drive at all, and even if he comes by car, he can always find a parking space, because when he comes, other people are usually still asleep.He often travels on business. Sometimes after getting off the plane, he can't catch the free shuttle bus to pick up passengers at the airport, so he can only take a taxi or take a city train home, and sometimes even take a cheap three-wheeled motorcycle.His car is a Ford bought in 1996, and he doesn't use it very much.During his business trips, he always stayed in three-star hotels, and he always had detergent and a travel iron in his suitcase because he had to do his own laundry.

(End of this chapter)