Richest man

Chapter 33 Asia: Azim Hasham Premji (2)
These habits of his, in the eyes of most Indians, are indeed very admirable things, but in the eyes of Wipro employees, they have become another kind of feeling, because Premji, who practices what he does, always hopes that he employees can be as frugal as he is."It was Premji who turned Dickens's obscene old miser Scrooge into a respectable Santa Claus," said a technical director at Wipro, because Premji never tires of asking employees Use toilet paper economically and turn off the lights when you leave the office.And as the chairman of the company, he sometimes spot-checks the lights off after get off work.

Such harsh requirements make people always have complicated emotions towards Vipro, which makes people love and hate.On the one hand, it is a benchmark enterprise favored by many insightful people. India’s outstanding software geniuses are proud to join Vipro; but at the same time, many Vipro employees have left one after another because they could not stand such strict requirements of Premji company.

However, in any case, Premji has won people's respect for him as a successful capitalist.When evaluating Premji, an IT colleague said: "He is not only a good competitor, but also a good person. His company and himself are extremely credible. He is careful and careful because he wants to build his It requires thrift and struggle.” At the same time, Premji doesn’t seem to be as indifferent as people think. "We now have an obligation to give something back for India," Premji said.So he set up a fund aimed at sponsoring hundreds of remote rural schools. "Although our higher education ranks among the best, and the number of computer professionals trained is second only to the United States, children from poor families should have such opportunities, and we have made mistakes in this regard."

no secret success

Due to his great success, Premji has now become the most well-known person in India and is regarded as an idol by many young people. There are many books about him in the country-maybe this situation is the same in the whole world, but for India In other words, after a long period of poverty, the occasional hero of wealth is even more rare.There are more entrepreneurs who are studying Premji and trying to copy his successful experience, but they are disappointed because people find that there are only some well-known things in Premji. Qualities, such as his diligence - for decades, he would wake up at 4 am almost every day and work tirelessly for more than 14 hours a day; or his thrift - he would personally check on the employees after everyone was off Whether he turned off all the lights, he would wash his own clothes every time he was on a business trip and only stayed in three-star hotels; or was it his decisiveness—when he found that IT opportunities came, he immediately focused on computer manufacturing, and when When he found that computer hardware was about to enter price competition, he turned to software development in time, and so on.

Is such a discovery satisfying?

But in fact, when an opportunity comes, a person can seize the opportunity with his own quality and judgment, so as to develop and grow with twice the result with half the effort. Isn’t that the common feature of most wealth stories? Premji’s success is such a situation : Relying on his firm character, accurate judgment and shrewd ideas, he seized the opportunity of India's support for the development of the software industry and created a myth of wealth.

Of course, the external environment of Vipro's development and growth is also one of the key factors.

Since India has been under British colonial rule for a long time, British culture has also been brought into this country, including language.India is an English-speaking country with a majority of its citizens speaking English, so it has an advantage over most countries (including China) when it comes to international communication.At the same time, Indian colleges and universities have also trained countless outstanding talents for the development of the software industry. To a certain extent, this is what India is most proud of.Premji said: "Although foreign companies have brand advantages, the production skills and production tools of American society are backward, and they cannot maintain a leading position in the new environment." So he advised Americans, "You need to update the education system. ".

More importantly, although Indian universities have provided a large number of talents for the development of the Indian software industry, these talents are extremely cheap.In India, the salary of technical engineers is almost only 2003/[-] of that of American companies, which ensures that the software developed in India has a very large price advantage in international competition.In the [-] battle for a service contract with a Scandinavian telecommunications company, Premji beat his competitor, the famous American software company Oracle, to the brink of death.Larry Ellison, president of Oracle Corporation, complained: "The price pressure brought by the Indians is simply too great."

The fact is that in a mature environment, the success of an enterprise will be inevitable.The following are the five elements of Premji's success summarized by the Indian media:
[-].Pragmatic: Straightforward, emphasizing credibility and effectiveness.

[-].Persistence: When competing for outsourcing orders, do whatever it takes to intimidate your opponents.

[-].Cost saving: Iron rooster management is far ahead of its opponents.

[-].Forethought: In the process of completing the international layout of the enterprise, spend a lot of money and spend generously, and at the same time, you will not be moved by difficulties.

[-].Maximize your strengths: software staff costs, English language heritage, shareholder relations, government support, Bangalore location.

how far india wants him to go

Because of the development of the software industry, some obvious changes are now taking place in this ancient and troubled country of India.Take Bangalore as an example, known as India's "Silicon Valley", with more than 1300 registered companies.Twenty years ago, there were only 20 million people here, but now it is more than 300 million. In addition, there are double-digit multinational companies and 600 colleges and universities.

Such changes are also taking place in other parts of India.For many Indians, because of the rapid development of the software industry, they have experienced many firsts in life, such as using electricity for the first time, seeing a car for the first time, using a telephone for the first time, etc. .Premji seems to have always believed that the software industry will bring hope to India. He said: "Information technology, as a business that creates and redistributes wealth, can change the wealth landscape of our country." Premji believes that the future belongs to information technology. This is where India's "unprecedented wealth" lies.But is he too optimistic

In fact, the Indian government has always hoped to use information technology to eliminate the gap between the rich and the poor and eradicate illiteracy, but this has not achieved much.Information technology has so far only established itself in a few states in southern India and developed at an annual growth rate of 10%. The poor northern states, which account for 1/3 of India's population, such as Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, have economic then stagnate.A survey shows that only 5% of the people believe that information technology has brought benefits to the people, and 81% of the people think that information technology has nothing to do with their lives.

This is an embarrassing fact: when Premji excitedly predicted in 2004, the total output of India's software industry is expected to reach 2008% of the gross national product by 7, and the creation of foreign exchange for the country will account for 30% of the total foreign exchange income. %, thus becoming the only field in which India is ahead of developed countries, there are still 3.5 million people living in poor villages and urban slums in India, and they will never hear Premji's high-spirited speech.

So, all the questions come down to one question before entrepreneurs like Premji, that is: what answers do the poor need? Premji already knew: "People can't live on software alone."

Lakshmi Mittal: India's new richest man made of steel

In November 2002, Premji made history for India when he decided to acquire a US management systems consultancy firm - Wipro became the first Indian company to make a major acquisition in the US.But in March 11, there was a new version of this historical record: Indian steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal spent US$2005 billion to successfully acquire the US International Steel Corporation, thus making the Indian Mittal Steel led by him The company has become the world's largest steel company.

At the same time, another dazzling halo quickly covered Mittal's head.On the "Forbes" 2005 Global Rich List released on March 3, 10, Mittal jumped from No. 2005 last year to No. 250 with assets of 62 billion US dollars, becoming second only to Bill Gates and Buffett. The world-class wealthy, of course, this achievement also surpassed Premji.

What makes Mittal's progress so fast? The reason is very simple, and it is relevant to you and me: due to the rapid development of China's economy, there has been a large demand for steel, which led to the overall increase in global steel prices last year, and Mittal took advantage of the trend.Last year, the sales volume of the iron and steel group under his leadership reached 222 billion U.S. dollars, and the net profit was three times that of the previous year, reaching as much as 3 billion U.S. dollars!And this situation will continue this year, especially after Mittal's successful merger with US International Steel Corporation.Because now Mittal Steel Company has accounted for 47% of the world's steel market share, with an output of 6 million to 6000 million tons.

Mittal's great success is closely related to his shrewd business practices and his acquisition and merger actions at the most appropriate time.Today, his subsidiaries are located all over the world, including Romania, Czech Republic, Macedonia, Algeria, South Africa, the United States, and even China.In Eastern Europe, his strength is even more difficult for anyone to contend with.In Kazakhstan alone, Mittal employs 5 workers to produce steel for export to China.

Compared with his wealth miracles, Mittal's extravagant stories were more talked about before "Forbes" announced the 2005 wealth list. In June 2004, Mittal held a world-renowned wedding for his daughter Vanessa Mittal in Paris.At the age of 6, Vanessa decided to tie the knot with Amit Bhatia, a banker who was 23 years older than her and also lived in London with Indian ancestry.So they invited 2 rich and famous guests from all over the world to attend, and the list of wedding invitations alone was 1000 pages long; It lasted for 20 days, and it was chosen in the most famous building in romantic France, even including the old castle where the Minister of Finance during the Louis XIV period lived.According to the calculations of the Indian media at the time, the entire wedding cost no less than 5 million US dollars!
Another notable event was that Mittal bought a house.

But this is no ordinary house.It is said that the former landlord of this mansion is F1 racing boss Boerny Ecclestone, located in the wealthy residential area of ​​London, the former residence of Princess Diana - next to Kensington Palace.Lakshmi bought it at a transaction price of 1.2 million US dollars, creating a record for the highest transaction price of a privately purchased luxury house in the world and it has remained so far.

The mansion, called Updown Court, has a total of 103 rooms. "From the beginning of the design, this house was to be the most expensive and gorgeous mansion in England," said investor Leslie Allen Falco. "We thought it would be impossible to put a price on it, so we just Accepting bids in excess of $1.2 million ... there is only one Updown Court in the world."

那1.2亿美元换来的是什么呢看看这些数据把：那里有占地4.45公顷的正规花园、有19公顷的树林、2幢宾客房子（共有9个房间）、房产经理办公室、马厩、网球场、2个室外游泳池、保龄球房、壁球室、3个室内泳池、电影院、酒窖、早餐室、宴会厅、由电脑控制的家用电器，包括１间应急避难室、大理石地板、加热的大理石车道，以及可停放8辆豪华轿车的车库……

Such is the life of India's new richest man, Lakshmi Mittal.My father was a gambler.Anyone who has achieved anything is a gambler.I'm no exception, but the difference... I never risk my entire home at stake.I have never taken such a risk on anything as to bring a crisis to the United Press Company.

(End of this chapter)