A Letter From Azim Premji

Dear Wiproite

Recently I had the opportunity to talk to a very large group of entrepreneurs - about 1700 of them. They wanted me to share my experiences of leading Wipro, for the past 40 years - during which period our organization has grown from $4 million to over $5 billion - from absolute obscurity to being a globally known leader in IT.

I always look at the future, and am hardly prone to reminiscing, but this opportunity did spur me to think about the past of Wipro, and what I have learnt from the privilege of leading this wonderful organization.

I thought it might be worthwhile for me to share these thoughts with all of you – who have actually shaped and defined Wipro.

What follows are a few passages from my speech.

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My experience tells me that we learn a lot more from difficulties and failures than from successes. In fact, hidden behind each success is a trail of difficulties and failures. So as I describe my experience as an intrapreneur, I will focus more on the difficulties, than on the successes.....because the successes of Wipro are reasonably well known.

In 1966, at the age of 21, I was practically overnight thrust in to the role of the CEO of the company that we know today as Wipro, and was then called Western India Vegetable Products Limited. The company was about USD 4 million in sales then, and was not in the best of shape. We used to make vegetable oil.

To take over that responsibility, and with that suddenness, I had to leave my education two quarters incomplete. The circumstances demanded it. My father had passed away at the age of 51, and I absolutely had to take care of the company.

It was not easy. Actually it was very difficult. I was dealing with a personal loss, and I was also trying to take charge of a role for which I had no training, no experience, no preparation and no demonstrated strengths.

I learnt a lot. I learnt not to look back. I learnt that pining for what could have been, is neither a path to happiness nor to success. I learnt that the most important thing is to deal with the here and now. And I learnt that, that can happen only through personal action.

It has stayed with me forever. There is no substitute to action. That to me is the starting point and the ending point of being an entrepreneur.
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Let me stay with those early days.

In the very first AGM, there was a shareholder, who said that he didn’t trust my ability to run the company. He said that if I were running the company, I could only run it to the ground.

In hindsight, perhaps he had good reason to say what he did, because indeed I was very young and with no experience in business. (At that time, my need was to dye my hair white to look older).

But for me at that point in time, his statement was a challenge. A challenge that consumed me in many senses. I made up my mind that I will prove him wrong, and with each passing day my resolve only increased. With each difficulty that I faced, my determination only grew.

As I look back, I can only thank that man.

Thanks to this man and to this episode I also learnt a crucial lesson. To be successful you have to be challenged by something, and then have the resolve to deal with it. This is the surest way forward. I learnt that challenges, determination and passion is what propel a person. Eventually I have also learnt that, often you have to go out seeking challenges, because challenges may not come seeking you.

There is another interesting insight that I got over time. Rarely have I come across a successful entrepreneur, who became an entrepreneur only to make money. In practically all cases, people become entrepreneurs because there is a challenge that excites them....a challenge to change the world, a challenge to invent something, a challenge to create something etc.....some deeply captivating challenge that appeals to them personally – but rarely is the desire to make money the prime driver.
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Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Azim Premji