Biography of Ajim Premji (His childhood, education, career, personal life, achievements, what can one learn from his life)

Azim Hashim Premji is associated with IT consultancy and system integration services. He is the chairman of Wipro Ltd, which is surprisingly among the biggest IT services company in the world. 

Almost 50 years ago when Azim Ji held control of the company as Chairman, he made every way possible to make this company attain incredible expansion. There was a huge diversifying turn taken by Premji after leading the company as chairman, initially, the company was associated with vegetables, its products and refined oils. When the company was started by Premji's father Mohamed Hashem Premji and when Premji joined as chairman he took a step into the computer business and made itself established in the software market and made it one of the biggest IT service or public traded company in the world.

Azim Ji was born in a rich family and had a convenient childhood, after schooling, for pursuing graduation, he decided to study engineering at the Stanford University. But unfortunately, his father brought him back home, which means it's the time when Azim had to take control of his legacy( his father's business). 

Day by day, months by months and years by years Premji was recognized by everyone, he attained wonderful success and became a leading successful businessman. He believes that one has to give back what he takes from society, nature and life and this thought made him benevolent and a person deserving huge respect in everyone's heart.

Childhood & Early Life

Azim Premji was born in Bombay (now Mumbai) on July 24, 1945, in a Nizari Ismaili Shia Muslim family. Mohamed Hashem Premji was his father and was a well-dedicated and prominent businessman who established the WIPRO (Western Indian Vegetable Products Ltd.) which was aimed to deal with vegetable products and refined oils. The company was very popular for its hydrogenated Vegetable Oil named "Vanaspati".

During the time of partition when India got freedom in 1947 Premji's father was invited to the other side but Hashem Premji denied it and decided to stay back in India despite belonging to the Muslim community. 

After his schooling, Azimji decided to study engineering at Stanford University U.S. However, in 1966, the unexpected death of his father even before his graduation brought him back home and now Premji had to take responsibility for his father's business. and decided to complete his Graduation in electrical engineering after some years, this was a very tough time for Premji.

Career

When his father died and he took control of his company then he was just 21 years old before that the company used to deal with vegetables and their products and hydrogenated oil manufacturing. Soon Azim Ji decided to take diversifying turns to generate opportunities and toiled to look forward to expanding the company.

Soon the company started dealing with light bulbs, hair care, hydraulic cylinders, bakery fats, toiletries, all of these were included in its portfolio. Azim Ji decided to rename the company Wipro because it's wasn't only associated with vegetable products then, that is how WIPRO born in 1977. 

Azim Ji always sought opportunities so when the Indian govt. took a huge decision of expelling IBM which was a computer firm, Azim Ji thought this is a great opportunity to grab. In 1979, he saw a golden chance for the company to raise in the hardware and software market and gradually moved Wipro into this business.

Time kept running and till the 1980s, there were amazing results to be seen because the company had collaborated with other businesses, even with an American company named Sentinel Computer Corporation, and formed WIPRO as well-positioned and successful hardware & software manufacturer.

For assuring the premium quality Premji made sure that in software engineering his company should hire the best executives/employees and he also gave them world-class quality training to sharpen their skills and brain. This was the finest move taken by Azim Ji, this step made the company possible to create valuable and high-quality software at a lower even compared to other American companies. It made Wipro's successful export profit in the US also.

The company had attained humongous success till then and Wipro’s value hiked by the time (in the late 1990s). The company started earning well enough because of increasing wealth now Premji was one of the richest businessmen in the world. His company was the fastest-growing company; therefore, he was invited by " The ‘Business Week’. 

Major Works

Azim Premji transformed his company and gave Birth to WIPRO after he renamed his company "WIPRO from Western Indian Vegetable Products Ltd, which was only dealing with the production of hydrogenated cooking oil, and now is IT Consulting and System Integration services company which has the largest IT Services firms in the World. 

Azimji believes that we should return what we take from society and nature. In 2001 he established the Azim Premji Foundation, which is a non-profit organization. This foundation aims to help to achieve high-quality education in rural areas of India. The foundation works in many states of India which includes Rajasthan, Pondicherry, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka.

Awards & Achievements

In 2005, he was awarded the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, "Padma Bhushan" by the Govt. of India in recognition of his splendid works in trade and commerce.

Azim Premji was conferred several honorary degrees. In 2000, an honorary doctorate by the Manipal Academy of Higher Education, In 2009 an honorary doctorate from Wesleyan University in Connecticut. And In 2011, He was also conferred the second-highest civilian award " the Padma Vibhushan", by the Govt. of India.

Personal Life & Legacy

He is married to Yasmeen, and the couple is blessed with two children Rishad and Tariq. And his son Rishad is the Chief Strategy Officer of IT, at Wipro.

What Can We Learn from His Life:-

Give back to society:-

"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." Said Azimji. He has always been benevolent and kept doing philanthropic work for the people of rural areas in India by providing high-quality education to create a sustainable and equilibrium in society.

Keep the faith:-

It was the time when people advised Azimji regarding his attempt to diversify the company and make it an emerging start in the IT and hardware & software market, but azimji instead of listening to them, he had faith in his decision and made his dream come true. Similarly when you decide to do something then have faith in yourself, in your prominent ideas, and thoughts.

Victory and defeat is inevitable:- 

There is nothing you can do when you fail except accepting it and learning your lesson and moving ahead with more courage. When you try to succeed, there are plenty of chances of both success and failure, with both, learn something and keep going as failures will help you to gain more.

Stay grounded:- Every successful person like Azim Premji has always given the message to stay grounded, when you attain success remember where you come from which means your starting, don't let success take control of your mind and ruin it to failure. Stay humble and kind to everyone and be grateful for everything.