Wirpo Chairman Azim Premji says that to create a world-class enterprise, it is necessary to invest in quality, human capital, education, healthcare and infrastructure.
"Quality is the first pillar and it can be seen through the eyes of the customer."
At a lecture on 'Creating a world class enterprise with diverse growth engines, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry, in New Delhi, while emphasizing the need to invest in quality, Premji said that the challenge is to execute and maintain the level of consistency.
He said that the quality bar is constantly rising and competition has helped in meeting the constant challenge of the rising bar.
He also referred to the spurt of copycat products, which have made the competition tougher still. Thus, for quality to be sustainable, it is important to remain one step ahead and identify the anomalies, he said.
"There is a need to build robust quality system, which will not crack under strain," Premji added.
Second, Premji stressed on the importance of choosing a direction and sticking to it.
"To be successful, it is important to find a direction and stay focussed, and concentrate on the inherent strengths in the global context," he said.
Excellence, he said, was no longer about being the best in India. "It is about being the best in the world. We have to define what our own core competencies are and what we can outsource to other leaders.
"Third, he emphasised on creating an enterprise that is sensitive to various cultures. He said: "It is inevitable that companies will have to deal with people from various cultures." Therefore, teaming becomes important, he said. "As individual performers, we stand out but as a team, we find that we are second to most developed countries and second certainly to Japan."
He said that while great individuals are important, one cannot have pockets of excellence.
"Quality gives ample opportunities to build a culture of teaming. Cross-functional teams that are customer facing can cut through an amazing amount of bureaucracy, personal empire building and deliver savings that one would not have imagined possible."
The other advantage of building teams focussed on quality is that the teaming culture eventually spreads to the rest of the organisation and teaming becomes a way of life, he added.
Fourth, world-class enterprises need world-class leaders, Premji said. "This needs not only training and coaching but proper exposure."
Besides, he said that there are other macro engines that are the new growth engines. He categorised them as short-term or immediate drivers, medium-term and long-term.
By short-term gains, he said that outsourcing was opening up whole new avenues for business. He felt that outsourcing would take-off substantially in India, in other sectors like law, health and business analysis.
According to Premji, in the medium-term, technology and the changing scenarios across the world would be driving engines while in the long run, the benefits are not felt in day-to-day life. He insisted on investing in human resources, since India has a very young population.
He said that India must take advantage of its 200 million children in the 5 to 14-year age group and train them to fill the gap in the developed nations.
"About 40-45 million of the children in India below the age of 14 years do not go to school, with many dropping out before completing tenth standard," said Premji.
"We need to prepare our population quickly by making large investments in human capital in education and healthcare services," said the IT czar.
"For India this is a golden opportunity to leapfrog into the group of developed countries. When the West is aging, India will be young. The developed countries will increasingly depend on Asian countries, including India, to keep the global economic engine running," he added.
He said that for India to reap rich rewards of its economic prowess, it is also important to improve the legal system in India. He said that it is important for the government to improve the infrastructure in India too.
Azim Premji, Chairman, Wipro, delivering a lecture on 'Creating a world class enterprise with diverse growth engines' organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry. Photo: Pankaj Sharma/ Saab Press
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