Azim Premji, the king of Indian IT, was listed as one amongst 100 most influential people in the world (Time, April 2004). Born on July 24, 1945, Premji is today synonymous with India's IT prowess. In 2005, Premji was awarded the Padma Bhushan, one of India's highest civilian awards.
He was also named by Fortune (August 2003) as one of the 25 most powerful business leaders outside the United States; and also one of the world's richest men.
Premji believes that ordinary people are capable of extraordinary things. He believes that the key to this is creating highly charged teams. He takes a personal interest in developing teams and leaders.
Under his leadership, the fledgling $2-million hydrogenated cooking fat company has grown to be a $2.36 billion IT services giant, with a profit of $456 million and an employee base of 53,742 as on March 31, 2006, serving umpteens of customers across the globe.
Premji believes that innovation and creativity are imperative for growth. "There is a need to include more people with a creative bend. India is known for its great art and literature. The same spirit must be incorporated in business and economics. Innovation is a spirit that evolves the mind, body and spirit. In other words, one has to do things which no one else has done before to create a better tomorrow," said Premji at a seminar recently.
Interestingly, Premji, who holds 81.4 per cent stake in Wipro has been ranked 38th in the Forbes list of billionaires with a personal wealth of $9.3 billion, is not the highest paid Wipro staffer.
While Premji earned an annual salary of $96,775, Vineet Agarwal, president, Wipro Consumer Care & Lighting bagged a salary of $142,086 in 2005-06.
Photograph: Azim Premji at the Wipro headquarters in Bangalore. Photograph, courtesy: Wipro Limited
Also read: Azim Premji's 8 steps to excellence 
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