Abstract

In July 2007, BusinessWeek nominated Azim Hasham Premji (Premji), the Chairman of Wipro, as one of the top 30 all time great entrepreneurs in the world. The case discusses the leadership qualities of Premji. Under his leadership, Wipro, a small vegetable oil company in the mid-1960s, was transformed into one of the leading IT services company by the early 2000s. Premji had established a strong value system in Wipro and believed that values not only helped in achieving success but also made that success more enduring and lasting. The case discusses in detail about the few leadership initiatives taken up in Wipro in order to develop leaders within the organization. It also discusses Premji’s contribution for the benefit of the society. He had established Azim Premji Foundation (APF), a not-for-profit organization, in January 2001. The foundation made efforts to improve the quality of education in schools.

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• Study Azim Premji’s leadership style
• Understand the significance of value-based leadership
• Analyze leadership training initiatives taken up at Wipro
• and Examine the contributions of Premji to improve the quality of education in schools.

Keywords

Change agent, Performance management, SAB Ways, Beer University, Able challenger, Talent and Capacity management, Miller Brewing Company, JCPenney, Whirlpool, Leadership, Organizational culture, Human resource, Competitive advantage, 'Winning Together' Principle, Retail Academy, Innovation , Competitive strategy