Wipro Chairman's Azim Premji speech at Rotary Club of Bombay

President, Distinguished Guests, Rotarians and friends : I am very happy to be with you today. The Rotary Club of Bombay has made immense contribution to many social causes and has contributed to the success of many individuals and organizations. Success shared is success multiplied. For a long time in our country, possibly due to our Fabian socialist stance in politics, it was believed that becoming successful was something one had to apologise for or at least pay enormous taxes for. Profits were confused with "profiteering", which by definition was something bad. Luckily, this has changed over time. People have begun to view that profits are future investments. There is no way one can distribute wealth without generating it in the first place. Success is a pre-requisite for helping others to be successful. The topic I have decided to speak on today is on how to build successful organizations and successful people. I have borrowed the thoughts for this from own experience with Wipro.
When I joined Wipro, a little over three and a half decades back, it was a very small company. We had one manufacturing plant where we made vanaspati and operated from Amalner, a small town in Jalgaon district. At that time, I had no idea that we will one day grow to be a large organization operating across so many continents. All I knew and wanted to build was great organization, an organization that would be respected for its strong Values. We had a small team of people who believed in this. We were able to attract other people from larger and better-known organizations to join us in our endeavour. Together, this team was able to take Wipro to new heights of success. Many times, I am asked what was it that we did differently that helped in our journey. I have made a sincere attempt to identify and list some of the factors that contributed to our success. I do hope that these will be useful to you.
First, all success begins in the mind. What the mind can conceive, it can achieve. I remember the intensity of our desire to achieve right from the beginning. After we became large enough, we had visioning exercises that codified our dreams in a much more systematic manner. But dreams come first, not vision statements. It is only when the vision statement is crafted from the dreams of many employees does it have the combined energy and enthusiasm of the organization. That is because vision deals with the "possibility" of achieving, which can be significantly more than the "probability of what seems to be achievable", or what seems to be rational. Vision or dreams create an internal stretch that pushes everyone to give their best. In a way, it is a positive self-fulfilling prophesy. When you expect to succeed from the bottom of your heart, you invariably do.
Second, one needs to have clear goals, milestones and strategies. These help to de-risk the dreams and also make them more executable. At Wipro, apart from the visioning exercise we do every five years, we have a comprehensive planning process every year. The plans ensure that there is complete alignment between organizational goals and individual performance measures. While visions are very exciting, down-to-earth measures are extremely important to make them realizable. Landing on the moon was a great vision, but without all the satellite tracking devices that monitored the trajectory of the rocket so closely, who knows where Neil Armstrong would have landed! To my mind, success comes out of monitoring because what cannot be measured cannot be managed. This, of course, does not mean breathing down people's neck or following up too closely that the entire enthusiasm is stifled. When you plan a sapling, make sure that you water it everyday. But do not take it out every day to see how much the root has grown. The plant itself will die.
Third, one needs to put in the requisite efforts. The changes that have swept over business have been so encompassing and so fundamental, that everyone's job is completely stretched. I have seen that happening with my own time requirements. Working hard is no longer a choice or a trade-off against working smart. The truth is that the working day has expanded. In my own experience, many strategies have failed, not so much for any intrinsic weakness in the strategy as much as in the last mile drop out, for want of that little extra bit of effort. I came across this interesting story some time back.
A priest was driving when he saw a very beautiful farm. He stopped the car to admire the great crop. A farmer was driving past in his tractor. Seeing the priest, he came to a halt beside him. The priest said, " God has blessed you with this farm. You must be grateful for it." The farmer replied, "Yes, I am. But you should have seen this farm when God had it all to himself!" Hard work is the most effective agent for transforming a potential for success into success.
Fourth, we must create an organization pride for performance. Organizations and individuals who perform must have that special place in the minds of the management. It is no use just praising or recognizing top performers. They must be constantly challenged to use their potential and rewarded accordingly. The 80:20 rule applies everywhere. It is important that we must not lose our best people. By best people, I mean not only those with superior intelligence or smarts, but also those who are willing to contribute to others. In the world of today, no individual can succeed as an island. Ability to work as part of a team is very important for success. Sometimes, I am confronted with this paradigm. How does one build star performers and at the same ensure that too much focus on them does not come in the way of teamwork? It does appear to be a paradox but then leadership is about managing such paradoxes. We must inculcate team spirit and at the same time not be afraid of openly acknowledging the stars.
Fifth, create a passion for excellence. Excellence is about a big win but doing every little thing as well as it can be done. We were the first organization In India to take up the Sigma approach, which has shown us tangible benefits over the last few years. Similarly, external certifications like the SEI or PCMM follow which follow very rigorous processes for assessment have brought us real benefits. While success comes from doing right things correctly, true satisfaction comes from doing them with excellence. And that is why excellence needs more than processes. It needs a passion, which helps people to face all the obstacles in the way. When excellence becomes a passion, it is no longer restricted to the Quality function. It becomes an organizational way of life.
Sixth, one must realize the difference between effort put in and the Value that it offers to the Customer. All efforts do not lead to proportionate Value for the Customer. This means that anything we do must have the Customer in mind and we should keep asking ourselves how would this activity help the Customer. Otherwise, it is possible to get sucked into an activity trap where every one is busy and yet nothing major seems to be getting accomplished.
The shopkeeper, whose shop was on the side of a busy road, was amazed by the energy of a dog. The dog would be at the back of the shop. Every time a car passed by, the dog would jump up and race after the car barking loudly. One day, the shopkeeper's friend came to the shop and also saw the same thing. "I keep wondering," said the shopkeeper to his friend. "Whether the dog will catch up with the car?" asked the friend. 'No, " replied the shopkeeper, " but what the dog will do if it does catch up with the car." Activities by themselves do not lead to success. In fact, eliminating unnecessary activities can make people more focused on the goal. Prioritising effort is a very important discipline for success.
Seventh, success comes through continuous learning. This is required most during success. Success can make us feel complacent. Even more dangerous it can blind us to our own faults and also lead us to reject better and newer ideas. In Wipro, we insist that people at every role go through certain mandatory training programs. We look upon education and learning as strategic investments and not discretionary expenses. That is why in the recent downturn we did more and not less training. Apart from training, a good knowledge management can help us tremendously in capturing the real experiences online and make it available to the right people at the right time. With advancements in Information Technology, it has become easier to build and refresh a sophisticated knowledge management system easily.
Lastly, it is not only important to achieve success but to sustain it. This is possible only when success has been built on Values. We have been hearing recently about a number of financial scams among large corporations. More than the financial loss, it is the loss of credibility that is hurting organizations lot more. Success with integrity lasts longer. It makes success more worthwhile. It also helps people sleep better at nights.
Let me end my talk with this story, which I like very much: A woman came out of her house and saw three old men with long white beards sitting in her front yard. She did not recognize them. She said "I don't think I know you, but you must be hungry. Please come in and have something to eat." "Is the man of the house home?", they asked. "No", she replied. He's out." Then we cannot come in", they replied. In the evening when her husband came home, he told him what had happened. "Go tell them I am home and invite them in!" The woman went out and invited the men in" "We do not go into a House together," they replied. "Why is that?" she asked.
One of the old men explained: "His name is Wealth," he said pointing to one of his friends, and said pointing to another one, "He is Success, and I am Truth." Then he added, "Now go in and discuss with your husband which one of us you want in your home." The woman went in and told her husband what was said. Her husband was overjoyed. "How nice!!", he said. "Since that is the case, let us invite Wealth. Let him come and fill our home with wealth!" His wife disagreed. "My dear, why don't we invite Success?" Their daughter-in-law was listening from the other corner of the house. She jumped in with her own suggestion: "Would it not be better to invite Truth? We want to instill Truth in all our children. "Let us heed our daughter-in-law's advice," said the husband to his wife. "Go out and invite Truth to be our guest." The woman went out and asked the 3 old men, "Which one of you is Truth? Please come in and be our guest."
Truth got up and started walking toward the house. The other two also got up and followed him. Surprised, the lady asked Wealth and Success: "I only invited Truth, why are you all coming in?" The old men replied together: "If you had invited Wealth or Success, the other two of us would've stayed out, but since you invited Truth, we go with him. Wherever there is Truth, there is also Wealth and Success!!!!!!"