Azim Premji Quotes

Author Image

Azim Premji

Profession : Businessman

Birth : July 24, 1945

I.B.M. was not really bringing their best technologies to India. They were dumping old machines in the country that had been thrown away in the rest of the world 10 years before.

Azim Premji

You cannot mandate philanthropy. It has to come from within, and when it does, it is deeply satisfying.

Azim Premji

You must get engaged with people who are far less privileged than you. I think you must devote your time if not your resources... Because it is very, very important from the point of view of the development of our country.

Azim Premji

The West is not producing enough engineers.

Azim Premji

The principal challenge we face is to go up the value- and domain-skill chain and build a strong consultancy front end and, also, to globalize our leadership much more.

Azim Premji

If the United States wants access to Chinese, Indian or Vietnamese markets, we must get access to theirs. U.S. protectionism is very subtle but it is very much there.

Azim Premji

When I took over the family business, it had already been a publicly traded company for 20 years. During one of the first annual meetings I attended, one shareholder stood up and advised me and everyone in attendance that I should resign.

Azim Premji

If there are differences of views or divergence of ideas, they can be resolved through discussion and dialogue.

Azim Premji

What is excellence? It is about going a little beyond what we expect from ourselves. Part of the need for excellence is imposed on us externally by our customers. Our competition keeps us on our toes, especially when it is global in nature.

Azim Premji

I was studying at Stanford University with two quarters left to go before receiving an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering. Then, I got the telephone call from my mother. I had no choice. I went home, and I jumped into the company feet first, right from day one. There was no time to grieve my father.

Azim Premji

My dad told me he wanted me to join in the business, but nothing was firm. He was quite young when he died, so we hadn't talked about it in depth.

Azim Premji

Technical people tend to be more 'techie,' and management people are more 'managerial.'

Azim Premji

How can you contribute towards building the Indian society and the Indian nation? No better way than to upgrade the quality of young people in school, particularly the schools which are run by the state government in the villages.

Azim Premji

It is the strength of our culture that we can have Sonia Gandhi, who is Catholic, a Sikh prime minister, and a Muslim president.

Azim Premji

We've always seen ourselves as Indian. We've never seen ourselves as Hindus or Muslims or Christians or Buddhists.

Azim Premji