Azim Premji of Wipro

Salaam and Greetings,

I had the fortune of listening to him talk during lunch on June 20. He said quite a lot, but a few things took my attention and interest.

1. He takes a lot of interest in talent / people development. And he starts right from primary schools till universities He not only works on the targeted audience, but he ensures that an equal amount of time and effort is also given to the development of teachers, and faculty members. Unfortunately, there are lots of countries, be it, Asian or Western countries that has this challenge of attracting good talented people to be teachers.
2. He also focus on hardworking employees and students. He believes, if these under privilege kids are given a chance, they will perform, become hardworking, and most important of all, loyal. Most companies are so into performance, and looking at the top 10% or 20% performers, that they forget about the rest of the organization. They forget that, the some 60% of employees, are the ones creating balance and stability. The same thing he said about recruiting talent at campuses. Don’t just go to top universities. The medium range universities do produce good graduates. And because, these graduates know they are not the top choice, if given the opportunity, will take up the challenge to prove themselves worthy.
3. He mentioned a few times the importance of good induction program. Good induction program assimilates the employee into the organization’s DNA and set of values system. Of course, this predicated that the values and the practice is the same and consistent. Army takes induction very seriously too. They want to make sure, you are inculcated on the values, and tradition of the Army (or Navy or Air Force). However, in the corporate world, new employees, regardless of the level of entry, have challenges assimilating into the organization. More often they sound like the previous organization they were before, even if they have been in the company for a few years. Either the induction is not very good, or the employee is rejecting the culture he/she is being inducted into. Either way, that is an issue that needs to be addressed.
4. Wipro embarked on “putting the money where their mouth is”. They train and develop some of these unemployed graduates, and guarantees employment for at least 25%. According to Mr Azim, it is a strategy they took to prove that the programs provided by Wipro are quality programs and the graduates are also of quality. I find this interesting.

We talk about lack of talent, yet, we are not working to help the schools and universities. How many of us in the corporate world are doing part time lecturing in the universities? We may not be able to change the way schools or universities do things. But we can influence the students we are lecturing. I got this word of wisdom from a friend of mine. Hence, I plan to do my masters next year, and followed by PhD, if God permits.

The late President John F. Kennedy during his Inaugural Address on January 20, 1961 said “ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country”.

So, I am asking you and me, “What are we doing to contribute to the development of our people and talent?”