Great leaders do not play games, says Premji

Shehla Raza Hasan
01 August 2002

Kolkata: Wipro Corporation chairman Azim Hasham Premji has said the global recession over the past 15 months has made punishing demands on the world’s business leaders.

Speaking recently at a meeting organised in Kolkata by the Indian Chamber of Commerce and the Young Leaders Forum on ‘Leadership in Business,’ Premji pointed out that life for business leaders was tough when for the first time in the recent history, Europe, the US, Canada and Japan underwent a simultaneous recession. “It was tougher because customers’ expectations had not changed.”

This led to unending punishing demands on business leaders, he said. Commenting that liberalisation was here to stay, he said competition is forcing better products to be sold at lesser prices.

He said the last 15 months proved to be the true test of leadership for corporate heads. “One of the most important qualities that builds an organisation is leadership. The most important ingredient that goes into making a leader successful is powerful personal credibility. Leaders must deliver on their commitment and must be able to generate collective enthusiasm.”

Premji further said: “Great leaders do not play games or indulge in politics. They tell people clearly what they expect from them in terms of performance and values. They give the right amount of guidance at the right time, because low expectation from the leaders transforms to low levels of achievement on part of the employees.”

He cited the example of a recent event at the World Economic Forum in which 99 per cent of the leaders attributed success to hard work. Emphasising that the voice of the customer must be heard by the organisation, he said the Wipro Corporation encourages every senior manager to have maximum ‘touch time’ with the customer.