Believe to Succeed like Azim Premji by Rajiv Agarwal (Book Review: 4.5*/5) !!!

1823rd BLOG POST -->>

4th Book of 2020!

I have been regularly in touch with the book series initiative by Rupa Publications which is called as “Management Lessons From The Masters” where the author discusses about one of the most celebrated and authentic personality who is popular for his management and leadership skills. This time, I got my hands on the latest book, “Management Lessons From The Masters: Believe to Succeed Like Azim Premji”. Now who among us in India or even in world is not aware of this phenomenon known as Azim Premji! He has been one of my greatest inspirations and hence reading about him was a different experience altogether as much about him is not available in the online and offline world. Author discusses the same concern in the beginning of the book but still the way author has been able to write around 114 pages on him, his management and leadership skills is commendable.

The book is divided into 10 different chapters where each of them speaks about his characteristics and what made him what he is today. Each chapter begins with some testimonial spoken by some renowned personality or closest one of Azim Premji and then speaks about the topic in discussion and then ends with the Learning section where author discusses what he learnt from the actions of Mr. Azim Premji discussed in that particular chapter.

There are many great things to learn from this book as Premji’s attitude towards work has been very definitive and disruptive. From his family business being into vegetable oil and how it is totally transformed into an IT company where Wipro is identified as one of the major IT companies of India tells us about the challenges and risks Mr. Premji took. His frugality is widely discussed as to how he liked living as a minimalistic and took updates even of tissue papers in his organization. How he took actions against his employees in case people tried to manipulate expenditures and submitted vouchers with incorrect amount even if he/she was allowed to spend the amount mentioned in it. He believed in having a rule generalized for everyone as if 100 bucks are avoided in a junior-most position then a person at Top level shall make goof-ups of 10,00,000 bucks without any guilt.

Similarly, his philanthropic activities are shared with us which tells us how big-heart Mr. Azim Premji carries with him. He pledged to donate more than 50% of the revenues for charity purposes and right from the start of his career, he believed in sharing with the section of the society who were really needy of it. Along with this, I also loved how Azim Premji was the man of character where he didn’t allow his son to stay in the company’s guest-house when he went abroad to study as he believed that he wasn’t the employee of Wipro and hence didn’t have rights to use the Company’s guest-house.

There are many such incidents in the book which shall make you introspect on your behaviour and the organization you are working for and how you can bring the change being at whatever position you are. I really liked this short book which speaks volume and is definitely inspiring and motivating. I give this book 4.5* out of 5. Please do read if you are working in a Corporate structure or even in a Start-up. Recommended!

Thanks.

WRITING BUDDHA