Azim Premji was only 21, pursuing his BS degree at Stanford University when his father Muhammed Hashem Premji died. Subsequently, young Premji had to return to India and take over the family business.
The Western India Palm Refined Oil Limited, which the family owned, was set up in December 1945. It manufactured vegetable and refined oils in Amalner, Maharashtra. The main products of the company were the cooking oil brand Sunflower Vanaspati and laundry soap. The brilliant businessman in Azim soon managed to diversify the range of products and started producing bakery fat, different kinds of lights, toiletries, hydraulic cylinders, hair care soaps and baby products. The business became extremely successful under his leadership.
Towards the 1980s, the country witnessed the growth of IT. Premji seized the day, and entered the new technology sector. He changed the company name to ‘Wipro’, an abbreviation of the former name. Collaborating with the American company Sentinel Computer Organization, Wipro started manufacturing mini-computers. In no time, the company met with success and the rest is history.
Today, Wipro is a global provider of IT solutions and services and has over 1,40,000 employees. It has a client circle across 54 countries and revenue of $7.7 billion as of March 2016.
