Azim Premji on Crisis Management

During COVID-19, the Azim Premji Foundation, Wipro and Wipro Enterprises together committed Rs 1,125 crore (about one hundred and forty million dollars) in April 2020 to relief, and a further Rs 1,000 crore in June 2021 to support universal vaccination — among the largest single philanthropic commitments by any Indian business family during the pandemic.

From 2020 onwards Premji faced a series of lawsuits filed through the NGO India Awake for Transparency alleging illegal asset transfers; the Karnataka High Court dismissed them as frivolous and jailed two complainants for contempt, and the Supreme Court closed the remaining matters in March 2022 after the principal complainant apologised. The episode tested but ultimately vindicated his governance record.

Speaking at Stanford GSB's View From The Top series on 27 October 2006, Premji told students that failure is essential to innovation: you cannot generate a few good ideas without a lot of bad ones, and failures should be forgiven and forgotten quickly. The framing made risk-tolerance a structural requirement, not just a corporate slogan.