I was quite excited about this address by the Wipro owner and one of the top thirty entrepreneurs of all time (Business Week).
Fact : The speech started a good 20-25 minutes later than the scheduled time (I had gotten my colleague from Israel to attend it, but he had to leave since it got quite late). I don't want to be sarcastic about this whole typical "IST" thing, so I am just stating what happened. It was unfortunate and really wish it had started on time.
Anyways, the speech content was a summarized bullet point list of Mr Premji's lessons in life. It was plain to say the least. "Lesson number one is..." ....& it went on till "Lesson number seven..". There were some very valuable points in there and the man's achievements and contributions are truly phenomenal. Quite simply, he deserves every little praise he gets.And he speaks well too, just not 'attractive well', I guess. His style of speaking seemed honest and crisp. The enormity of his experiencing are humbling.
I was most interested in his take on design. He kept mentioning "listening to your customers is the key", but no mention of design efforts (read user research). Another theme of the speech was the social impact corporations make (again no mention of design).
Mr Premji seems a firm believer in "technology as a liberator". His stance on viewing all things from the IT perspective is slightly unsettling (for me as a designer). And doubly so because he is one of the leaders of India in the software industry. He talks about all the right things, but a 360 degree view is lacking. His emphasis on science and engineering degrees is also a bit conservative to the point of being obsolete.
What he has done is inspirational, but its never always about technological determinism.
An experienced stalwart, but a somewhat incomplete 'visionary'.
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