Businessman Has $17 Billion, Drives Old Toyota
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 10. 1.08
Frugal Green Living is hot these days as we try to consume less and save more. The former Masters of the Universe on Wall Street did not, and one of the contentious issues in the bailout is whether they should have their salaries capped. Perhaps they would not have got into such trouble had they lived a more frugal lifestyle and set better examples for their companies.
Azim Premji runs Wipro, the big Indian IT outsourcing company that probably doesn't have too many fans in America but makes him the 5th richest man in India, worth $17 billion. He flies coach.
Marcus Gee writes in the Globe and Mail Report on Business Magazine:
"Premji drives a four-year-old Toyota Corolla, a step up from the Ford Escort he owned for nine years. He lives in a modest bungalow bordering Wipro's headquarters campus. "I have a decent lifestyle and my family has a decent lifestyle. How much can you consume, really?" he said when I visited him in Bangalore last winter. When I reminded him that not all Indian tycoons feel that way—Mukesh Ambani, India's richest man, is building a 27-storey mansion for his family in Mumbai—he said, with evident disdain, "They're making fools of themselves doing this." ::Report On Business
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Since the Us started its downward economic spiral, I've noticed offshore tech support guys have gotten a little cockier with us. Soon they'll be calling US.
The world needs more role models like Azim Premji.
rock on Azim Premji
what a hero!
Azim Premji is my new hero...
I will sponsor his citizenship if he can run for Prez; problem is that would make Ahnald eligible too...dang...
This is an interesting guy, maybe he can be a role model for more people.
Modesty & humility never goes out of style folks.
Ok... so he's humble. That's a good change for rich people.
But what in the world is the $17 billion dollars doing? Sounds like nothing, but wasting away.
What is that $17 billion dollars doing?
It's existing as shares of the company he runs. When a business owner is said to be worth X dollars, that usually means his shares are estimated to be worth X dollars. How much liquidity this guy has is a completely different issue.
Incidentally, there are American executives who share this attitude. Warren Buffet, the richest man on earth, still lives in the Omaha house he bought in 1958 for $31,000, which is currently valued at only $700k. He draws $100k in salary and lives accordingly. He's aiming to give his vast fortune to charity, over $30 billion of which to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and doesn't seek to put his name on buildings-- his personal philanthropic foundation is named for his deceased wife, and has recently invested $3 billion in green tech.
There's nothing about business that's inherently evil-- the problem is we let greed and corruption run rampant.