Indu prasad azim premji foundation

Indian School of Business ISB060

March 31, 2016

Professor Raveendra Chittoor and Geetika Shah prepared this case solely as a basis for class discussion. This case is not intended to serve as an endorsement, a source of primary data, or an illustration of effective or ineffective management. The authors would like to thank Dileep Ranjekar and Anurag Behar, the chief executives, and Laxminaryana, the chief endowment officer, at the Azim Premji Foundation, for their support and insightful inputs during the development of this case study. This case was developed under the aegis of the Centre for Teaching, Learning, and Case Development, ISB. Copyright @ 2016 Indian School of Business. The publication may not be digitised, photocopied, or otherwise reproduced, posted or transmitted, without the permission of the Indian School of Business.

Raveendra Chittoor | Geetika Shah

Azim Premji Foundation—Bringing Professional Excellence to Philanthropy

I strongly believe that those of us who are privileged to have wealth should contribute significantly to try and create a better world for the millions who are far less privileged. I will continue to act on this belief.

Azim Premji Chairman, Wipro Limited &

Chairman, Azim Premji Foundation

INTRODUCTION In February 2013, Azim Premji, Chairman of Wipro Limited, announced the transfer of 295.5 million

Wipro shares worth INR 123 billion (around US$2.3 billion), representing about 12% stake in the company, to the Azim Premji Foundation (the Foundation). This was the biggest ever charitable gesture in India. It came just about two years after the business tycoon had donated 8.7% of the total stock of Wipro, amounting to about INR 88.46 billion (about $2 billion), to the Foundation in December 2010. At that time, Premji had said, “The Foundation's significant increase in scale and its clear focus on social purposes will require a substantial long-term financial commitment, which is the purpose this endowment will serve.''

The Foundation at the time had entered the second decade of its existence with fresh plans and

renewed vigor. Having worked extensively on various aspects of education across the country for a decade, the Foundation was more committed than ever to continuing its efforts in the education and related development space. With renewed conviction and commitment, the team at the Foundation reflected on its past work and experiences and reviewed its strategy. Through this exercise, it evolved a strategy characterized by the idea of working in an "institutional" mode rather than in a "programmatic" mode going forward. This meant establishing a long-term presence in the places where the Foundation operated, that is, in the relatively more disadvantaged districts of the country, and engaging with the public education system on a continuous and long-term basis to facilitate change. Dileep Ranjekar and Anurag Behar, the chief executives of the Foundation, viewed this as a new phase of the Foundation’s work. The Foundation also felt that there was a dearth of good, qualified people working in education and development. To support the critical need for such people in this space, the Foundation also decided to establish a private, not-for-profit university, the Azim Premji University, which was committed to social service and dedicated to education and development.

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Now, in April 2014, sitting in the calm environs of their eco-friendly office in bustling Bangalore, Ranjekar and Behar took stock of the significant progress the Foundation had made over the years. Were they moving along the trajectory that they had set for the Foundation? How would they be able to find the right people with the required skill sets and mindset to achieve the desired reach and outcomes? How would they find good people to go and work in difficult places? How would they find land and construct permanent premises in so many remote places? Were they scaling up at the right speed? These were some of the many questions that played on their minds as they contemplated the Foundation's future plans. THE SOCIAL SECTOR Philanthropy in the West In the developed world, wealthy individuals and private sector companies were among the biggest donors to society. In the United States, tax laws posed an inheritance tax of 46% on estates larger than $2 million, which proved to be an added incentive for wealthy individuals to create private foundations. In 2007, the total assets of all US foundations added up to an incredible $700 billion. Some of the well- known foundations in the US included the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Carnegie Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation and the David & Lucile Packard Foundation (See Exhibit 1). In 2006, Warren Buffet, one of the wealthiest people in the world, pledged to donate more than 99% of his wealth to philanthropy, mainly through the Gates Foundation, during his lifetime and on his death. He went on to say: “This pledge does not leave me contributing the most precious asset, which is time … Many people, including—I'm proud to say—my three children, give extensively of their own time and talents to help others. I've done little of this.” The philanthropy chain, therefore, began with donors, such as Buffet, who primarily acted as "givers" by donating either directly or through charitable organizations. These donors could be individuals, corporate organizations or the government. Next in line were the private foundations that acted as supporting networks and distributed funds to charitable organizations and monitored their activities. Besides these two main stakeholders, grassroots charity organizations and non-government organizations (NGOs), on the other end of the spectrum, were the key players who performed a "doing" role in the philanthropy chain. The Indian Scenario In a developing economy such as India, with a population of 1.1 billion (as of 2010), the social challenges were monumental. In this context, the social sector always had an important role to play in alleviating poverty, inequality and deprivation, and in addressing the vast gaps in education, health and nutrition. By 2009, it was estimated that there were around 3.3 million nonprofits in India, (i.e., one for every 400 people). The largest number of NGOs were registered in the state of Maharashtra (480,000), followed by Andhra Pradesh (460,000), UP (430,000), Kerala (330,000), Karnataka (190,000), Gujarat (170,000), West Bengal (170,000), Tamil Nadu (140,000), Orissa (130,000) and Rajasthan (100,000).1 The sector was poorly funded, highly fragmented and disorganized, with most NGOs focused on addressing basic problems in the local communities that they served. The issues they addressed were largely overlapping and short-term in nature. While a number of NGOs were doing very good work in their own ways, a common problem among many was their fractured approach to addressing social problems, and this was often compounded by a lack of transparency.

1 Compilation of Accounts for Non Profit Institutions in India in the framework of System of National Accounts, National Accounts Division, Central Statistical Organisation, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India 2009. Retrieved from http://mospi.nic.in/mospi_new/upload/nad12_Istphase_reprt_comp_acctt_NPIs_final.pdf on May 10. 2012.

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In India, like the West, more and more wealthy individuals were establishing foundations. A large part of corporate India was owned and run by families operating in a multi-business organization structure known as business groups. The model of a family-run business organization creating a separate foundation or trust that was largely funded by the profits from the business was the most common model of philanthropy in India.2 Private foundations created by wealthy individuals and corporations had been growing and were making a difference either through their direct efforts or by funding other support networks and organizations. Apart from the Azim Premji Foundation, some of the top philanthropic foundations in India were the Infosys Foundation, GMR Varalakshmi Foundation, Shiv Nadar Foundation, Bharti Foundation, Sri Dorabji Tata Trust, Pirojsha Godrej Foundation and Aditya Birla Foundation. Women had also been taking a lead on this front in recent years. Top women philanthropists in India who featured in Forbes’ list of Asia Pacific’s most generous business personalities in 2010 were Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw of Biocon, Anu Aga of Thermax, Kiran Nadar and Rohini Nilekani.3 Education had received the greatest share of philanthropic donations. This was primarily because of the vital role that education played in social upliftment. In the education sector, there were still several challenges to address: As of 2011, the literacy rate in the country was 65%; only 39% children reached grade 10 and out of these, only 40% moved to the next level.4 AZIM PREMJI FOUNDATION Azim Premji Foundation, a not-for-profit organization in India, was established in 2001 to try and make significant and long-term contribution to national development through its vision of facilitating a just, equitable, humane and sustainable society. After evaluating various areas that needed attention and intervention such as health, poverty, nutrition and education, the Foundation chose to focus on education and related development areas. The Foundation made a deliberate decision to work in education because of the direct impact and significant multiplier effect that emanated from education. Within the sphere of education, while there were several options such as technical education, management education and higher education, the Foundation decided to focus on school education.

Ranjekar recalled:

The journey of the Foundation’s growth can be classified into three phases. In the first phase we focused on enrolment and attendance (in schools) and understanding the landscape. The second phase was a very clear shift to begin focusing only on the quality of learning, i.e., the quality of education that is happening inside the school. The third phase, which is the current phase, is actually creating an institutionalized presence in every district and in every state in India to engage with teachers, principals, education functionaries and the community and other key people and institutions in education to drive systemic change.

The First Phase: 1998-2001 Speaking of the Foundation's early years, Ranjekar said:

When we started, we felt that there were a lot of good NGOs working on the ground—they had the knowledge but they did not have the financial support. We decided to identify such

2 Knowledge@Wharton (2011, May 19). How India's new philanthropists are working to bring about systemic change. Retrieved from http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/india/article.cfm?articleid=4597. 3 Forbes' top philanthropists from India are all women. (2010, March 6). The Economic Times. Retrieved from http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2010-03-06/news/27573802_1_list-features-forbes-biggest-givers, on March 4, 2016. 4 Azim Premji Foundation documents.

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organizations, support them financially, make things happen and learn from that. We wanted to create a repository of knowledge, disseminate that across a wider cross-section of NGOs and promote this as a movement. So we started working with about three NGOs by providing funding to them. In about two years since its inception, the Foundation had worked closely with the NGOs and provided them funds. However, the Foundation felt that it was not really meeting its objective of gaining and disseminating knowledge.

Second Phase: 2001-2010 Describing the evolution of the Foundation in the next phase, Behar recalled:

At the end of these two years we came up with some founding principles which have held true till today. Firstly, we will not be a funding organization, but will be an operating organization. Why? In this country, as hard as it is to get funding, it is even harder to execute. We have to be directly involved in execution to make a difference. Secondly, we will work for an equitable, just and humane society through school education. To do that, we will have to work with the public education system. Thirdly, we will work to enable the public education system but we will not supplant it by setting up our own schools. So we will try and build systemic capacity.

The fundamental notion of education as a universal right and as important for the complete development of a human being was strongly rooted in the Constitution of India (see Exhibit 3). As nearly 80% of the schools in India were government schools, the Foundation made an important decision to work closely with the public education system. During this phase, the Foundation built a strong field presence in 13 Indian states at the district and block levels through its state offices and programs. It introduced a number of Education Quality Improvement Programs including examination reforms, technology initiatives, community participation, talent development and capacity building. The Foundation was also able to establish deep relationships with the government at all levels (i.e., central, state, district, block and cluster levels). During this period, it also developed extensive domain knowledge through rich field experience and extensive research. Behar described this second phase as “exploration and learning, building our own capacity and building certain legitimacy.”

Third phase (2010 onward)

Towards the beginning of 2009, the Foundation decided to take stock and review its strategy. Having spent a considerable amount of time and effort in the field, the team's experiences were myriad and insightful. Listing their important learnings, Ranjekar said:

We learned that political will was very limited. Also, budgets and resources were very serious constraints. The third issue was the lack of accountability and the short tenures of the bureaucrats in the system. The fourth was the lack of talent, especially professional talent. The system was highly person-dependent and no institutionalized form of knowledge was available. Most of the organizations in the field, like the NGOs, were working in a very programmatic manner.

In 2010, the Foundation reviewed its strategy and made a conscious decision to focus on facilitating change that was systemic, sustainable, long-term and deep in nature. This also required a large team. It discovered that the people available in the area of school education were only teachers or teacher educators whereas there was also a need for professionals who understood education leadership and management, curriculum issues, classroom practices, assessments and the examination system.

Describing the third phase, Behar said, “I would describe this phase as fine-tuning our strategy

because it was not like we were abandoning anything of the past that we were doing; we were just

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building on it.” The change in strategy primarily arose out a feeling that unless the underlying issues such as the lack of professional talent and availability of an institutionalized architecture were addressed, there would be very little impact or progress. Building upon its earlier programmatic approach, the Foundation now incorporated an institutional approach (see Exhibit 5 for the articulation of the new strategy).

Phase three was characterized by a concerted effort to build scale and develop people. The main dimensions of the new strategy, which Behar called "the four pillars", were:

a) Talent development: Developing new talent, transforming existing talent and building capacity in education and allied areas, as committed and competent people were necessary to play a critical role in catalyzing social change

b) Knowledge creation: Placing a strong focus on research as this was critical to driving change through policy and practice

c) Integration of theory and practice: Building knowledge through research was critical but, at the same time, it had to be deeply rooted in practical ground realities for it to be applicable

d) Creating deep institutionalized impact: Longevity of effort could only be achieved through dynamic “institutions,” which strove for excellence, were responsive to their context and were purposeful.

The strategy used a two-pronged approach to scale up through the following institutions: The University

Azim Premji University adopted a vision, developed structures and defined roles that were not

conventional in Indian higher education. Behar, who was also the Vice Chancellor of the University, said:

We are confident that this will pay rich dividends in the long run and help us discover excellence ... The University considers effective processes of governance and administration to be supportive of the vision of learning that we cherish and central to the success of its mission. Development of such structures and practices of governance is inevitably a long and often arduous process of organizational learning under often ambiguous conditions.

The University was committed to talent development, capacity building and knowledge creation to fill critical gaps through programs that:5

� Prepared students with great competence, integrity and social commitment � Expanded the frontiers of knowledge in education, development and allied fields through

research � Supported and enhanced the work of the education and development sectors in the country

through continuing education � Contributed to change in policy and practice in the Indian education and development sectors

through advocacy and public communication

Field Institutes

The Azim Premji Institutes at the district and state levels engaged closely with teachers, head teachers and functionaries in the education system to support and strengthen them in driving systemic change. The Field Institutes worked on various aspects of the education system with a particular focus on teacher and education leadership development.

5 Azim Premji University website. Vision and Mission. Retrieved from http://www.azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in/SitePages/vision-mission.aspx, on March 4, 2016.

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The key objectives of the Field Institutes were:

� Creating vibrant spaces for teachers and functionaries to interact and learn � Developing the capacity of existing teachers at the state and district levels � Partnering with the government for ground-level improvements in education and allied

areas � Building state-level linkages, advisory services and advocacy � Establishing demonstration schools for improving domain knowledge and practical

experience

The cohesive working and seamless integration of these institutions was central to the Foundation’s strategy to drive change (see Exhibit 6 for more details on the institutions). Through this institutional set up, the Foundation aimed to achieve the main dimensions of its proposed strategy, which were talent development, knowledge creation, integration of theory and practice, and institutionalized impact. ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE The Foundation was unique in that it followed a two-CEO structure with the duo of Ranjekar and Behar at the helm. After earning a Postgraduate Diploma in Business Management and a Master’s degree in Personnel Management and Industrial Relations from Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, Ranjekar joined Wipro Ltd in 1976, marking the beginning of a long association with the company. Likewise, Behar, an MBA from Xavier School of Management (XLRI), Jamshedpur, had played multiple leadership roles in various Wipro businesses. While Ranjekar was associated with the Foundation right from its birth, Behar formally joined it in 2010. Prior to that, Behar had been closely involved in efforts to improve education in India through Wipro's social initiatives.

As founding CEO, Ranjekar carried with him the history and knowledge of the Foundation, while Behar brought in a new perspective. Together, the two CEOs helped to achieve a broader consensus within the organization and, in some sense, ensured its continuity with the past even as it embraced the future.

The organization operated within three broad heads as follows (see Exhibit 8):

a) Azim Premji University: School of Development, School of Education, School of Liberal Studies, School of Policy and Governance, Research Center, University Resource Center and University Registrar’s Office

b) Field Institutes: District and State Institutes, Demonstration Schools

c) Enablers: Education Leadership and Management, Communication and Engagement, Finance & Accounts, Information & Communications Technology, Infrastructure Management, Knowledge Resource Center, People Function.

The University and Field Institutes were the key operating units while the enabling functions provided

the necessary support. PEOPLE With a sharper focus on its strategy, the Foundation began growing at a fast pace. From 310 people in 2010, it grew to more than 460 members by October 2011 and had ramped up to 800 by May 2013. Over the next three to five years, this number was expected to reach 4,000.

Its growth plans to have 50 district institutes and a University with 3,000 students gave rise to a steep increase in its people requirements. The majority of the 4,000 employees required were destined for the Field Institutes and the University.

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Recruitment

With such a massive target for people recruitment, the Foundation increased its average intake of employees from four to five new members a month to about 25 a month. Highlighting the importance of having the right people and the right culture at the Foundation as it grew, Behar explained:

It is not easy to get good people in such numbers. There is a severe shortage of quality people in the education sector. So we look for people from the development sector or the social sector, and give them the time and space to learn. So instead of being able to work in the first year, it might take three or four years for the person to reach peak productivity, but it is alright …The Foundation is willing to invest substantially in people.

Word of mouth and employee references were the most important sources of recruitment (48%). Other sources included advertisements and job portals. For instance, an all-India advertisement released in April 2011 fetched 8,400 resumes. But after multiple rounds of interviews, it ultimately ended in the hiring of 23 people. Outlining their strategy of hiring at the field and district levels, Sudheesh Venkatesh, the Foundation's Chief People Officer, explained:

We try and draw from the respective field locations where there are some high-quality people. There are people who originally hail from these locations and who are now working in large cities, for lack of opportunity or whatever, and who are willing to go back. We supplement this with fresh intake from good campuses.

Members of the top management came from diverse backgrounds, including people from some of the best educational institutions in the country backed by extensive experience (see Exhibit 9). They had made the shift to the Foundation willingly and with conviction. With almost 16% of the employees in the Foundation holding PhDs and 63% with Master's degrees, nearly 80% of the Foundation was made up of people with a Master’s or higher qualification. Highlighting the theme of their recruitment advertisements, Venkatesh observed, “We are pitching this as a career opportunity for people with the mind and heart for social change. So our positioning is social change.” In 2012, the Foundation tried out another recruitment experiment in the form of a two-year fellowship program. Postgraduates with at least two years of work experience could join the Foundation through this program at a remuneration of INR 25,000 per month. After working at the Foundation for two years, they were free to decide whether to go back to their previous jobs or continue at the Foundation. Talking about the potential of this approach, Venkatesh said, “Though it is early days, this is likely to be a good source for us as a good 40% to 50% of the people have stayed on. And those who join the program are typically very, very accomplished people.” Going forward, the Foundation's management hoped that the University would also help it to meet the need for qualified people who were keen to join the social sector. Remuneration According to Venkatesh, the Foundation consciously chose to follow certain principles with regard to compensation. He said:

We don’t want to be a big paymaster and disrupt the existing balance in the development sector. Big money will draw a certain kind of people and that is not exactly the kind we are looking for. Our compensation is quite competitive in comparison with the not-for-profit

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education sector and the development sector. But we don’t pay anywhere near what the corporate sector pays.

Learning and Development The Foundation's core philosophy of learning centered around on-the-job experience with collaborative spaces built in for development through reflection, perspective building and mentorship. Its learning and development was conceived as having four stages or layers. As a first step, every person who joined the Foundation, irrespective of location or function, would attend a systematic induction program in Bangalore spread over four to five days. In the second stage, the focus was on developing perspectives on education and management skills, such as how to effectively manage a project, how to plan and review, giving and receiving feedback, etc. The third level would comprise leadership development, and the fourth was concerned with providing the skills that were required to absorb changes in the environment and to drive change within the organization. In April 2014, the first two levels were in place, and the plan was to build the remaining two layers into the system over the next three to four years. Retention Policies As of 2011, more than 50% of the Foundation's employees worked at the Field Institutes, 34% were at the University and the rest performed support functions. Among its permanent staff, nearly 40% were less than six months old at the Foundation. About 9% of its permanent employees had been with the Foundation for more than five years and they were responsible for transferring knowledge and practices to new inductees. The average attrition at the Foundation was roughly 10%. Of this, about 4.5% moved on for better prospects, 1-2% left to pursue further studies and another 3-4% left for personal reasons, such as children and family, transfer of a spouse, etc. One of the primary reasons for the low attrition rate was the very temperament of the people who joined. The people who came to work at the Foundation tended to be evolved in their aspirations and to take a long-term approach to their jobs. The average age of the employees at the Foundation was around 37; it did not comprise a very young lot that would jump at the next available opportunity. The other major reason for low attrition was that the social sector was not a hyper-competitive space where organizations poached from each other. In terms of career growth within the organization, people were not typically concerned about their next promotion. Most were more focused on doing jobs with a larger role that would lead to a bigger impact. Culture The Foundation was a mix of people from the development sector and the corporate sector. Hoping for a culture that took the best of both worlds, Ranjekar said:

From the corporate sector, we wish to borrow the characteristics of quality orientation, performance measurement orientation, and a certain structured approach. Especially in terms of monitoring performance, corporates have certain practices that are quite useful in the social sector too. From the NGO sector, we must develop a deeper understanding of social and economic issues. People from the development sector are frugal in the way they operate and have certain basic trust, respect and human dignity in the way they deal with people. We want to preserve and nurture these values.

Communication within the Foundation was open, with plenty of room for discussion. The unit heads scheduled weekly meetings. Healthy arguments on all aspects of the Foundation's operations and decisions were encouraged. People often reported to someone younger to them.

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PROCESSES Rather than being driven by specific targets, each team and individual worked towards broad goals and objectives that they created for themselves. These goals were reviewed several times during the year and reset if necessary. Timelines were somewhat flexible; measures were process-related and rarely, if ever, in terms of specific output. Explaining their process-oriented approach and lack of rigidity about meeting targets, Behar said:

Your ability to control is so much less in the social context. That is why we have to get rid of the paradigm of planning that is characteristic of the corporate sector. This constitutes a big change in the way you do things. Sometimes you will not even know whether you are doing the right thing or not. So you have to keep reviewing, keep learning and move on.