Project on: Dhirubhai Ambani

Early Life

Dhirubhai Ambani alias Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani was born

on December 28, 1932, at Chorwad,Junagadh in Gujarat, into a
Modh family. His father was a school teacher. Dhirubhai Ambani
started his entrepreneurial career by selling "bhajias" to pilgrims in
Mount Girnar over the weekends.He completed his matriculation
at the age of 16. He worked as a dispatch clerk with A. Besse & Co.
Two years later A. Besse & Co. became the distributors for Shell
products and Dhirubhai was promoted to manage the company’s
oil-filling station at the port of Aden,Yemen. He was married to
Kokilaben and had two sons, Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani,
and two daughters, Nina Kothari and Deepti. He also worked in
Dubai for some time during his early years.
 Reliance Commercial Corporation
Armed with a matriculation certificate, he went to Aden only
to return with a big idea of building a petroleum company.

Ten years later, Dhirubhai returned to India and started the

Reliance Commercial Corporation with a capital of Rs.
15,000.00. The primary business of Reliance Commercial
Corporation was to import polyester yarn and export spices.
The business was setup in partnership with Champaklal
Damani, his second cousin, who used to be with him in Aden,
Yemen. The first office of the Reliance Commercial
Corporation was set up at the Narsinathan Street in Masjid
Bunder. It was a 350 Sq. Ft. room with a telephone, one table
and three chairs. Initially, they had two assistants to help them
with their business.
In 1965, Champaklal Damani and Dhirubhai Ambani ended
their partnership and Dhirubhai started on his own.
It is believed that both had different temperaments and a
different take on how to
conduct business. While Mr. Damani was a cautious trader
and did not believe in building yarn inventories, Dhirubhai
was a known risk taker and he considered that building
inventories, anticipating a price rise, and making profits
through that was good for growth.

During this period, Dhirubhai and his family used to stay in

one bedroom apartment at the Jaihind Estate in Bhuleshwar.
Mumbai.In 1968, he moved to an upmarket apartment at
Altamount Road in South Mumbai.
 Reliance Textiles

Sensing a good opportunity in the textile business, Dhirubhai started

his first textile mill at Naroda, in Ahmedabad in the year 1966.
Textiles were manufactured using polyester fibre yarn. Dhirubhai
started the brand "Vimal", which was named after his elder brother
Ramaniklal Ambani's son, Vimal Ambani. Extensive marketing of the
brand "Vimal" in the interiors of India made it a household name.
Franchise retail outlets were started and they used to sell "only
Vimal" brand of textiles. In the year 1975, a Technical team from the
World Bank visited the Reliance Textiles' Manufacturing unit. This
unit has the rare distinction of being certified as "excellent even by
developed country standards" during that period.
Ambani is also credited with shaping India's equity culture, attracting
millions of retail investors in a market till then dominated by financial
institutions.

With innovative instruments like the convertible debenture, Reliance

quickly became a darling of the stock market in the 1980s. Today,
the group has close to five million individual shareholders.

In 1992, Reliance became the first Indian company to raise money

in global markets, its high credit-taking in international markets
limited only by India's sovereign rating.

In his relentless run to the pinnacle, Dhirubhai became the highest-

paid chief executive officer with a salary at Rs 88.5 million leaving
Wipro's Azim Premji far behind at Rs 42 million. Both are among the
world's top 500 billionaires
 Diversification Of Business

Over time, Dhirubhai diversified his business with the

core specialisation being in petrochemicals and additional
interests in telecommunications, information technology,
energy, power, retail, textiles, infrastructure services,
capital markets, and logistics. The company as a whole
was described by the BBC as "a business empire with an
estimated annual turnover of $12bn, and an 85,000-strong
workforce".
Over a period of two decades, Ambani's millions of investors lifted him
from being owners of a fledgeling Rs 2-3 million firm in the 1970s to a
situation, according to last count, the total revenues were more than Rs
600 billion.

The group flagship Reliance Industries is valued by the market at nearly

Rs 300 billion, while Reliance Petroleum commands a figure of nearly
Rs 170 billion. And the group's assets add up to over Rs 520 billion.

With the meteoric rise of the Ambanis came formidable power and clout.
What distinguishes Reliance's growth is that much of it came not during
the post-liberalisation 1990s but in the days of the 'License Raj' when
there were stifling controls on the industry.

Dhirubhai managed to get his way and created his empire with
remarkable ease, a way his business rivals could not digest easily. They
accuse the group of subverting the system in its penchant for growth.
LOGO OF RELIANCE INDUSTRIES
LIMITED
 Awards and Recognitions
November 2000 – Conferred 'Man of the Century' award by Chemtech
Foundation and Chemical Engineering World in recognition of his
outstanding contribution to the growth and development of the chemical
industry in India

2000, 1998 and 1996 – Featured among 'Power 50 - the most powerful
people in Asia by Asiaweek magazine.

June 1998 - Dean's Medal by The Wharton School, University of

Pennsylvania, for setting an outstanding example of leadership.
Dhirubhai Ambani has the rare distinction of being the first Indian to
get Wharton School Dean's Medal

August 2001 – The Economic Times Award for Corporate Excellence

for Lifetime Achievement
Dhirubhai Ambani was named the Man of 20th Century by the
Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry
(FICCI).
A poll conducted by The Times of India in 2000 voted Him
"Greatest Creator of Wealth In The Centuries".
 Famous Quotes
From beginning Dhirubhai was seen in high-regard. His success in the
petro-chemical business and his story of rags to riches made him a cult
figure in the minds of Indian people. As a quality of business leader he
was also a motivator. He gave few public speeches but the words he
spoke are still remembered for their value. *"I am deaf to the word
"no"."
"Growth has no limit at Reliance. I keep revising my vision. Only
when you dream it you can do it."

"Think big, think fast, think ahead. Ideas are no one's monopoly"

"Our dreams have to be bigger. Our ambitions higher. Our

commitment deeper. And our efforts greater. This is my dream for
Reliance and for India."

"You do not require an invitation to make profits."

"If you work with determination and with perfection, success will
follow."
"Pursue your goals even in the face of difficulties, and convert adversities
into opportunities."

"Give the youth a proper environment. Motivate them. Extend them the
support they need. Each one of them has infinite source of energy. They
will deliver."

"Meeting the deadlines is not good enough, beating the deadlines is my

expectation."

"We bet on people."

"We cannot change our Rulers, but we can change the way they Rule Us."

“What has been achieved lies in the past. The challenge is to scale
higher peaks in the future”.

"Dhirubhai will go one day. But Reliance's employees and shareholders

will keep it afloat. Reliance is now a concept in which the Ambanis have
become irrelevant."
 Unauthorized Biography

Hamish McDonald, who was the Delhi bureau chief for the Far
Eastern Economic Review for several years, published an
unauthorised biography of Ambani in 1998 in which both his
achievements and shortcomings were reported, but the Ambanis
threatened legal action if the book was published in India
 Film

A film alleged to be inspired by the life of Dhirubhai Ambani was

released on 12th January 2007. The Hindi Film Guru, with
direction by Mani Ratnam, cinematography by Rajiv Menon and
music by A.R.Rahman shows the struggle of a man striving to
make his mark in the Indian business world with a fictional Shakti
Group of Industries. The film stars Abhishek Bacchan, Mithun
Chakraborty, Aishwarya Rai, Madhavan and Vidya Balan.
In the film, Abhishek Bachchan plays Guru Kant Desai,a character
implicitly based on Dhirubhai Ambani.
Mithun Chakraborty portrays Manikda who bears an
uncanny resemblance to the real life Ramanath Goenka and
Madhvan portrays S. Gurumurthy, who twenty years ago,
gained national fame, spearheading virulent attacks against the
Reliance group in one of India's bloodiest corporate wars ever.
The film also portrays the strength of Dhirubhai Ambani with
the help of the character of Guru Kant Desai. "GURUBHAI" the
name given to Abhishek Bachchan is also simlar to the original
name "DHIRUBHAI"
 Controversies & Criticism
While the Ambanis inspire admiration and serve as role models,
they are also controversial. Back in the mid-1980s, stories used to
do rounds of their clout in the power corridor when they were
locked in a bitter spat with Bombay Dyeing's Nusli Wadia.

Tussle With Nusli Wadia

Tussle With Ramnath Goenka

(The patriarch of The Indian Express Group)

Dhirubhai and V. P. Singh

Dhirubhai changed the rules of the game in the industry in an era
when the private sector was hampered by the licence regime. In the
process, he attracted criticism that he did not always play fair.
Ambani's huge success, however, dwarfed the controversies that
surrounded him.
 Death

Dhirubhai Ambani was admitted to the Breach Candy Hospital in Mumbai on June 24,
2002 after he suffered a major "brain stroke". This was his second stroke, the first one
had occurred in February 1986 and had kept his right hand paralyzed. He was in a state
of coma for more than a week. A battery of doctors were unable to save his life. He
breathed his last on July 6, 2002, at around 11:50 P.M. (Indian Standard Time).
His funeral procession was not only attended by business people, politicians and
celebrities but also by thousands of ordinary people.
Dhirubhai Ambani started his long journey in Bombay from the Mulji-Jetha Textile
Market, where he started as a small-trader. As a mark of respect to this great
businessman, The Mumbai Textile Merchants' decided to keep the market closed on
July 8, 2002
The Last Words…
He was the most enterprising Indian entrepreneur. His life journey is reminiscent
of the rags to riches story. He is remembered as the one who rewrote Indian
corporate history and built a truly global corporate group.

Dhirubhai’s great achievement was that he showed Indians what was possible.
With no Oxford or Yale degree and no family capital, he built an ultramodern,
profitable, global enterprise in India itself. What's more, he enlisted four million
Indians, a generation weaned on nanny-state socialism, in an adventure in can-do
capitalism, convincing them to load up on Reliance stock.

More than the fact that he built India's largest private sector company from a
scratch, Ambani will be remembered for revolutionizing capital markets. From
nothing, he generated billions of rupees in wealth for those who put their trust in
his companies.

Still, Ambani seems destined to be remembered as a folk hero—an example of

what a man from one of India's poor villages can accomplish with non-shrink
ambition.
 Postage Stamp In A Memory Of Dhirubhai
Ambani

On Dhirubhai Ambani's first birthday after his death, The Government

of India released a postage stamp in his memory. Denomination Rs 5.