From Bhajias to Reliance: Dhirubhai Ambani (Summary)

From Bhajias to Reliance: Dhirubhai Ambani (1932 – 2002) 

Dhirubhai Ambani built India’s largest private sector company worth of sixty billion dollars by 2007 and created the cult of equity subscription in the Indian capital market, harnessing the trust and savings of small investors. The Reliance Group, which he founded, is the Indian company to win international acclaim. In just 25 years, he transformed his company into global corporate group, a wealth creator whose turnover now reportedly weighs in at nearly three percent of India’s GDP. His exemplary life reminds us a classic story “ From rags-to-riches”.

Dhirubhai Ambani was born on December 28, 1932 at Chorwad, Gujarat to a school teacher. The young Dhirubhai reportedly began his entrepreneurial career by selling bhajias to pilgrims at the holy place of Mount Girnar in Gujarat on weekends and holidays. After completing his high school education at the age of sixteen, Ambani left his village and family and went to Aden, Yemen, in search of a living. He worked there as a gas station attendant and then a dispatch clerk for A. Besse & Co. Eventually he was promoted to maintain and manage the company’s oil filling station port in Aden. After nearly ten years stay in Yemen Ambani returned to India in 1958 with fifty thousand rupees with the ambition to start business of his own. 

Initially, Ambani founded a company with two assistants to help him that imported and exported spices. Over the time, the company expanded to import and export rayon and nylon, which earned him profits. This venture initiated him to start textile business. He set up his own textile-manufacturing unit in Naroda, Ahmedabad. Later he founded Reliance Industries.

Dhirubhai Ambani successfully built Reliance India Limited (RIL) from scratch. He is credited with shaping India’s equity culture, attracting millions of investors into the share- market until then it was dominated by Financial Institutions. He single-handedly revolutionized capital markets. Started from scratch, he generated billions of rupees in wealth for those who put trust in his companies. Under the tenure of Dhirubhai Ambani, Reliance Industries became the first private sector company to hold its annual meetings inside a stadium. He had the ability to convince people to become shareholders and in 1986, as many as 3,50,000 shareholders, who attended the annual General Body Meeting. Over the passage of time, his business diversified from textiles to a core specialization in petrochemicals with additional interests in telecommunications, information technology, energy, power, retail business, infrastructure services, capital markets and logistics.

Reliance became the first Indian company to raise money in global markets, its high credited rating in international markets limited only by India sovereign rating. Reliance also became the first Indian company to feature in the prestigious Forbes 500 list. The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) honoured Dhirubhai Ambani as the ‘Indian entrepreneur of the 20^th century’. A public opinion poll conducted by The Times of India in 2000 voted him ‘the greatest creator of wealth in India in the 20^th Century’. He said of his entrepreneurship, “Think big, think fast, think ahead. Ideas are no one’s monopoly.” He died on July 6^th, 2002 at Mumbai.

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