Dhirubhai Ambani was born on December 28, 1932 to Jamna and Hirachand Ambani. Hirachand Ambani was a school teacher in Chorward village in Junagadh district, Gujarat. He had five children, three boys and two girls, Dhirubhai being middle of the five children. Right from his childhood,Dhirubhai, always thought of money making schemes. During the Mahashivarathri fair, he along with his some of friends sold Gathia, a Gujarati savory.
After completing his matriculation, at the age of seventeen, he joined his brother Ramniklal in Aden, Europe to work and earn. He was determined to become successful in whatever he did. In Aden, he earned a salary which was equivalent to Rs.300 a month in the year 1953. He worked for the Shell Company in a petrol station, filling gas and collecting money. He was promoted as a sales manager.
He observed that the Shell Company never hesitates to spend money to obtain valuable information. It was the need for doing right thing at the right time that mattered most. He had dreamt then to start and build a company like shell. After working for 8 years in Aden, he decided to return to India and start his own business as a trader in Bombay with a few thousand rupees.
Dhirubhai took a loan of Rs. 15000 and started the reliance commercial corporation, trading firm.
The firm exported commodities like ginger, cardamom, pepper, turmeric, cashew nut, etc., to Aden which was a free port. Growth was a way of life for him. He started reliance textile industries as a power-loom unit, in Naroda, Ahmedabad. Every year he added new machineries. He promoted the Only Vimal brand and spent lot of money in advertising to build the brand image. He was confronted with a problem of resistance from the textile whole-sale trade. He took a bold decision to bye-pass the traditional channel and opened his own showrooms, tapped new markets and appointed agents from non textile background. He offered franchise to shareholders. He spotted an entire new market in non-metro urban segment. Between 1977 and 1980, almost daily, a new and exclusive Vimal retail outlet was opening in the country. On a single day in 1980, a record number of one hundred show rooms were opened. Ambani's success in franchising and speed in opening retail outlets is comparable to that of the internationally famous Benetton and McDonalds.
Mr. Ambani not only introduced innovations in marketing, but also in finance. He introduced innovative financial instruments. He came up with big share issue and entered the small towns. He flew the executives to collect the share application forms and money and in record time completed the task of allocation of shares. He was known for completing projects before time. He put up a petroleum plant in Jamnagar which matched upto international standards. To raise funds, he went to U.S and floated American Depository Scheme; he raised money at a lower interest and reduced the cost of finance for his project. He also acquired L&T, the largest construction company. He went for backward vertical integration for diversification. Now, Reliance has become an Indian Multi National Company. He had the habit of plucking talent from wherever available, which is Reliance Management strategy. He also started a deemed technological university in the name of Dhirubhai Ambani in Gandhinagar. His company is included in the list of Fortune 500 companies in the world.
He took lot of risks and believed that he did not have to lose anything. He had come up the hard way from a scratch and have no hesitation in going back to it. He did not have any ego and mixed freely with the people from all walks of life.
Mukesh is his elder son and Anil, his younger son. Daughters are Nina and Dipti. Mukesh is a Chemical Engineer from Bombay's KC college and MBA from Stanford, USA. Anil is also a chemical Engineer from Bombay's KC college and MBA, Marketing from Wharton, USA. Both the sons, who were trained, have now taken over the control and management of Reliance textiles, after the demise of Dhirubhai Ambani in 2002. Dhirubhai Ambani expired on July 6 2002.
SOURCE: Entrepreneurial Development - Jayshree Suresh, Margham Publications, 2007.
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