Dhirubhai Ambani - An Incredible Indian!!

1. Assignment for Small Business Management <br />Roll no-23,Sagar Ajay Agrawal<br />Dhirubhai Ambani - An Incredible Indian!!<br />Our country has produced some of the outstanding citizens who have been achievers in their own fields and have contributed immensely for the country. Many have devoted their life for the freedom struggle; some managed to find success in sports and have brought pride and glory for our country and its people. In the field of entertainment, our film industry is now recognized globally because of the talent and hard work of the people related to it over a period of time. But my choice of an Incredible Indian is from the field of business.<br />“Think Big, Think Fast And Think Ahead.<br />Ideas are no one’s monopoly”.<br />The above lines said by Mr. Dhirubhai Ambani say a lot about his personality. On 28th December 1932 a child was born at Kukaswada near Chorwad, Junagadh (now the state of Gujarat, India).<br />Right from the childhood he showed his knack for entrepreneurship by undertaking small business activities and making money out of them .During weekends ,he started his entrepreneurial career by selling up onion/potato fries quot;
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to pilgrims in Mount Girnar and at village fairs over the weekends.<br /> At the age of 16,he moved to Aden, Yemen. He worked with A. Besse & Co. for a salary of Rs.300. Two years later, A. Besse & Co. became the distributors for Shell products, and Dhirubhai was promoted to manage the company’s filling station at the port of Aden.<br />During one incidence, he found out that the intrinsic value of the silver is more than the face value of the coins being circulated by the government in Yemen. He immediately started accumulating those coins and got them melted and sold the metal in the bullion markets. This shows how shrewd he was as a person.<br />Ten years later, Dhirubai 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.<br />Dhirubhai revolutionised capital markets. From nothing, he generated billions of rupees in wealth for those who put their trust in his companies.<br />Diversification<br />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 quot;
a business empire with an estimated annual turnover of $12bn with over 85,000 employees provides almost 5% of the Central Government's total revenue.<br />If today, Reliance decides to go for a new project than look at the amount of business opportunities and demand that single project will create for other goods and services. This is the way wealth trickles down in an economy because of “the multiplier effect”. If Dhirubhai made money he also created opportunities for thousand others to grow along with him.<br />With his great efforts, 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. Reliance also became the first Indian company to feature in Forbes 500 list.<br />Ambani's greatest achievement was that he showed Indians what was possible. With no Oxford or Yale degree and no family capital.<br />Criticism<br />He has been accused of acting unethically, having manipulated government policies to suit his own needs. I have a different take on that. He was an opportunist and he made sure that he exploited every loophole to his advantage.<br />Conclusion:<br />I feel he is one of the greatest entrepreneurs which this world has ever seen and the various awards and recognitions at the global level is a proof of that. Even if our country has 10 such Dhirubhais we could grow at a much faster rate and achieve our goal of a developed nation at a much quicker pace. Dhirubhai 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.<br />He is remembered as the one who rewrote Indian corporate history and built a truly global corporate group…..<br />Dhirubhai Ambani died on July 6, 2002, at Mumbai.<br />