Visionary By Birth

A true rags-to-riches story, Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani, has been undisputedly India's most enterprising entrepreneur. Born in a gujarati family Dhirubai moved toYemen at the age of 16, where he worked as a dispatch clerk with A. Besse & Co.

After working in Dubai for sometime he later returned to India where he founded the Reliance Commercial Corporation with a meager capital of Rs. 15000. He set up the business in partnership with Champaklal Damani from whom he split in 1965.

Dhirubhai started his first textile mill at Naroda, near Ahmedabad and launched the brand "Vimal". He later diversified into petrochemicals and sectors like Telecommunications, Information Technology, Energy, Power, Retail, Textiles, Capital Markets and Logistics.

He rose from humble beginnings to create India's largest industrial empire, and in the process, became one of the world's richest men. He rewrote India's corporate history for which he was featured among the select Forbes billionaires list. He also figured in the Sunday Times list of top 50 businessmen in Asia.

Credited for starting the equity cult in India, Dhirubhai was praised for his key role in shaping India's stock market culture by attracting hordes of retail investors to a market monopolized by state-run financial institutions.

He never followed the traditional way and was often targeted for his business strategies due to which he courted controversy all throughout his life. The 'Dhirubhai school of management' firmly believed that the only thing which mattered were the end results and the benefits which infiltrated  directly to the shareholders.

He won many awards and accolades during his lifetime. In 2000, he was conferred the 'Man of the Century' award by Chemtech Foundation and Chemical Engineering World for his contribution to the growth and development of the chemical industry in India. In 1998, he was awarded the Dean's Medal by The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, for setting an outstanding example of leadership. Dhirubhai Ambani was also named the "Man of 20th Century" by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).

A perfect amalgamation of grit and determination, Dhirubai believed in his dreams and he lived it. He was of the belief “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.”

In 1986 after a severe heart stroke he handed over Reliance Group to his sons Mukesh and Anil.

A visionary by birth, his life has been an inspiration for many and will serve as a beacon light for the generations to come.

And After Dhirubhai his successor Mukesh Ambani took over the race of competition.

The face of new emerging India, Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani is the chairman and managing director (CMD) of Reliance Industries which has earned the reputation of being one of the largest private sector enterprises in India, a Fortune 500 company, and one of the largest private sector conglomerates in the world. He is the eldest son of late Dhirubhai Ambani, the founder of Reliance Industries. Mukesh’s personal stake in Reliance Industries is 48%.

His younger brother Anil Ambani is another corporate bigwig and runs the competing company Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) after his split from his from Mukesh in 2006.

Mukesh’s big ‘power moment’ came in 2007, when a strong rally in the Indian stock market and the appreciation of the Indian rupee boosted the market capitalisation of Reliance group companies, making him the world’s richest man for a brief period. Forbes Magazine has forecasted that he is expected to once regain the title of ‘the richest man in the world’ in 2014. He is the first Indian to meet US President Barack Obama within a month of his taking office.

Born on 19 April 1957 in Aden, Colony of Aden (now Yemen), Mukesh did his schooling from Abaay Morischa School in Mumbai and completed his graduation with a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the UDCT, now Institute of Chemical Technology, and Mumbai. He later enrolled for an MBA from Stanford University but dropped out in 1980

During the Indira Gandhi regime the doors of PFY (Polyester Filament Yarn) manufacturing were open to the private sector in early 1980. His father Dhirubhai had applied for a licence to setup PFY and amidst stiff competition from the Tatas, Birlas and 43 others, Dhirubhai was awarded the licence. To help build the PFY plant, Mukesh dropped out to help his father and initiated Reliance’s backward integration from textiles into polyester fibres and further into petrochemicals, petroleum refining and going up-stream into oil and gas exploration and production in the year 1981.

Following his father’s footsteps of “dare to dream and learn to excel”, Mukesh has not only taken over the reign and responsibility of Reliance Industries Limited but has also been quintessential in making the company a global entity. He set up one of the largest and most complex information and communications technology initiatives in the world in the form of Reliance Infocomm Limited (now Reliance Communications Limited).

Hailed rightly as the ‘wealth creator’ he directed and led the creation of the world’s largest grassroots petroleum refinery at Jamnagar, India, with a current capacity of 660,000 barrels per day (33 million tonnes per year) integrated with petrochemicals, power generation, port and related infrastructure. He did not succumb to either corporate fad or government pressure, staying away from investing in overseas acquisitions and sticking to building greenfield assets that deliver 20 per cent returns on investment.

An oracular thinker and optimist futurist at heart, Mukesh holds Indian economy in a salubrious thought; buoyant about its capabilities and prospect. He holds ‘inclusive’ growth and ‘value’ addition as the key propellers of India’s economic prosperity.

Mukesh Ambani has been ranked as one of the world’s most respected business leaders and conferred various awards for his leadership skills. In 2010 he was awarded the School of Engineering and Applied Science Dean's Medal by the University of Pennsylvania. He was awarded the United States-India Business Council Leadership Award by the United States-India Business Council in 2007. The same year he was awarded the Chitralekha Person of the Year Award by the government of Gujarat. Total Telecom awarded him the World Communication Award in 2004.

He was ranked 42nd among the World's Most Respected Business Leaders and second among the four Indian CEOs featured in a survey conducted by Pricewaterhouse Coopers and published in Financial Times. He was Chosen Telecom Man of the Year 2004 by Voice and Data magazine. He is ranked 13th in Asia's Power 25 list of The Most Powerful. In year 2010, the Forbes magazine named him among the most powerful people in the world in its list of "68 people who matter most.” As of 2011, he is the second richest man in Asia and the ninth richest man in the world with a personal wealth of USD 27 billion.

Apart from being the head of the conglomerate empire, Mukesh is a member of the board of directors of Bank of America Corporation and a present member of the international advisory board of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is a former Chairman of Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIM-B). He is an Honorary Fellow of IChemE (the Institution of Chemical Engineers).

He also owns the Indian Premier League team, the Mumbai Indians and grabbed headlines for his private 27 story building in Mumbai named ‘Antilia’. It is estimated to be valued at over USD1 billion to build and is claimed to be the most expensive home in history.

Mukesh Ambani is the face of modern Indian business that stands to represent a bold image of Indian business sector that is urbane, evolving and revolutionary. He will always be the guru of business and the idol of every young Indian who aspires to match his capabilities and make a name for himself in the corporate world.