He was Dhirubhai Ambani. He was a genius. He had an extra ordinary talent. He was creative. He mastered the secrets of business.

He was the founder of Reliance industries. Dhirubhai Ambani changed the stream of Indian industries. He was the pioneer and hero of this success story. He changed the investmentscenario of India and surely the shape of Indian stock market. Dhiru bhai Ambani is an Indian business icon and gem of the gems.. He is a man rags to riches. He was undoubtedly the most talented businessman of his time. He amazed the world with his success stories. He became a celebrity in India and overseas. What are the secrets of his amazing growth? What made him Dhirubhai Ambani? How he became an industrial tycoon, a global conglomerate? Why are people in India, The US, The UK, EU, Canada and elsewhere in the world his fan?

usiness secrets of Dhirubhai Ambani

He used some secrets throughout his life-time to become a businesstycoon. Some of them are as follow: Business Secret No. 1: Gather information, whatever it may be. Gather information about Governments be local, state, central or international. Gather information about products, companies, consumers, markets, people, services, politics and any thing, just anything and everything. Do not forget to get information of your competitors. Dhirubhai Ambani had mastered this secret. It was in his practice to gather information about anything and every thing. He used to gather information, analyzed and processed those. He was also able to find opportunities out of those news and information. He was also quick to disburse those information to his sub-ordinates when and where required. One of my friends, Prof. M.L. Sisodia, a senior professor ofphysics and research scholar once told me a story about Dhirubhai Ambani. The story shows his extra ordinary ability in gathering information. Mr. Sisodia had undergone a bye-pass surgery after a heart attack. Just after few days of his surgery his son was called on for an interview with Dhirubhai Ambani. Dhirubhai wanted him for a senior position in his company. The very first question Dhirubhai Ambani asked him was " How is your father". This instance alone is enough to describes his capability of information gathering. We have to remember that it was not an Internetage.

Business Secret No. 2: Find anopportunity. He always endeavor to analyze whatever information are gathered. He used to do that to convert information into an opportunity, a profit making opportunity. According to him, " There is no invitation for making profits". You have to find it. He always searched for news and information, a news or information that can earn him profit. Business Secret No. 3: Jump from an orbit to the next. No matter where you are. Just work there. Master that place or situation. Accumulate some energy and jump into another orbit, a higher one. Stay there some time. control that orbit. Master it and again jump to another higher level, the next orbit. This is the way to success at faster pace. Dhirubhai did it many times. He did it life long . Caution: Do not jump from one orbit to another in hurry before mastering the present orbit. It could be proved dangerous. Do it patiently. Business Secret No. 4: Complete projects on time. Thrive to do it before the scheduled time. He and his sons completed all their projects on time, mostly before time. However big the projects were, they completed those timely. No matter how much disturbance or hurdles came in their way. Dhirubhai Ambani and his sons Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani derived some techniques to do so. They kept close eyes on their projects to monitor them effectively. Business secret No. 5: Think big. Think global. He thought global much before the globalization took place. Most of the Indian companies were not doing well in the global scenario at his time. Most of the Indian companies were not acting with global standards. He made world class projects and world class factories. No body in India could even think about that in his time. Business Secret No. 6: Hire the best people. Pay them well. Dhirubhai Ambani was able to employ the best people, top ranking masters of their respective fields. He was the best pay master of his time. He never compromised in Quality and timeliness. Only those top ranking masters could make it possible. Human resource is the best resource, according to him. Business Secret No. 7: Pay share holders well. He paid his share holders the best. His ambitious projects had hunger for capital. He required huge amount of money at that time to make his dreams true. Bankers and financiers were failed to assume his capabilities. They were reluctant and not agreed to fund those big projects. Funding his projects was risky in their eyes.

Dhirubhai Ambani went to his share holders as he recognized them the best source to funding his ambitious projects. He went to his shareholders and asked money from them. The shareholders jumped out to fund his projects. He paid handsome to his shareholders in return. What he paid no body could even imagine. Shareholders trusted on Dhirubhai Ambani and they were rewarded for their trust. He realized the fact that the share holders can not be satisfied with dividends only that was the trend at that time. He knew the value of capital appreciation. He paid bonus, gave rights issues to his share holders in addition to regular dividends. He went beyond the expectations of his investors. Even he went to the extent of challenging the law. Once he converted a non-convertible debentures into shares. Share holders got enormous profit, but it was against the law. He fought against that law and the government was compelled to change it. Dhirubhai Ambani had highest number of shareholders with him in his time. He boosted market capitalization of BSE. He brought millions of share holders under his umbrella, many of them were first time in the stock market.
Building and sustaining leadership position across its product categories in the domestic markets Pursuing attractive export opportunities Implementing backward vertical integration Improving its technology Achieving economies of scale Focusing on prudent financial management Investing in high growth opportunities.

Career Graph of Dhirubhai AmbaniDhirubhai Ambani founded Reliance Industries in 1958. After that it was a story ofexpansions and success. 1958 - Moved to Mumbai to start his own business "Majin 1965 - Champaklal Damani and Dhirubhai Ambani ended their partnership and Dhirubhai started on his own. 1977 - Started his first textile mill at Naroda, in Ahmedabad 1982 - Ambani began the process of backward integrationHe then diversified into chemicals, petrochemicals, plastics, power.The final phase of Reliances diversification occurred in the 1990when the company turned aggressively towards petrochemicals andtelecommunications. 6. Majin Commercial Corporation Ten years later, Dhirubhai Ambani returned to India and started "Majin" in partnership with Champaklal Damani, his second cousin, who used to be with him in Aden, Yemen. Majin was to import polyester yarn and export spices to Yemen. The first office of the Reliance Commercial Corporation was set up at

the Narsinatha Street in Masjid Bunder. In 1965, Champaklal Damani and Dhirubhai Ambani ended their partnership and Dhirubhai started on his own. While Damani was a cautious trader and did not believe in building yarn inventories, Dhirubhai was a known risk-taker and believed in building inventories, anticipating a price rise, and making profits. Ambanis net worth was estimated at about 1 million by late 1970s.

7. Reliance Textiles Sensing a good opportunity in the textile business, Dhirubh ai Ambani, along with Amit Mehra, a Delhi-based chartered accountant and company secretary residing in Ashok Vihar, Delhi, started the first textile mill at Naroda, in Ahmedabad in the year 1966. Dhirubhai started the brand "Vimal", which was named after his elder brother Ramaniklal Ambanis son, Vimal Ambani. 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. 8. Initial public offering Dhirubhai Ambani is awarded with starting the equity cult in India. More than 58,000 investors from various parts of India subscribed to Reliances IPO (Initial public offering) in 1977. In 1986, the annual general meeting of Reliance Industries had number of first-time retail investors investing in Reliance. Ambanis net worth was estimated at about 1 billion by early 1980s. 9. Diversification Ambani began the process of backward integration, set ting up a plant to manufacture polyester filament yarn. He subsequently diversified into chemicals, petrochemicals, plastics, power. The company as a whole was described by the BBC as "a business empire with an estimated annual turnover of $12 billion, and an 85,000strong workforce". The final phase of Reliances diversification occurred in the 1990s when the company turned aggressively towards petrochemicals and telecommunications. 10. Criticism Dhirubhai courted controversy all throughout his life. Many a times, he has been accused of unethical business practices and has been accused of having manipulated government policies to suit his own needs. He was involved in an open spat with Nusli Wadia of Bombay Dyeing. The end to this tussle came only af ter Dhirubhai Ambani suffered a stroke. While Dhirubhai Ambani was recovering in San Diego, his sons Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani managed the affairs. 11. The Indian Express had turned the guns against Reliance and was directly blaming the government for not doing enough to penalize Reliance Industries. The battle between Wadia - Goenka and the Ambanis took a new direction and became a national crisis. Gurumurthy and another journalist, Mulgaokar consorted with President Giani Zail Singh and ghost-wrote a hostile letter to the Prime Minister on his behalf. The Indian Express published a draft of the Presidents letter as a scoop, not realizing that Zail Singh had made changes to the letter before sending it to Rajiv Gandhi. Ambani had won the battle at this point. Now, while the tussle was directly between the Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Ramnath Goenka, Ambani made a quiet exit. 12. Dhirubhai Ambanis awards Dhirubhai did not win any Indian Government awards for civilians. 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 June 1998 - Deans 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 Deans Medal. August 2001 Economic Times

Awards 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". He is the true son of India Dhi rubhai Ambani won many words and accolades during his life. In November 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.