Success Story Dhirubhai Ambani

Dhirubhai Ambani, Indian businessman, was born in Chorwad, Gujarat, on December 28, 1932. He died in Bombay on July 6, 2002, aged 69. Dhirubhai Ambani is survived by his wife, two sons and two daughters. His two American-educated sons have been in day-to-day control of the company since he suffered a stroke in 1986. He suffered a further stroke 12 days ago from which he never recovered.

D.A. returned to India after 10 years and found Reliance Commercial Company with a capital of Rs.15000/= in Masjid Bunder in Mumbai in a 350 Sq.ft. space with one telephone, one table, three chairs and with a business mission of importing polyester yarn and exporting spices.. He went on to establish Reliance Textiles in 1964 under the brand name “Vimal” and the World Bank applauded the brand as the best Polyester Cloth. Perceiving success, Dhirubhai established Reliance IndustriesLtd in 1970s..

Sensing an opportunity in the textile industry — higher disposable incomes were leading to Indians buying better, more expensive clothes — Ambani sought and received the necessary clearances to manufacture cloth from polyester fibre. He opened his first textile mill in Naroda, near Ahmedabad, in 1966 and then concentrated on quietly building up his business. Vimal, the textile brand he established, flourished and remains a household name in India today.
Though Reliance was a profitable enough concern, Ambani quickly calculated that further expansion — especially into related sectors — would depend on access to a cheap source of capital. Rather than turning to the banking system, he decided to tap Bombay’s fledgeling stock exchange, pioneering an equity cult that was to transform the corporate financing system in India. Reliance’s initial public offering in 1977 saw 58,000 investors buying shares; eventually, the number of Reliance shareholders was to climb to some three million.

Dhirubhai Ambani is credited with starting the equity cult in India. More than 58,000 investors from various parts of India subscribed to Reliance's IPO in 1977. Dhirubhai was able to convince people of rural Gujarat that being shareholders of his company will only bring returns to their investment.

Dhirubhai Ambani - Entrepreneur who built up the only Indian business to feature in the Forbes 500 One of India’s most dynamic and flamboyant entrepreneurs, Dhirubhai Ambani was head of the multibillion-dollar Reliance group of industries with extensive interests in textiles, petrochemicals, energy and telecommunications. Combining a keen sense of business with a razor-sharp ability to negotiate his way through the labyrinth of the Indian political establishment, Ambani single-handedly built a business empire that in just three decades outgrew corporate houses such as the Tatas and Birlas which had dominated the country’s industrial landscape for nearly a century.
Reliance is the only Indian private company to make the Fortune 500 list of the world’s largest corporations, and Ambani was listed by Forbes as the 138th richest person in the world this year.