Dhirubhai

Ambani

Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani

born on December 28,
1932 in Chorwad, Gujarat.
Dhirubhai started off as a
small time worker with Arab
merchants in the 1950s
moved to Mumbai in 1958
to start his own business in
spices.
he moved into textiles and
opened his mill near

During 1950s
In the 1950s, the Yemini administration realized
that their main unit of currency, the Rial, was
disappearing fast.
It was found that a young man in his twenties
was placing unlimited buy orders for Yemini
Rials.
Rials, pure silver coins and was in much
demand at the London Bullion Exchange. Young
Dhirubhai bought the Rials, melted them into
pure silver and sold it to the bullion traders in
Entrepreneurships true sense lies in the fact that he always looks upon
London.
opportunity.

 In 1962, Dhirubhai 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.
Asia Times quotes: "His people skills were
legendary. A former secretary reveals: "He
was very helpful. He followed an 'opendoor' policy. Employees could walk into his
cabin and discuss their problems with

 Dhirubhai Ambani is credited with starting

equity investing 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.
Reliance Industries holds the distinction
that it is the only Pvt. Co. whose several
annual general meetings were held in

9 great management lessons

from Dhirubhai Ambani
"Small men like me don't inspire big words!"

Dhirubhaism No 1: Roll up
your sleeves and help.
sense of do it yourself
He does not wait for
infrastructure to be created to
support his operations. He
goes out and builds it himself;
be it a power plant for his
petrochemical enterprise or a
canal to bring water from large

Dhirubhaism No 2: Be a safety
net for your team.
There used to be a time when
our agency Mudra was the target
of some extremely vicious
propaganda by our peers,
he gently asked M if They
needed any help in combating it.
knowledge that he knew and
cared for what his team was
going through, and that he was
there for Them if needed him,
He gave courage which we never new we had
worked wonders for confidence.

Dhirubhaism No 3: The silent

benefactor.
When he helped
someone, he never ever
breathed a word about it
to anyone else
"Expect the unexpected"
just might have been
coined for him.

Dhirubhaism No 4: Dream big,

but dream with your eyes open.
"It's difficult but not
impossible!"

Whenever a task seemed too big to be

accomplished, he would reply: " No is no answer!"
Not only did he dream big, he taught all of us to
do so too.
his favorite phrase "dream with your eyes open"

5. Dhirubhaism: Leave the

professional alone!

management techniques
of him is different
the simplest strategies
are often the hardest to
adopt.
let professionals do the
work
This technique enforced
responsibility among his
"Produce your best."
team

6. Dhirubhaism: Change your

orbit, constantly!
Dhirubhai's "orbit theory."
This is no miracle.
when you change orbits, you
will create friction. The good
news is that your enemies
from your previous orbit will
never be able to reach you in
your new one. By the time
resentment builds up in your
new orbit, you should move to

Changing orbits
is the key to
our progress as
a nation.

7. The arm-around-the-shoulder
leader
It was Dhirubhai's very
own signature style
Arm around the shoulder With that one simple
gesture, he managed to
achieve many things.
This tendency that he had,
to draw people towards
that did much more than words in letting
him, manifestedmeitself
in
know that I belonged,
countless ways.that I had his trust, and that I had him on my side!

8. The Dhirubhai theory of

Supply creating Demand
He was not an MBA. Nor an
economist. But yet he took
traditional market theory and
stood it on its head. And
succeeded.
when everyone in India would
build capacities only after a
careful study of market, he went
full steam ahead and created
giants of manufacturing plants

9. Money is not a product by

itself, it is a by-product, so don't
He did not breathechase
a word it
about profits, nor about
becoming the richest
A by-product is something
that you don't set out to
produce. It is the spin off
when you create something
larger.

Success
Success in attaining that goal will
eventually ring in the cash. For instance, if
you work towards creating a name for
yourself and earning a good reputation,
then money is a logical outcome.
People will pay for your product or service
if it is good
Sounds too simplistic for belief? Well, look
around you and you will know exactly how

Thank you