The original Ratna of Bharat: Why Dhirubhai Ambani deserves a Bharat Ratna

(Image Source: okanayakulu.blogspot.com)

"Our dreams have to be bigger, our ambitions higher, our commitment deeper and our efforts greater. This is my dream for India."

Dhirubhai Ambani

Most of us have heard such words from National leaders, Prime Ministers and politicians. We have seldom believed them as more often than not they have not delivered on their promises.Despite all the struggle from Anna Hazare we are not sure if the government will keep their word. The truth is since 1947 we have seldom seen anything tangible from our politicians and leaders. The topic in national politics today is awarding of the Bharat Ratna and a lot of names are in the fray, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, MF Hussain, Babu Jagjeevan Ram, Kanshi Ram and the list is endless. I take this opportunity to salute the original Ratna of Bharat, a true son of the soil Dhirrajlal Hirachanda Ambani fondly called as Dhirubhai.

Dhirubhai was born in Gujarat on the 28th December 1932 to a middle class family. He shares his birthday with Ratan Tata, the founder of Linux Linus Torvalds, American president Woodrow Wilson and Hollywood actor Denzel Washington. Right from the beginning he had the entrepreneurial spirit in him as he was selling pakoras to pilgrims at Mount Girnar near his village for a profit of 2 paisa. This would probably set the tone for his life later as he was always keen on making a profit whatever the venture.

At the age of 16 he left India to work for A Besse & Co in Aden, Yemen then a British Colony. He understood the petro refinery business then as Besse were the distributors for Shell then and Dhirubhai was the managing the distribution centers. During those days, the Yemini Rial was made of 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 London. During the latter part of his life, while talking to reporters, it is believed that he said “The margins were small but it was money for jam. After three months, it was stopped. But I made a few lakhs. In short, I was a manipulator, a very good manipulator. But I don’t believe in not taking opportunities.

Dhirubhai returned to India in 1958 and started trading importing textiles and exporting spices under the name Reliance Commercial Corporation. In 1966 he started his first plant in Naroda in Gujarat to manufacture textiles under the brand name ‘Vimal’. But doing business in India those days involved getting licenses which were not easy to come by. Only the established business houses were given these due to their political connections. And these houses would just procure the licenses and not utilise them. For example the Birla group had close to 25 licenses which were never utilized.
Dhirubhai by sheer determination and manipulation broke through these cartels to establish Reliance as major player in textiles but then the retailers refused to stock reliance cloth and if they did so it would be at a very low margin this was believed to be because of the pressure exerted by Nusli Wadia and Bombay Dyeing. Dhirubhai then did something that has become the stuff legends are made of in one day he opened 100 ‘Vimal’ retail outlets, such a feat had never been seen before in India and it took all the commercial establishments by surprise who started stocking Vimal just to dissuade Dhirubhai from opening an outlet in their neighborhood.

He had a vision for India where the common man could become the owner in an enterprise and be involved in a share of the profits as well. When it came to Dhirubhai raising capital was also a very unique feat as he introduced the concept of IPO (initial Public Offering) in 1977. today IPO’s are a common occurrence but imagine thinking of this way back in 1977 Dhirubhai was way ahead of his times. He constantly encouraged the small first time investors to invest in the Reliance IPO promising to double their money. Initially only people from Gujarat invested but later others too joined in.

Dhirubhai got one of the best manufacturing units built and believed his men blindly. Once a unit that had been flooded due to monsoons and experts from Du-Pont had come down to help Reliance re-start the factory. They had said that the situation was so bad that it would take about 18 months for the factory to be fully functional. Dhirubhai then called the factory manager and told him what the experts had told him. The factory manager told Dhirubhai give me 6 months and the resources I will get it done and requested him to send the experts away as they were lowering the morale of the workers with their findings. Dhirubhai agreed and within 4 months the factory was running at full capacity.

So what I ask today is for us to think and decide. Should not the Bharat Ratna our highest civilian honor be given to such a individual, the one who started the concept of IPO’s, Retail formats, World class manufacturing units. The one person, who was willing to share his profits with the common man, Let us ask ourselves this question does not this man deserve the Bharat Ratna more than the politicians and painters? Ladies and gentlemen the Bharat Ratna for the original Ratna of Bharat Dhirrajlal Hirachanda Ambani.



(My speech on the same topic at Chennai Toastmasters in 2008)