The Story of Dr.Karsanbhai Patel

The 'Nirma' success story of how an Indian Entrepreneur took on the big MNCs and re-wrote the rules of business:

It was in 1969 that Dr. Karsanbhai Patel started Nirma and went on to create a whole new segment in the Indian domestic detergent market. During that time the domestic detergent market only had the premium segment and there were very few companies, mainly the MNCs, which were into this business.

Karsanbhai Patel used to make detergent powder in the backyard of his house in Ahmedabad and then carry out door to door selling of his hand made product. He gave a money back guarantee with every pack that was sold. Karsanbhai Patel managed to offer his detergent powder for Rs. 3 per kg when the cheapest detergent at that time was Rs.13 per kg and so he was able to successfully target the middle and lower middle income segment.

Sabki Pasand Nirma!

Nirma became a huge success and all this was a result of Karsanbhai Patel's entrepreneurial skills. Karsanbhai Patel had good knowledge of chemicals and he came up with Nirma detergent which was a result of innovative combination of the important ingredients. Indigenous method was used, and also the detergent was more environment friendly. Consumers now had a quality detergent powder, having an affordable price tag. The process of detergent production was labour intensive and this gave employment to a large number of people. Nirma focused on cost reduction strategies to make a place for itself in the market. Nirma has always been known for offering quality products at affordable prices and thus creating good value for the consumer's money. In the 1980s Nirma moved ahead of Surf, a detergent by HLL , to capture a large market share. Later, Nirma successfully entered in the premium segment of soaps and detergents. Nirma went on to become the largest detergent and the second largest soap company in India. Nirma had more than 35% market share in the detergent segment and around 20 % market share in the toilet soap segment. The company got listed on the stock exchanges in the year 1994.

The Marketing Strategy of Nirma:

As Nirma started to grow and the salesmen started to reach out to the retailers, who were working with multinational brands till then, did not pay attention and used to take the stock on long credits and as a special favour. As and when the salesmen would go asking for the payment either he will be shown the door or may be offered a part payment even in the condition that the total material was sold. To the insisting ones they will give the material back asking them not to show up again. This carried on for some time and there was huge accumulated credit in the market making it difficult for the Nirma to operate. This is when Karsanbhai said enough was enough and called the entire team one day and decided on a drastic step which was risky but revolutionary. Karsanbhai was realizing the power of advertising and promotions which made him take this step.

The day after the meeting all the team member went out in the market and collected either cash or material. Next day on retailers were shocked, competition was dazed and market was without Nirma. For full one month the media was carpet bombed with the campaign WASHING POWDER NIRMA, WASHING POWDER NIRMA, DOODH SI SAFEDI (WASHING POWDER NIRMA, WASHING POWDER NIRMA, WHITENESS LIKE MILK)

Now what this did was kick start the consumer demand. People started asking for Nirma but it was not to be found. When the demand reached its peak then the Retailers started to look for Nirma. This is what Karsanbhai was waiting for. One fine day the team was called for another meeting and Delivery vans were cleaned, material loaded and NIRMA hit the market again. Now Nirma was dictating terms. All cash on delivery, no credits and tight supply. Overnight the brand was changed and within no time gave a fantastic fightback to the leading global brands.

The best case of - Give your consumer what he wants, when he wants, where he wants and at the price he wants, selling will be done quite automatically. This is the marketing 'mantra' of Nirma. Nirma adopted backward integration strategy for the regular supply of raw materials, 90 % of which they manufacture themselves. Nirma also gave due importance to modernization, expansion and up gradation of the production facilities. The company also made sure that it uses the latest technology and infrastructure. As far as Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is concerned, Nirma has made some good efforts by starting Nirma Education & Research Foundation (NERF) in the year 1994 for the purpose of running various educational institutes. Nirma has also set up Nirma labs , which prepares aspiring entrepreneurs to effectively face the different business challenges. Nirma also runs Nirma Memorial Trust, Nirma Foundation and Chanasma Ruppur Gram Vikas Trust as a part of their effort as a socially responsible corporate citizen.

The company that was started in 1969 with just one man who used to deliver his product from one house to the other, today employs around 14 thousand people and has a turnover of more than $ 500 million. In 2004 Nirma's annual sales were as high as 800000 tonnes. According to Forbes in 2005 Karsanbhai Patel's net worth was $640 million and it's going to touch the $1000 million mark soon.

The Story of Patricia Narayan

The story of Patricia Narayan, winner of this year's 'Ficci Woman Entrepreneur of the  Year' award is amazing. She started her career 30 years ago as an entrepreneur, selling eateries from a mobile cart on the Marina beach amidst all odds -- battling a failed marriage, coping with her husband, a multiple addict, and taking care of two kids. Today, she has overcome the hurdles and owns a chain of restaurants.

"I was always interested in cooking and passionate about trying out new dishes. But, the thought of becoming a business woman never came to my mind at all as I do not come from a business family. Both my parents were government servants. But my marriage changed everything. Both the families opposed the marriage vehemently as my husband belonged to the Brahmin community; unfortunately my marriage did not work out as my husband was addicted to alcohol, drugs, etc. I could not bring him out of the addiction. As a young woman, I did not know how to cope with this and I was getting beaten up everyday.

Though my father, a very conservative Christian never forgave me, he gave me refuge when I had nowhere to go. I was thrown out with two very small children. It was a question of survival for me. I knew I should either succumb to the burden or fight; I decided to fight my lonely battle. I did not want to be a burden on my parents. So, to be economically independent, I could only do what I knew and what I liked. I started making pickles, squashes and jams at home. I just took a couple of hundred rupees from my mother. I sold everything I made in one day and that gave me confidence. I earned a good income. I invested whatever I earned to make more pickles, squashes and jams. It was quite lucrative in the sense, even ten rupees was a blessing for me." says Patricia.

" My father's friend, who was running a school for handicapped children, was handing out mobile carts or kiosks to people who would employ at least two handicapped people. They needed somebody who could run it and I was offered one such cart free. I had to train the handicapped children to make coffee and serve them to customers.As I lived near the Marina beach, I decided to put the mobile cart at the Anna Square on the Marina beach. I had seen people thronging the beach in the evenings. But I had to make umpteen trips to the Public Works Department and wait for one year to get the permission. Finally, I started working on June 21, 1982, a day I will never forget. The previous night itself, with the help of the local rickshaw drivers, I had rolled the mobile cart to the beach. It was a small move but thrilling as it was my own and I was going to be a business woman the next day. While such carts sold only tea and cigarettes, I decided to sell cutlets, samosas, bajjis, fresh juice and coffee and tea. On the first day, I sold only one cup of coffee and that was for fifty paise! I was very disappointed and came home crying. I told my mother, that I would not like to continue. But my mother consoled me saying, at least you sold one cup of coffee. That's a good sign. You will do well tomorrow. And, she was adamant that I go the next day also.

The next day, I made sold snacks for Rs 600-700 which was big money for me then! As I started making money, I added ice creams, sandwiches, French fries and juices too. I used to keep thinking of adding more items. I ran it from 1982 to 2003, and the maximum I made from that mobile cart was Rs 25,000 a day. That was during the bandh days! We used to be open from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. every day, and later, I started opening from 5 a.m. to 9 a.m. for the walkers.I used to personally stand there and sell all the stuff I made. I never felt scared to stand there late at night. My only thought was to prove myself and move ahead.

There was a fire in me that made me believe that I could be successful without anyone's help. I did not want to be a failure. If you have that fire, nothing in the world can stop you from succeeding. On seeing my work at the beach, within a year, the Slum Clearance Board gave me an offer to run the canteen at their office with a proper kitchen. The chairman met me during her morning walk. That is how I got the offer. The canteen was a huge success. On Wednesdays, it was the public grievance day, so about 3000 people used to come there and I had a roaring business. I used to get up at 5 a.m. in the morning, make idlis and go to the beach. From 9 a.m. I would be at the canteen. From 3.30 p.m. I would again be at the beach cart and would be there till 11p.m. By then, I had employed people to cook, and clean, and all the cooking was done at the canteen kitchen. My monthly income in those days was around Rs 20,000. Later, I got an offer to run the Bank of Madurai canteen, I stopped running the canteen at the Slum Clearance Board canteen. At the Bank canteen, I served food to around 300 people daily. one day, after a fight with my husband who used to come to trouble me often, I boarded a bus and travelled till the last stop. I got down and saw the National Port Management training school run by the Central government.On the spur of the moment, I told the security guard that I wanted to meet the administrative officer. I met him and told him that I was a caterer and that I heard they were looking for a one. He said, to my surprise that they were indeed looking for one as they had problems with the current contractor. I still believe it was God who took me there.

I got the offer. I had to serve three meals to about 700 students. They gave us quarters to stay. It was a new life for me. I got into the groove in a day. It was successful from day one, and I took care of the canteen till 1998. My first weekly payment was Rs 80,000. I felt so elated having seen only hundreds and thousands till then. During those times, I was earning almost a lakh a week. In those days, I wanted to do everything personally as I felt only then, things would run smoothly. Now I know if I train people well, they will do the work the way you want. " adds Patricia.

" My connection with restaurants started in 1998 when I met people from the Sangeetha Restaurant group. They offered me a partnership in one of the units. But my son, Praveen Rajkumar wanted me to start my own restaurant and build a brand of ours.But destiny played truant with me again. I lost my daughter, Pratibha Sandra and son-in-law road accident, a month after their marriage in 2004. It shattered me, and I withdrew from all that I was doing.Then my son took over and started the first restaurant 'Sandeepha' in my daughter's memory. It took some time for me to come out of the shock and start helping my son in the business. Now, I am fully involved in the business. The fire to succeed has come back to me now.I still cannot get over my daughter's death as I did all this for my children; to bring them up and give them a good life.What shocked me was the way the accident victims were treated by the ambulance operators. When they found that all the four in the car were dead, they said they would not carry dead bodies. Finally, somebody carried all the dead bodies in the boot of a car. When I saw the bodies being taken out of the boot, I broke down.No mother can bear such a scene. That is when I decided to keep an ambulance on that very spot to help people whether the victims are alive or dead. It is in memory of my daughter." speaking about the beginning of restaurants.

Ficci entrepreneur of the year award

"I started my business with just two people. Now, there are 200 people working for me in my restaurants. My lifestyle has changed too. From travelling in a cycle rickshaw, I moved to auto rickshaws and now I have my own car. From 50 paise a day, my revenue has gone up to Rs 2 lakh a day.

The 'Ficci entrepreneur of the year' award is the culmination of all the hard work I have put in over the last 30 years. It came as a surprise as this is the first time I have received an award.

Till now, I had no time to think of what I was doing. But the award made me look back and relive the days that passed by. Now, my ambition is to build my Sandeepha brand."

Advice to young entrepreneurs

"Do not ever compromise on quality. Never lose your self-confidence. Believe in yourself and the product you are making. Third, always stick to what you know. When you employ people, you should know what you ask them to do."

SOURCE : http://business.rediff.com

The Story of Dr.Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw (born 23 March 1953) is an Indian entrepreneur. She is the Chairman & Managing Director of Biocon Limited a biotechnology company based in Bangalore (Bengaluru), India. She started Biocon in 1978 and spearheaded its evolution from an industrial enzymes manufacturing company to a fully integrated bio-pharmaceutical company with a well-balanced business portfolio of products and a research focus on diabetes, oncology and auto-immune diseases. She also established two subsidiaries: Syngene to provide development support services for discovery research and Clinigene to cater to clinical development services.
Her pioneering work in the sector has earned her several awards, including the prestigious Padma Shri and the Padma Bhushan from the government of India.She was recently named among TIME magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world. She is also on the Forbes list of the world’s 100 most powerful women, and the Financial Times’ top 50 women in business list.
Born in Bangalore, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw completed her schooling from the city’s Bishop Cotton Girl’s High School. She wanted to join medical school but instead took up biology and completed her BSc Zoology Honors course from Mount Carmel College,Bangalore University. She later did her post-graduation in Malting and Brewing from Ballarat College, Melbourne University.
She worked as a Trainee Brewer in Carlton and United Breweries, Melbourne and as a Trainee Malster at Barrett Brothers and Burston, Australia. She also worked for some time as a Technical Consultant at Jupiter Breweries Limited, Calcutta and as a Technical Manager at Standard Maltings Corporation, Baroda between 1975 and 1977. 

Today, thanks to her leadership, Biocon is building cutting-edge capabilities, global credibility and global scale in its manufacturing and marketing activities. It has Asia’s largest insulin and statin facilities also the largest perfusion-based antibody production facilities.

The Story of Anshu Gupta (Ashoka Fellow)

Popularly known as the Clothing Man, Anshu has done his Mass communications twice and masters in Economics. Starting as a freelance journalist, Anshu left a corporate job in 1998 and founded GOONJ with a mission to make clothing a matter of concern and to bring it among the list of subjects for the development sector. An Ashoka Fellow and the Global Ambassador of Ashoka, Anshu is creating a mass movement for recycling and reuse of tonnes of waste material by channelising it from the cities to the villages, as a resource for rural development. 

At IIMC Anshu was instantly in luck. His classmate was a vivacious girl, Meenakshi Trakroo. He wooed her, she responded and they married later. But that did not cause either of them to shut the door on the world and indulge themselves. They were both seeking a cause worth living for.

Anshu was freelancing for magazines even as a student. A series of experiences that didn't quite connect then, eventually led him and Meenakshi to commit themselves to their current mission.

When earthquakes shook Uttarkashi in 1991, Anshu went over with his camera. "Relief work was in full swing but it was not very sensitively done," he says. "The hill people are poor but they are proud. They were aghast at bundles of clothes dumped from moving trucks, literally on their heads. They withdrew and chose to wrap themselves in potato sacking cloth." Charity without dignity is an insult.

In Delhi's streets he once found a young man lie dead. There was an empty bottle of liquor and a full plate of uneaten food. "He died drinking to keep warm", whispered people who stood around. He had food to eat but not clothes to shield against the cold. Anshu met many young men who skipped job interviews because they did not have presentable clothes.

Listed in ‘Forbes’ as one of the India’s most powerful entrepreneurs, Anshu’s organization, GOONJ has won many prestigious awards including the Innovation for India award, Lien i3 challenge, CNN-IBN Real Hero’s Award, India NGO of the Year Award, Changemakers Innovation Awards and Development Market Place Award from the World Bank.

Anshu’s efforts to bring wider attention to the most ignored basic need of human i.e. clothing and its various aspects right from dignity, deaths in winters, to the most taboo subject of sanitary pads are getting wider acceptance across the world and many organizations have started replicating GOONJ’s various initiatives.

GOONJ is considered one of the leading social enterprises in India, the largest non monetary resource agency and people also call it one of the largest civic participation movements!!

Anshu is a passionate photographer and travels primarily to remote parts of the country to understand people, their behavior and need!

The Story of Amar Bose

Bose was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Noni Gopal Bose and an American mother. His father was a Indian and Bengali freedom revolutionary who, having been imprisoned for his political activities, fled Calcutta in the 1920s in order to avoid further prosecution by the British colonial police.

Bose first displayed his entrepreneurial skills and his interest in electronics at age thirteen when, during the World War II years, he enlisted school friends as co-workers in a small home business repairing model trains and home radios, to supplement his family's income^.

After graduating from Abington Senior High School in Abington, Pennsylvania, Bose enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, graduating with an SB (Bachelor of Science) in Electrical Engineering in the early 1950s. Bose spent a year in Eindhoven, Netherlands, in the research labs at NV Philips Electronics; and a year as a Fulbright research student in New Delhi, India, where he met his future wife, whom he later divorced. He completed his PhD in Electrical Engineering from MIT, writing a thesis on non-linear systems under the supervision of Norbert Wiener and Yuk-Wing Lee.

Following graduation, Bose became an Assistant Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. During his early years as a professor, Bose bought a high-end stereo speaker system in 1956 and he was disappointed to find that speakers with impressive technical specifications failed to reproduce the realism of a live performance. This would eventually motivate his extensive speaker technology research, concentrating on key weaknesses in the high-end speaker systems available at the time. His research on acoustics led him to invent a stereo loudspeaker that would reproduce, in a domestic setting, the dominantly reflected sound field that characterizes the listening space of the audience in a concert hall. His focus on psychoacoustics later became a hallmark of his company's audio products.

For initial capital to fund his company in 1964, Bose turned to angel investors, including his MIT thesis advisor and professor, Dr. Y. W. Lee. Bose was awarded significant patents in two fields that continue to be important to the Bose Corporation. These patents were in the area of loud speaker design and non-linear, two-state modulated, Class-D, power processing. The company Bose founded now employs more than 9,000 people worldwide and produces products for home, car, and professional audio, as well as conducting basic research in acoustics and other fields. Bose never made his company public, and since the company was privately held Bose was able to pursue risky long-term research. In a 2004 interview in Popular Science magazine, he said: "I would have been fired a hundred times at a company run by MBAs. But I never went into business to make money. I went into business so that I could do interesting things that hadn't been done before."

As company, Bose focused relentlessly on acoustic engineering innovation. His speakers, though expensive, earned a reputation for bringing concert-hall-quality audio into the home, the Times said.

Though his first speakers fell short of expectations, Bose kept at it. In 1968, he introduced the Bose 901 Direct/Reflecting speaker system, which became a best seller for more than 25 years and firmly entrenched Bose, based in Framingham, Massachusetts, as a leader in a highly competitive audio components marketplace.

Later inventions included the popular Bose Wave radio and the Bose noise-cancelling headphones, which were so effective that they were adopted by the military and commercial pilots, according to the Times.

Bose’s devotion to research was matched by his passion for teaching. Having earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees in electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the 1950s, Bose returned from a Fulbright scholarship at the National Physical Laboratory in New Delhi and joined the MIT faculty in 1956.

Amar Gopal Bose was born Nov 2, 1929, in Philadelphia. His father, Noni Gopal Bose, was a Bengali freedom fighter who was studying physics at Calcutta University when he was arrested and imprisoned for his opposition to British rule in India.

He escaped and fled to the US in 1920, where he married an American school teacher.

At age 13, Bose began repairing radio sets for pocket money for repair shops in Philadelphia. During World War II, when his father’s import business struggled, Bose’s electronics repairs helped support the family, the Times said.

Bose and his ex-wife, Prema, had two children, Vanu, now the head of his own company, Vanu Inc. in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Maya Bose, who survive him, as does his second wife, Ursula, and one grandchild.

In addition to running his company, Bose remained a professor at MIT until 2001. In 2011, Bose donated a majority of the company's non-voting shares to MIT on the condition that the shares never be sold.

Bose said that his best ideas usually come to him in a flash. "These innovations are not the result of rational thought; it's an intuitive idea." His son, Vanu Bose, is the founder and CEO of Vanu, Inc., a firm whose software-based radio technology provides a wireless infrastructure that enables individual base stations to simultaneously operate GSM, CDMA, and iDEN protocols for cellphone voice and data transmission.

The Story of Flipkart

From a start-up with an investment of just four lakhs rupees, Flipkart has grown into a $100 million-revenue online retail giant in just five years. The Flipkart story is not just about phenomenal success and mind numbing numbers but much more than that. It is about redefining customers' shopping experience.
Sachin and Binny Bansal found themselves stuck in boring tech jobs after graduating from IIT Delhi. Amazon.com, the world's largest online book retailer was the first chapter in their startup story. Inspired by Amazon they began flipkart.com in 2007. What started as an online book store with just Rs 4 lakh and 50,000 titles, today it is India's online megastore selling 17500 items everyday.
Sachin and Binny are now looking at grossing revenues of Rs 2500 crore this financial year that bear a question mark on sustainability and profitability and the kind of cash the venture will need to burn over the next few years.Today, as per Alexa traffic rankings, Flipkart is amongst the top 20 Indian Web sites and has been credited with being India's largest online bookseller with over 11 million titles on offer. The store started with selling books and in 2010 branched out to selling CDs, DVDs, mobile phones and accessories, cameras, computers, computer accessories and peripherals, and in 2011, pens & stationery, other electronic items such as home appliances, kitchen appliances, personal care gadgets, health care products etc. Further in 2012, Flipkart added A.C, air coolers, school supplies, office supplies, art supplies & life style products to its product portfolio. As of today, Flipkart employs more than 4,500 people.

Initially funded by the Bansals themselves with 400,000,Flipkart has raised funding from venture capital funds Accel India (US$1 million in 2009) and Tiger Global (US$10 million in 2010 and US$20 million in June 2011). Flipkart.com, on 24 August 2012 announced the completion of its 4th round of $150 million funding from MIH (part of Naspers Group) and ICONIQ Capital

Flipkart’s initial success can be pegged down to the experience of its founders, both of whom had worked with Amazon. They also successfully used word of mouth marketing and social media to get word out. But there are literally millions of retail websites. And not many have achieved even a fraction of the attention that Flipkart has. So what is it that makes Flipkart stand out? For one, they offer a huge range of titles (more than 7 million) which really sets them apart from the rest of the crowd.
But is simply offering so many titles enough? I don’t think so. I mean, how difficult is it for someone with deep pockets to simply replicate this? Not very. In fact, the Bansals started their venture with just Rs. 5 lakhs. So what does Flipkart have that makes its model so robust? An amazingly well-oiled warehousing and delivery system. This ensures that deliveries occur within promised times all over India. And with a business volume of nearly 2 lakh books every year, one can imagine how important logistics is to this business.
- See more at: http://mediapanther.co.in/marketing/the-flipkart-success-story/#sthash.449Bts37.dpuf

Flipkart’s initial success can be pegged down to the experience of its founders, both of whom had worked with Amazon. They also successfully used word of mouth marketing and social media to get word out. But there are literally millions of retail websites. And not many have achieved even a fraction of the attention that Flipkart has. So what is it that makes Flipkart stand out? For one, they offer a huge range of titles (more than 7 million) which really sets them apart from the rest of the crowd.
But is simply offering so many titles enough? I don’t think so. I mean, how difficult is it for someone with deep pockets to simply replicate this? Not very. In fact, the Bansals started their venture with just Rs. 5 lakhs. So what does Flipkart have that makes its model so robust? An amazingly well-oiled warehousing and delivery system. This ensures that deliveries occur within promised times all over India. And with a business volume of nearly 2 lakh books every year, one can imagine how important logistics is to this business.
- See more at: http://mediapanther.co.in/marketing/the-flipkart-success-story/#sthash.449Bts37.dpuf

Flipkart’s initial success can be pegged down to the experience of its founders, both of whom had worked with Amazon. They also successfully used word of mouth marketing and social media to get word out. But there are literally millions of retail websites. And not many have achieved even a fraction of the attention that Flipkart has. So what is it that makes Flipkart stand out? For one, they offer a huge range of titles (more than 7 million) which really sets them apart from the rest of the crowd.
But is simply offering so many titles enough? I don’t think so. I mean, how difficult is it for someone with deep pockets to simply replicate this? Not very. In fact, the Bansals started their venture with just Rs. 5 lakhs. So what does Flipkart have that makes its model so robust? An amazingly well-oiled warehousing and delivery system. This ensures that deliveries occur within promised times all over India. And with a business volume of nearly 2 lakh books every year, one can imagine how important logistics is to this business.
- See more at: http://mediapanther.co.in/marketing/the-flipkart-success-story/#sthash.449Bts37.dpuf

The Story of Dhirubhai Ambani

 

Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani (Dhirubhai Ambani) was born on 28 December 1932, at Chorwad, Junagadh (now the state of Gujarat, India) to Hirachand Gordhanbhai Ambani and Jamnaben in a Modh family of very moderate means.He was the second son of a school teacher.
Dhirubhai Ambani is said to have started his entrepreneurial career by selling "pakora" to pilgrims in Mount Girnar over the weekends. When he was 16 years old, he moved to Aden, Yemen. He worked with A. Besse & Co. for a salary of Rs.300. Two years later, A. Besse & Co. became the distributors for Shell products, and Dhirubhai was promoted to manage the company’s filling station at the port of Aden.
He was married to Kokilaben and had two sons, Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani and two daughters, Nina Kothari and Deepti Salgaocar.
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.The first office of the Reliance Commercial Corporation was set up at the Narsinathan Street in Masjid Bunder. It was a 350 Sq. Ft. room with a telephone, one table and three chairs. Initially, they had two assistants to help them with their business. In 1965, Champaklal Damani and Dhirubhai Ambani ended their partnership and Dhirubhai started on his own. It is believed that both had different temperaments and a different take on how to conduct business. While Mr. Damani was a cautious trader and did not believe in building yarn inventories, Dhirubhai was a known risk taker and he considered that building inventories, anticipating a price rise, and making profits through that was good for growth.

During this period, Dhirubhai and his family used to stay in one bedroom apartment at the Jaihind Estate in Bhuleshwar, Mumbai. In 1968, he moved to an upmarket apartment at Altamount Road in South Mumbai. Ambani's net worth was estimated at about Rs.1 million by late 1960s.

Ambani's his great achievement was that he showed Indians what was possible. With no Oxford or Yale degree and no family capital, he achieved what the Elite "brown sahibs" of New Delhi could not: he built an ultramodern, profitable, global enterprise in India itself. What's more, he enlisted four million Indians, a generation weaned on nanny-state socialism, in an adventure in can-do capitalism, convincing them to load up on Reliance stock.

Still, Ambani seems destined to be remembered as a folk hero—an example of what a man from one of India's poor villages can accomplish with non-shrink ambition.