Dhirubhai Ambani was born in 1932 in Gujarat, India. He started his career working for Arab merchants in the 1950s before moving to Mumbai and starting a spices trading business. He expanded into textiles, opening a mill near Ahmedabad. Ambani is credited with starting equity investing in India through Reliance's successful IPO in 1977. He taught investors that being shareholders could generate returns. Ambani believed in dreaming big but with a pragmatic approach. He left a strong legacy in Indian business through his entrepreneurship and management philosophies focused on empowering employees and adapting to changes.

1. Dhirubhai Ambani

2. 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 Ahmedabad.

3. 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 London.

4. • 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 'open-door' policy.
Employees could walk into his cabin and discuss
their problems with him."

5. • 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 stadiums.

6. Great Management
Lessons From
Dhirubhai Ambani

7. 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 distances for his
cooling plant

8. 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, worked
wonders for confidence

9. 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.

10. Dream big, but dream with your eyes
open.
• 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"

11. 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 team

12. 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 the next level. And so on.

13. 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 him, manifested itself in countless
ways.

14. 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 with unbelievable
capacites.

15. Money is not a product by itself, it is a
by-product, so don't chase it
• He did not breathe a word 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.

16. 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 true it
is.