Biography of Indian Billionaire and Software Tycoon Azim Premji

Azim Premji is the man behind Wipro, one of the top IT Companies in India.The Forbes list (2009) of the worlds billionaires has him on the 83rd position with a net worth of $ 5.7 billion. Premji was also, According to Forbes,the richest man in India from 1999 to 2005.
Azim Premji has always been known for being modest.Despite the fact that he is a billionaire , he flies by the economy class.He likes to stay in budget hotels or company guest houses rather than 5 or 7 star hotels.He drove a Ford Escort for around 8 years before upgrading to a Toyota Corolla.Paper plates were used at the wedding of his Son.
Azim Premji was born onborn July 24, 1945 in Mumbai,India .He did his schooling from St. Mary’s School , Mumbai and went to Stanford University in the US for his electrical engineering.
In 1966 , Azim Premji’s Father passed away.Azim Premji left Stanford and came back to India to take control of the family business.Their Company, Western Indian Vegetable Products Limited (Now Wipro) used to manufacture cooking oil.
Azim Premji was only 21 years of age when he inherited the $ 2 million cooking oil company. He had to face many challeges in the beginning,but his courage and determination made him overcome all difficulties.
Since that time he has diversified and turned the business into a multi billion dollar technology enterprise.
IBM left India in 1980 and this gave Indian companies a golden opportunity to eter into computer business.Azim Premji acted fast and hired the best engineers to develop computers.Later , Wipro also started to make computer software.
Wipro got listed on New York Stock Exchange( NYSE ) in 2000.Wipro was the first company in India to adopt the six sigma concept.
Today ,Wipro is one of the leading IT companies in India and its businesses include R & D, Outsourcing , Consulting and Software.
Azim Premji foundation was set up in 2001.It is a non profit organization and runs various programmes to provide quality education to children in rural areas.

Karsanbhai Patel - Success of Nirma

The nirma success story of how an Indian Entrepreneur took on the big MNCs and rewrote 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 afforbable prices and thus creating good value for the consumer’s money.
In the 1980s nirma moved ahead of Surf , a detergent by HLL , to caputre 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.
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 upgradation 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.

For this fighter, life was a big battle

Many years ago, during his celebrated fight with Indian Express proprietor Ramnath Goenka, Dhirubhai Ambani commented, "My success is my worst enemy."
The meteoric rise of Ambani and his challenge to established business houses made him an obvious target for detractors, all the more so since he was a complete outsider, relying on his wits instead of family connections to make his fortune.
His vaulting ambition, his appetite for risk and his swashbuckling larger-than-life image made him a natural target for those who resented his meteoric rise to the top of the business ladder. He wasn't just the veteran of many battles - his whole life was one big battle.
By inclination and instinct, Dhirubhai was a fighter. What better place for a fight than the stock exchange? Twenty years ago, bear cartels called the shots in a cowboy market.
Throttling the bears In March 1982, the Reliance scrip was the target of a bear raid organised by a Kolkata based industrialist. They picked the wrong target.
While the share was being hammered down by the bears, Dhirubhai organised a rescue operation, with friendly brokers buying up every share being sold. Then, knowing fully well that the brokers did not have possession of the shares they had sold, he demanded delivery.
The bear cartel was thrown into a panic and desperately started buying Reliance shares. When cartel members asked for time to deliver the shares, Dhirubhai asked his friends to refuse. The upshot - the Bombay Stock Exchange had to be shut for three days. But the bears had been taught a lesson - do not meddle in Reliance shares.
It wasn't long, however, before Dhirubhai's enemies raised a simple question -where did he, till recently a yarn trader and only a budding industrialist, get hold of the money needed to stop the bears in their tracks?
The answer was delivered by the then Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who announced in Parliament that non-resident Indians had invested over Rs 220 million in Reliance during 1982-83. These investments had also been made by companies with names like Crocodile, Lota and Fiasco.
Investigations by journalists revealed that these companies had been registered in the Isle of Man, the tax haven, by several people sporting the surname Shah. Who did these companies belong to? Questions were raised and fingers pointed, but a Reserve Bank of India enquiry could not find any wrongdoing by Reliance.
The matter died a natural death.
One of Dhirubhai's most celebrated battles was with V P Singh, then finance minister in Rajiv Gandhi's cabinet. Having built up a cosy relationship with Indira Gandhi, Ambani had no inkling that things would change when she was assassinated on October 31, 1984, and her son Rajiv became prime minister.
It wasn't long, however, before V P Singh took his first pot shot at Reliance. He suddenly shifted purified terephthalic acid imports from the open general licence category to the limited permissible list in May 1985.
Reliance needed PTA imports to feed its polyester filament yarn plant, and lost no time in tying up with a host of banks to issue letters of credit for almost a year's supply of PTA.
Surprisingly, these LCs were opened days before the government notification was announced. The finance minister was obviously miffed, and slapped a 50 per cent import duty on PTA. That little spat was only the beginning of Reliance's troubles.
The debenture issues
Dhirubhai had always understood finance very well, amply illustrated by the fact that Reliance paid virtually zero tax. In 1984, a cash-strapped Dhirubhai hit upon a brainwave.
Reliance had issued plenty of non-convertible debentures, and his standing among investors was God-like. Why not, he reasoned, convert the debentures into equity? That would improve the company's debt equity ratio, reduce outflow on interest, and allow him to raise funds once again.
The trouble was that these debentures were non-convertible. But Dhirubhai was not the one to let a little thing like that stand in his way. He managed to convince the finance ministry and investors lapped up his offer.
Unfortunately, V P Singh was not so easily convinced. A day before the Reliance board was to meet to consider another round of conversions in June 1986, V P Singh refused to permit it. All hell broke loose, with Reliance's debenture prices halving within a matter of hours.
Nor was that the end of the affair. Banks had lent heavily against the security of Reliance shares to about 60 investment companies, which were buying Reliance debentures. The Indian Express alleged that these companies were fronting for Reliance, and the whole operation made sense only if the debentures could be converted to shares.
The revelations led to an almighty stink, and, with the conversion not going through, the RBI ordered the banks to call back the loans. The entire episode took a heavy toll on Dhirubhai's health, and he suffered a paralytic stroke on February 9, 1986.
The Indian Express revelations were part of the campaign being conducted by Ramnath Goenka against Reliance. There are different accounts of what led to the break-up of their friendship, but there's no doubt that the Indian Express ran a systematic campaign against Reliance, a campaign that alleged all sorts of things, from Reliance building more than the licensed capacity to CBI investigations to the "loan mela" by the banks to Reliance front companies.
The government added to the pressure, withdrawing customs duties on imported PFY just as the Reliance PFY unit came on stream. For a while, it seemed like the end of the line for Dhirubhai.
But not for long. In December 1986, in a move dubbed as a referendum on Reliance by the media, a Rs 5 billion convertible debenture issue by Reliance was oversubscribed seven times.
Soon after, VP Singh was shifted from the finance ministry. The early conversion of the debentures into shares was permitted. Pending licences were cleared. In September 1987, there was a nationwide raid on the Express group, and scores of cases were filed against it. Dhirubhai had scored another victory. Dhirubhai's quarrel with Nusli Wadia was part and parcel of the fight against the Indian Express. During Reliance's troubles with the Indian Express, Dhirubhai was convinced that Nusli Wadia was behind the campaign.
They were, of course, business competitors, with Wadia manufacturing di-methyl terephthalate, while Dhirubhai opted for making PTA. Both are raw materials for making polyester yarn and fibre. Wadia had been opposed to Dhirubhai setting up the PTA plant. Matters weren't helped when Goenka, who had a soft spot for Wadia, sided with him against Reliance.
The one battle lost
One corporate battle which Dhirubhai did not win was the battle for control of Larsen & Toubro. In 1988, L&T was in bad shape, and the Ambanis thought that the time was ripe for an acquisition. Having secured the support of L&T's chairman, who saw Dhirubhai as a white knight in the battle against the raider Manu Chhabria, Mukesh and Anil Ambani became directors of L&T. By April 1989, Dhirubhai became chairman of L&T.
Unfortunately, things didn't go smoothly. In December Reliance's old bete noire, VP Singh, became prime minister. The Indian Express once again did the muck-raking, and found that the takeover had been effected by financial institutions like the Life Insurance Corporation and the General Insurance Corporation selling their shares. Since the institutions were not allowed to sell to private parties, the Indian Express alleged that the whole operation was a fraud.
The matter moved to the courts. Sensing defeat, the Ambanis reversed the transaction, taking a substantial loss. An extraordinary general meeting was called to decide whether the Ambanis would remain on the L&T board. Dhirubhai resigned. Eleven years later, Reliance sold its holdings in L&T to Grasim. Even that transaction was not free of controversy, as the Securities and Exchange Board of India felt that Reliance should not have bought L&T shares from the market a few months before deciding to sell its stake. The insider trading charge was settled with Reliance paying a nominal fine.
The share switch hitch
Another battle was the share switch controversy. Here too Ambani did not come off all that well. Apparently, when Unit Trust of India sent some Reliance shares to its registrars for transfer, it received some other shares - with different numbers - in return.
The markets jumped to the conclusion that there was something fishy - perhaps even fake shares in play. A Securities and Exchange Board of India investigation into the matter did not find evidence of this, but there were lots of discrepancies in the numbering of shares issued and the share transfer process was found to have many loopholes.
For a man who single-handedly created the equity cult, Ambani was seen as running a less-than-tidy ship in its share transfer operations. Sebi asked Reliance Consultancy Services, the group's registrar, to shut shop. And the crisis blew over.
In the wireless loop
Reliance also attracted controversy when the telecom sector was being opened up. Initial regulation of the sector involved clear-cut lines of demarcation between cellular and basic operators.
At the same time, wireless in local loop technology offered the possibility of limited mobility. WiLL supporters pointed to its cheapness and called it limited mobility for the masses.
Cellular operators, on the other hand, protested that limited mobility was an infringement on their turf, and unjustified because they had paid hefty licence fees. Reliance critics lost no time in pointing out that since the Reliance group held basic licences in many telecom circles, they would be one of the principal beneficiaries if basic operators were allowed entry to the limited mobility segment.
The telecom regulator, however, did allow limited mobility, albeit with restrictions limiting the area in which it could be used. The matter continues to be dogged by controversy, with the parties taking recourse to the courts. There have been other battles and controversies, the most recent one being the alleged infringement of the Official Secrets Act by Reliance employees.
Dhirubhai's position as an outsider in India's business world meant that he has had to deal with more than the normal share of jealousy and animosity. But that did not dim his zest for battle or derail his dream of making Reliance the largest private sector company in India.

DHIRUBHAI AMBANI - AN INSPIRATION

HE achieved what almost everybody would consider impossible. In a life spanning 69 years, he built from scratch India’s largest privately controlled corporate empire. Dhirajlal Hirachand – better known as Dhirubhai – Ambani would often say that success was his biggest enemy. He was a man who aroused extreme responses in others. Either you loved him or you hated him. There was just no way you could have been indifferent to this amazing entrepreneur who thought big, acted tough, knew how to bend rules or have rules bent for him. He was a visionary as well as a manipulator, a man who communicated with the rich and the poor with equal felicity, who was generous beyond the call of duty with those whom he liked and utterly ruthless with his rivals – a man of many parts, of irreconcilable contrasts and paradoxes galore.
Dhirubhai Ambani expired on Saturday July 6, roughly ten minutes before midnight, at Mumbai’s Breach Candy Hospital where he had been admitted after he suffered a vascular stroke on the evening of June 24. This was his second stroke – the first had occurred more than sixteen years earlier, in February 1986, leaving the right side of his body paralysed. At his cremation, the well-heeled rubbed shoulders with the ordinary. No Indian businessman ever attracted the kind of crowd that Dhirubhai did on his last journey. After his cremation on the evening of Sunday July 7, his elder son Mukesh reminded those gathered on the occasion that in 1957, when Dhirubhai arrived in Mumbai from Aden in Yemen, he had only Rs 500 in his pocket.


He was not exactly a pauper since Rs 500 meant much more than what the amount means in this day and age. Nevertheless, one could not ask for a more spectacular ‘rags-to-riches’ tale. The second son of a poorly paid school-teacher from Chorwad village in Gujarat, he stopped studying after the tenth standard and decided to join his elder brother, Ramniklal, who was working in Aden at that time. (Not surprisingly, Dhirubhai ensured that his two sons went to premier educational institutions in the US – Mukesh was educated at Stanford University and Anil at the Wharton School of Business.)
The first job Dhirubhai held in Aden was that of an attendant in a gas station. Half a century later, he would become chairman of a company that owned the largest oil refinery in India and the fifth largest refinery in the world, that is, Reliance Petroleum Limited which owns the refinery at Jamnagar that has an annual capacity to refine up to 27 million tonnes of crude oil.
When he died, the Reliance group of companies that Dhirubhai led had a gross annual turnover in the region of Rs 75,000 crore or close to US $ 15 billion. The group’s interests include the manufacture of synthetic fibres, textiles and petrochemical products, oil and gas exploration, petroleum refining, besides telecommunications and financial services. In 1976-77, the Reliance group had an annual turnover of Rs 70 crore. Fifteen years later, this figure had jumped to Rs 3,000 crore. By the turn of the century, this amount had skyrocketed to Rs 60,000 crore. In a period of 25 years, the value of the Reliance group’s assets had jumped from Rs 33 crore to Rs 30,000 crore.

When, after having spent eight years in Aden, Dhirubhai returned to Mumbai, his lifestyle was akin to that of any ordinary lower middle class Indian. In 1958, the year he started his first small trading venture, his family used to reside in a one room apartment at Jaihind Estate in Bhuleshwar. After trading in a range of products, primarily spices and fabrics, for eight years, Dhirubhai achieved the first of the many goals he had set for himself when he became the owner of a small spinning mill at Naroda, near Ahmedabad. He did not look back.
He decided that unlike most Indian businessmen who borrowed heavily from financial institutions to nurture their entrepreneurial ambitions, he would instead raise money from the public at large to fund his industrial ventures. In 1977, Reliance Industries went public and raised equity capital from tens of thousands of investors, many of them located in small towns. From then onwards, Dhirubhai started extensively promoting his company’s textile brand name, Vimal. The story goes that on one particular day, the Reliance group chairman inaugurated the retail outlets of as many as 100 franchises.

The Ambanis often scored because they stuck to their knitting or focused sharply on their areas of ‘core competence’. The group flopped when they entered new areas, be these the print medium or financial services. The group’s foray into power generation too has so far not yielded significant results. Dhirubhai’s sons, Mukesh (45) and Anil (43) are keen on effectively implementing their plans of diversifying into the ‘new economy’, into new areas like telecommunications, life sciences and insurance. The Reliance group intends proving telecom services in many parts of the country and is currently building an optic fibre based broadband internet network connecting 115 cities.

BIOGRAPHY

Dhirubhai started off as a small time worker with Arab merchants in the 1950s and moved to Mumbai in 1958 to start his own business in spices. After making modest profits, he moved into textiles and opened his mill near Ahmedabad. Dhirubhai founded Reliance Industries in 1958. After that it was a saga of expansions and successes.Reliance, acknowledged as one of the best-run companies in the world has various sectors like petrochemicals, textiles and is involved in the production of crude oil and gas, to polyester and polymer products. The companies refinery at Jamnagar accounts for over 25% of India's total refining capacity and their plant at Hazira is the biggest chemical complex in India. The company has further diversified into Telecom, Insurance and Internet Businesses, the Power Sector and so on. Now the Reliance group with over 85,000 employees provides almost 5% of the Central Government's total revenue.Dhirubhai has been one among the select Forbes billionaires and has also figured in the Sunday Times list of top 50 businessmen in Asia. His industrious nature and willingness to take on any risk has made him what he is. In 1986 after a heart attack he has handed over his empire to his two sons Anil and Mukesh. His sons are carrying on the successful tradition of their illustrious father.
Early life
'Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani' was born on 28 December 1932, at Chorwad, Junagadh in the state of Gujarat, India, into a Modh family of very moderate means. He was the second son of a school teacher. When he was 16 years old, he moved to Aden, Yemen. Initially, Dhirubhai worked as a dispatch clerk with A. Besse & Co. Two years later A. Besse & Co. became the distributors for Shell products and Dhirubhai was promoted to manage the company’s oil-filling station at the port of Aden.He was married to Kokilaben and had two sons and two daughters. He also worked in Dubai for some time during his early years.
Life in Aden
Kokilaben and Dhirubhai Ambani, In the 1950s, the Yemini administration realized that their main unit of currency, the Rial, was disappearing fast. Upon launching an investigation, they realized that a lot of Rials were being routed to the Port City of Aden. It was found that a young man in his twenties was placing unlimited buy orders for Yemini Rials.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.
Reliance Commercial Corporation
Ten years later, Dhirubai 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 business was setup in partnership with Champaklal Damani, his second cousin, who used to be with him in Aden, Yemen. 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 an one bedroom apartment at the Jaihind Estate in Bhuleshwar. Mumbai. In 1968, he moved to an up market apartment at Altamount Road in South Mumbai.
Reliance Textiles
Sensing a good opportunity in the textile business, Dhirubhai started his first textile mill at Naroda, near Ahmedabad in the year 1966. Textiles were manufactured using polyester fibre yarn. Dhirubhai started the brand "Vimal", which was named after his elder brother Ramaniklal Ambani's son, Vimal Ambani. Extensive marketing of the brand "Vimal" in the interiors of India made it a household name. Franchise retail outlets were started and they used to sell "only Vimal" brand of textiles. In the year 1975, a Technical team from the World Bank visited the Reliance Textiles' Manufacturing unit. This unit has the rare distinction of being certified as "excellent even by developed country standards" during that period.
Death
Dhirubhai Ambani was admitted to the Breach Candy Hospital in Mumbai on June 24, 2002 after he suffered a major "brain stroke". This was his second stroke, the first one had occurred in February 1986 and had kept his right hand paralyzed. He was in a state of coma for more than a week. A battery of doctors were unable to save his life. He breathed his last on July 6, 2002, at around 11:50 P.M. (Indian Standard Time).His funeral procession was not only attended by business people, politicians and celebrities but also by thousands of ordinary people. His elder son, Mukesh Ambani, performed the last rites as per Hindu traditions. He was cremated at the Chandanwadi Crematorium in Mumbai at around 4:30 PM (Indian Standard Time) on July 7, 2002.He is survived by Kokilaben Ambani, his wife, two sons, Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani, and two daughters, Nina Kothari and Deepti Salgaocar.Dhirubhai Ambani started his long journey in Bombay from the Mulji-Jetha Textile Market, where he started as a small-trader. As a mark of respect to this great businessman, The Mumbai Textile Merchants' decided to keep the market closed on July 8, 2002. At the time of Dhirubhai's death, Reliance Group had a gross turnover of Rs. 75,000 Crore or USD $ 15 Billion. In 1976-77, the Reliance group had an annual turnover of Rs 70 crore and Dhirubhai had started the business with Rs.15,000.