Dhirubhai Ambani

 

&

 

Reliance

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

- A Leadership Project done by Parashmoni Chandra

Table of Contents

 

Part 1

 

Introduction

 

Childhood

 

Trader to Tycoon (early business)

 

Post Independence Business Scenario and Difficulties

 

Difficult Licensing Regime

 

Raising Capital

 

Competing with established Players

 

The Reliance Spread

 

Some Major Plants

 

 

 

Part 2

 

Leadership Analysis

 

Designing Organizations

 

Conclusion

Part 1

 

Introduction

 

Whatever progress humanity has made has been due to the effort of leaders whose visionary efforts and innovations have changed the way people live and see the world. There have been leaders in all fields such as Napoleon, Leonardo da Vinci, Einstein to name but a few. Similarly, we observe that leaders are behind the growth of successful organizations. In ancient times Alexander built an army that nearly conquered the whole world and in modern times Bill Gates has built a software company that has nearly conquered the whole world with its software products. What seem to shape organizations are the leadership qualities of the leaders concerned.

 

As a student of organizations the whole challenge is to assess a leader’s leadership qualities to understand what impact he has had on his organization. In Pravir Malik’s class (Course: Flowering of Organization) we have done this in six ways, namely, Signature, Play of Signature, Fractal Thought, Mastery, Openness to Intuition, and World Impact. I will explain these terms in the section entitled ‘Leadership Analysis’.

 

In the First Part I have explored Dhirubhai Ambani’s life and work to give a broad idea about the leader. In building Reliance he faced three major hurdles. First, there was a difficult licensing regime to negotiate with to start new business ventures. Next, he had to compete with established players who had monopolized the markets and lastly, he had to raise capital in innovative ways to avoid taking loans from banks which taxed high interest rates in his days. In the Second Part I use the material I have covered in the First Part to analyze the leadership qualities of this leader.  Finally, I build an organization centered on my leader’s leadership qualities.   

 

Childhood

 

Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani was born on December 28th, 1932, in the remote village of Chorward in the Saurashtra region of Gujarat. His father was a lowly paid school teacher in Chorwad. He remembers of his childhood, ‘I, as a school kid was a member of the Civil Guard, something like today’s NCC. We had to salute our officers who went round in jeeps. So I thought . . . one day I will also ride in a jeep and somebody else will salute me.’[1]

 

Ambition shone in the eyes of Ambani right from his childhood. In 1949, at the age of 17, along with his brother Ramniklak Ambani, he set out for Aden in the Middle East, for better business opportunities. He worked in a Shell pump where he filled gas for a measly salary of three hundred Rupees. But quickly, he made an impression amongst his colleagues for being courageous and clever. Dhirubhai wouldn’t let any lucrative opportunities slip by. A story that may be apocryphal runs as follows. During the 1950s the Yemeni administration discovered that the main unit of its currency, the Rial, was disappearing from the market. The administration traced the shortage to Aden, a port in Yemen and found to its surprise that a young Indian in his twenties had placed an unlimited buy order for Rials which are solid silver coins. What this young man did was to simply buy Rials, melt them into silver ingots and sell them to bullion dealers in London. This was a profitable venture as the silver in the Rial was valued higher by bullion dealers in London. The name of the young man? Dhirubhai Ambani.[2]

 

Trader to Tycoon (early business)

 

In 1958 Dhirubhai returned to Mumbai a determined young man and started trading in spices such as ginger and turmeric. A firm, Reliance Commercial Cooperation, was simultaneously floated with a capital of fifteen thousand Rupees. He also moved with his family to a one-room flat in Bhuleshwar Chawl in Mumbai.[3]

 

In 1959, Dhirubhai switched his trading business from spices to yarn in an office barely having table space in the Masjid Bunder area of Mumbai. The staff consisted to a total of two members, out of which one was Dhirubhai himself. Dhirubhai was a man who learnt far more than others just by plying his trade. There are many examples. He was able to recognize the quality and weight of yarn just by the sound of its twang when he held it to his ear. He also had a knack for recognizing the best technology in whatever sectors he chose to invest in. And later, though he didn’t consider himself to be a politician he could supposedly make or break governments across the country. There are also stories of ruthlessness, when it came to bending the rules for beating his rivals.

 

As he started out his business in yarn he had certain innate qualities that helped him to expand his business into the large empire it became. He had an acute mind, a sense of the others around him, a degree of cunning, an element of ruthlessness and loads of practical sense.[4] Dhirubhai earned handsomely in the yarn business but needless to say he wasn’t satisfied with remaining an ordinary trader. So he purchased a big chunk of barren land at a far away place in Naroda near Ahmedabad. He was ridiculed for buying this barren piece of land and made fun of. But Dhirubhai proved that he had great vision and foresight. He constructed a mill there to become a mill owner. In time he expanded that same textile unit into India’s most modern textile mill. This was a period when the Indian government faced a massive foreign exchange crisis and this provided Ambani’s company an opportunity to export in a big way as the government offered incentives to encourage export, in return of the foreign exchange that it badly needed.

 

Ambani took advantage by exporting to Russia, Poland, Zambia, and Uganda. Dhirubhai’s first recognition came amongst the people when a team from the World Bank visited many textile mills of the country and declared the Reliance textile mills to be excellent even by developed country standards.[5]

 

So this is how Ambani started his business and grew rapidly. Before I move onto this almost mind blowing growth into different industry sectors it is important at this point to understand the post-independence business scenario of the country. What were the problems he faced from other companies? What restrictions he faced from the government, India being more of a socialist than a capitalist country then? What was the psychology of the people then? Let’s see these problems and what strategy Dhirubhai used to overcome these difficulties.

 

Post-Independence Business Scenario

 

After the independence in 50s, 60s and 70s, there were a few big business houses such as Tata, Birla and Mafatlal. These few large companies, probably encouraged by the existing socialistic regime of the time, had grown tremendously and had monopolized the industrial markets of India. They also had substantial influence over the banking industry, primarily because existing banks had in many cases been nationalized, often even from them.  Because of their size and wealth they had superior organizational features and diversified structures. For example Tata was manufacturing products as diverse as steel, lorries, buses and salt. They virtually dominated all manufacturing fields. And importantly, because of their influence they and other business houses of similar stature were either encouraged to or able to maneuver the regulatory system, especially the licensing system, in their favour.

 

They had good track records and were financially strong and therefore attracted credible foreign partners. They accessed information from within the secretive portals of the state. By these means they expanded and made huge profits. As India was a protected economy they didn’t face competition from outside and made large profits in spite of the often poor technologies and functions they used. Competition from within would mean cutting profit margins to be competitive, therefore they could resort to restrictive tactics. The licensing system in theory was meant to curb monopoly, and prevent excessive regional concentration but it failed to realize these very goals.

 

So if Ambani had to grow it would have to be in spheres outside the operation of traditionally monopolized markets of the large and wealthy companies. Dhirubhai chose the synthetic fiber trade. He bought the synthetic fibers and distributed them to the vast number of composite mills and burgeoning powerlooms producers. As there was high protection in that market he was able to get adequate profit margins to accumulate a decent amount of cash. This surplus helped him to become a mill owner from being an ordinary trader. This progress seemed to many, to be a natural transition. But there were difficult prerequisites that had to be met before the transition was made.

 

  • First, Dhirubhai had to break through the tight licensing regime that was in place.

 

  • Second, he needed the necessary credit to be able raise capital for expansion through new investments.

 

  • And third, he needed to survive the competition in the markets of the already established players who had deep pockets to draw from. Further, if Reliance was to grow and become the empire it is today he had to replicate his strategy without being marooned by wrong decisions and damaging investments.

 

Breaking Through the Licensing Regime

 

What Dhirubhai did was to keep costs at the minimum. He invested in large plants so that the high levels of production would keep the costs at a minimum. While he did this, his circumstances helped him too. The licensing regime was losing credibility because it was disrespecting the very objectives it was created to fulfill. It did not encourage new players and therefore could not curb monopoly. It was in this scenario that Dhirubhai used one of his exceptional talents. He had a rare ability to get those people who controlled the external environment in his favor. He had a clear aim and it was as if he moved the bureaucratic and political classes like puppets to achieve it. He knew which strings to pull to get his job done. This ability to manipulate powerful people in his favor not only got him many benefits but also earned him a certain degree of notoriety.[6] But why did Dhirubhai manipulate people in his favor? It was because he came across vexatious government policies that threatened to mar his business goals. So he simply redefined the boundaries of business by including government relationship as a part and parcel of his business paradigm and strategy.[7] He justifies, ‘the most important external environment is the government of India. All we have to is to break the shackles that chain the energies of our people, and India’s economy will record a quantum leap and move into a new, higher orbit of growth, competitiveness and productivity.’[8]  Let us see the consequence of this redefined business boundary.

 

Dhirubhai became important to every prime minister since Indira Gandhi. During Indira Gandhi’s ‘second reign’ he was able to make giant leaps in vertical integration by setting up the famous Patalganga Mega plant by beating high profile license seekers such as the Tatas, Birlas, Garwals and Mafatlals. How did he achieve this? Dhirubhai hosted a grand and lavish party at the hotel Ashok to celebrate Indira Gandhi’s 1980 election victory. And of course it is not under record how much he contributed to her election campaign. He was able to boost growth by this savvy ‘environment management’. But this invited more and more opposition. Dhirubhai met these challenges with deft punches of a shrude boxer. During Rajiv Gandhi’s reign, the then finance minister V.P. Singh attempted to stall the Reliance gadi (train) by imposing restrictions on the imports of their chief raw material. V.P. Singh also encouraged Nusli Wadia of Bombay Dyeing to launch a media campaign against Ambani. Dhirubhai joined the battle in late 1986 after his first cerebral attack. He used old friend Amitabh Bachchan (legendary Indian film star) to renew ties with Rajiv and pulled the strings from under V.P. Singh’s nose. The finance minister was Rajiv Gandhi’s buddy but soon turned into a suspect and then a sworn enemy. But V.P. Singh became prime minister in 1989 and turned the heat again on Reliance. This time Ambani’s deft hand was in evidence within a year when the BJP, V.P. Singh’s allies, turned hostile and withdrew support and his government fell.[9] So Dhirubhai was able to get the regulatory regime in his favour but there was another thing he needed to do to grow his business.

 

Raising Capital for Expansion

 

He needed capital - that is crores of Rupees to construct new plants and factories. As I have mentioned already, the Tatas and Birlas raised cash by taking loans from banks they had tremendous influence over. But this method was inefficient because the banks can only loan money the people save in them. So the companies indirectly paid double interest to pay back the loans. It was the people’s money that was indirectly got through the bank anyway. What if this middle player could be eliminated and cash be directly raised from the people? Dhirubhai first executed this idea and became known as the father of India’s equity culture. He revolutionized India’s capital markets and thereby ended the dominance of bank financing in big businesses. He was the first to appreciate the potential of the equity market. He conceived that India’s millions of small savers could finance his ambitions.[10] In 1977 Reliance Industries Limited went public and this was definitely a turning point in the company’s history. It was one of the largest public offering of the times. Dhirubhai wooed the masses by promising that he would create a khazana, that is, a treasure, for all his shareholders. The result was that he mobilized 58000 investors most of whom were from the middle class. Many of these investors were investing for the first time in spite of warnings given out to them by merchant bankers that they should keep off the issue. [11]

 

Reliance offered shares for Rs10 each. But there was so much expectation from Reliance and Ambani that the shares opened at the price of Rs 23, more than double the price. This reflects the premium that Reliance was in a position to command. To fuel his breakneck growth and expansion into various industry sectors Dhirubhai offered many public issues successfully.[12] Today Reliance has approximately 3.5 million shareholders making Reliance the largest private company in India. The annual shareholders’ meeting had to be held in football fields to accommodate the growing middle class. But Dhirubhai Ambani’s persuasive powers were not limited to India alone. He was one of the first to enter the American and the English share markets and has made much name for himself there too. He has demonstrated that he is world-class businessman. Unlike other companies, Reliance paid high dividends and bonuses to their shareholders, which made Ambani a hero to them. The early shareholders from that era have enjoyed an incredible compounded interest rate 43%.[13]

 

He says, ‘Logon kalyan, unko khush rakho (welfare of the people, keep them happy.)[14] “Does money making excite you?” No, but I have to make money for my shareholders. What excites me is achievement, doing something difficult.’[15]

 

Sound Manufacturing Strategy to Stay Ahead

 

What was Dhirubhai’s strategy in the manufacturing field? And what did he do with all the money he had managed to raise form the people?

 

His competitors had uneconomic plants with very small production capacity. To beat them, he built plants of massive capacities. This was risky. But Ambani set up world-class facilities and acquired the best practical technology to achieve his goals. He collaborated with Du Pont and Shell to make a number of world-class plants to compete successfully internationally. One of the strategies he implemented was vertical integration. He acquired ownership of his supply chain, to reduce supplier power and thus reduced input costs. So from a yarn trader he became a textile manufacturer. He then progressed to manufacturing petrochemical and progressed further to constructing plants that had the capacity for fractional distillation. And then he took the final step by investing in oil exploration and extraction to complete a full integration of his supply chain.[16]

 

The Reliance Spread (as of March 2002)[17]

 

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) is today India’s largest private company in terms of sales {Rs 65,000 crore), assets (Rs 60,000 crore) and profits (Rs 4,600) crore}, becoming the first Indian private company in the Global Fortune 500 list.

 

No adjectives are needed to describe Reliance, as it exists today. The figures are jaw dropping.

 

RIL has a net worth of Rs 5.5 billion which is almost 3% of India’s gross domestic produce. The empire has a workforce close to 1 lakh people. Reliance has an extensive marketing network consisting of more than 500 distributors, 2,500 showrooms, and 34,000 retail outlets and these figures are increasing.

 

A DECADE OF BLAZING GROWTH (in crores)

1990-91           2001-02

Total Revenues                         2,112               65,000

Net Profit                                 130                  4,604

Cash Profit                               305                  7,224

Total Assets                             2,778               60,768

Market Capital                         1,881               45,845

 

Petrochemicals

Reliance is a world major in polyester fiber and polyester filament yarn. It is the countries largest polymers producer with a market share of 52 per cent.

 

Oil and Gas

Joint ventures produce crude oil and natural gas in Panna, Mukta and Tapti fields. Awarded exploration blocks. Bidding for more.

 

Reliance Petroleum

RPL is the world’s largest grassroots refinery with a capacity of 27 million tonnes at Jamnagar in Gujarat. RPL has a 10 per cent stake in Petronet India Limited, set up for the creation of pipelines all over India. Will hold 26 per cent in the Central India Pipeline project, which envisages a 1,615 km pipeline.

 

 

Financial Services

RIL holds 47 per cent stake in Reliance Capital Ltd (RCL), a BNFC with a net worth of over Rs 2,000 crore (US$ 429 million). RCL is engaged in project financing, corporate and institutional lending, asset management, stock broking, stock lending and depository services.

 

Power

Power projects with aggregate capacity of over 6,000 MW are being actively pursued; Reliance Power, jointly with Mirant Asia Pacific Ltd, is developing a 3,960 MW coal-based power project at Hirma, Orissa. A power purchase agreement has already been signed for the 447 MW Patalganga power project, while capacity for another 500 MW is being created at Jamnagar. Elsewhere, a purchase agreement for the 500 MW Jayamkondam project in Tamil Nadu has been approved. Meanwhile, it continues to be the single largest shareholder in BSES Ltd, a major private utility in Mumbai.

 

Reliance Infotech/Telecom

RIL has a 26 per cent equity holding in Reliance Telecom, which provides cellular services to over 3,65,000 subscribers in 15 states. RIL has a 45 per cent stake in the 100 per cent subsidiary. The Reliance Group is planning to invest more than Rs. 25,000 crore for building a broadband, IT backbone, connecting India’s top 115 cities with 60,000 route kilometers of fiber and with terabits addressing the entire telecom market in India with a national footprint, and a presence in fixed line, mobile, national long distance, and international long distance telephony, as well as a full bouquet of data, image and value added services.

 

Some Major Plants

 

Hazira plant - Surat, Gujarat[18]

The Reliance Industries Hazira plant is situated near Surat in Gujarat. Its total area is around 1000 acres near the banks of the river Tapi. It manufactures a wide range of polymers, polyesters, fiber intermediaries and petrochemicals. In fact Hazira complex was one of the most treasured projects of Reliance. It is the largest single-feed ethylene cracker in the world. It is the biggest chemical complex in the world. But Reliance faced many difficulties such as erratic water supplies. To overcome all this Ambani created his own facilities. He built jetties and docking facilities, five kilometers off the coast, for large tankers to unload directly into storage tanks. He also ensured that it was self sufficient in power.

 

Jamnagar Plant - Gujarat[19]

Jamnagar plant is the largest grass root refinery in the world with a capacity of 27 million tones per year.

 

The entire project includes besides the refinery India’s largest port terminal, a fully automated railroad loading and product dispatch facility, 500 MW power plant, a sea water desalination plant, 1000 Giga byte IT network connecting 50 servers and 2500 terminals with 200 km long optic fiber cable.

 

The whole plant combined with a township for the employees sprawl over 7,500 acres, which is around half the area of a large town in any country.

 

The total investment made in the Jamnagar plant was Rs 25,000 Crores or $6 billion dollars. It was created in record time, in less than 3 years. But it was a project of gigantic proportions. It took for its completion millions of engineering hours spread over many international engineering offices, hundreds of thousands of tones of equipment and material procured from leading suppliers in the world workforce of over 75000 workers working round the clock for months. Many innovative techniques were required of project execution and management.

 

Patalganga - Maharashtra[20]

This plant produces power. It is situated 80 kms from Mumbai on the banks of the river Patalganga. This place was barren punctuated with stones and bramble. Dhirubhai converted the area of 200 acres into a 500 MW power plant within a short span of a few months.

 

*  *  *

Part 2

 

Leadership Analysis

               

Organisations are not mechanical things. They are living entities like human beings. It is leaders who are instrumental in defining the unique nature and success of their organizations because organizations grow around developed personalities. In other words the organization is an extension of the leader’s personality. They are created and nurtured by the leader’s leadership qualities. Therefore those qualities are reflected in the structure and design of the organisation. Very simply put, the leader’s strengths become the organization’s strengths and the leader’s weaknesses become the organization’s weaknesses. The future of the company is dependent on the leader’s survival capacity to adapt to new world realities. Having said that organisations are psychological entities that reflect the leader’s psychology I will now analyse this leader’s qualities in six categories. They are: Mastery, Intuition, Fractal Thought, Signature, Play of Signature and World Impact. I will explain these terms as I analyse them.

 

1. Signature

 

The signature defines the innate nature and raison d’etre of an organisation. It gives it its  identity. The orientation of the organisation is given by it too, whether to serve (i.e. medical organisation), or innovate (technology company), or grow (supermarket chain). There are four components in a signature: Maheshwari (knowledge component), Mahakali (power or dynamic force component), Mahalaxmi (harmony/mutuality component) and Mahasaraswati (service and perfection component). Each of the forces is embodied to particular degree in all organisations. The strongest force in the signature will define the organisation more predominantly.

 

The primary component in Amabani’s is Mahalaxmi (Harmony/Murtuality) because his predominant motivation was to grow and enlarge his business empire. This created larger financial and work flows in the company and as well in the country. The second component may be Mahakali as he was ruthless in executing his growth plans. He didn’t hesitate to eleminate smaller competitors to fulfill his plans. The third component is Maheshwari because Amabani had knack for understanding the market. He had a large vision that saw the long term benefits for his company and the country. The last one is Mahasaraswati. This is not a weak component because Amabani had a sense of service in all his work. He beleived in his work benefitting the people of the nation. He was also concerned with nation building by getting the right kind of infrastructure in place.

 

2. Play of Signature

 

An organisation’s signature is inherent in it but its flowering can very at different degrees. The signature may be restricted to the material or vital/financial levels or it may assume a more complete flowering at the conceptal level where the organisation is consciously fulfulling its signaure.

 

Ambani’s signature played at the vital/financial and material levels to create new markets and growth patterns and financial wealth. The orientation was towards quick growth and market domination.

 

 

3. Mastery

 

Three vertical levels of all organisations and individuals are the material, vital/financial and conceptual. The material level consists of the material resources of the organisation. The vital/financial level consists of financial matters and financial flows of the comapany. This level also deals with the psychological aspect of men. A leader requires the ability to effectively deal with people in order to get his work done. Lastly the conceptual level deals with the conceptual drive and motivation of the organisation. In today’s complex world, a company needs concepts as driving forces otherwise they are in the danger of blindly directing themselves to eventual bankruptcy.  To be successful, an organisation requires mastery (to a lesser or greater extent) over these three levels.

 

MATERIAL MASTERY

Ambani had mastery at the material realm that enabled him to successfully build world-class plants in diffcult industry sectors.  He also had a capacity to care for details.

 

VITAL/FINANCIAL MASTERY

He had a strong financial mastery that looked to incorporate new methods of financing to beat rival companies. He used the money very efficiently to fuel a break-neck growth in different sectors.

 

There is an energy and a vital drive to expand coupled with the practical intelligence to influence people to help the expansion process.

 

CONCEPTUAL MASTERY

The faculty of practical understanding of the market and all that consists of the external environment.  The power of practical reasoning and analysis is strong but conceptual mastery is somewhat limited, at the most borrowed.

 

4. Intuition

 

Even though we may not be aware of it, there appears to be a conscious design in the world’s progress and evolution. For example the agricultural revolution was followed by the industrial revolution which was in turn succeeded by the digital revolution. If an organisaiton or an individual wants to connect to this conscious design, that is shaping the world without our knowledge, he must be receptive to a higher intelligence. We say he must receptive to intuition. There have been ample hints (by the crucial choices he has made at various times such as oil exploration) that Dhirubhai received intuition that arranged his activity at the physical and vital/financial levels, but was restricted in the mental level.

 

5. Fractal Thought

 

Individuals are complex entities. A higherarchy of levels exist in them simultaneoiusly: the physical, the vital and mental. The physical level consists of the body, the vital level of the energy and life-force, and the mental level of the the intelligence and the concepts. This pattern at the indivudual level is reflected at the organisational level too. For the organisations the physical level translates into the material level. The vital level into the financial level, and the mental level into conceptual level. Organisations are complex entities but this fractal pattern which repeats from the lowest to the highest levels, can be used to effectively manoeuver through the organisation in order to manifest its as yet hidden potential. An organisation stuck at the physical level resists change. It is quite content to prolong the past inspite of its rapidly changing environment. At the vital level, a strong desire to expand and increase its financial success is usually the case. At the mental level, the driving force becomes concepts. Often an urge to positively contribute to humanity takes over the organisation. It tries to fulfill this goal by attempting to bring its chosen concept to reality. If an organisaiton is to continually redefine itself in order to survive in the rapidly changing world, its leader must attemp to complete this fractal journey.

 

To my perception Ambani wasn’t aware of the fractal thought. But the success that he enjoyed by the end of his life in creating such a large and organic company as Reliance, meant that not only did he understand the working of markets and other political and economic forces but was also able to maneuver through them to attain his objectives. Gradually he began to acquire a larger vision of things, such as the future of India and its possibilities in the 21st century

 

6. World Impact

 

Ambani’s growth to a tycoon had tremendous impact on the Indian markets. It created a mini - industrial revolution in the country. New ways of financining were incorporated by companies after Ambani’s success in the stock market. There was an infrastructure boom in the industries he entered and dominated. The country also experienced an economic progress on different fronts. Ambani helped to resource human potential and make breakthroughs He showed the Indian people what miracles an ordinary man can achieve. He inspired his country men.

 

 

10. Designing organisations  

 

Keeping in mind the fundamental concept that a leader’s personality shapes his organisation, I will now attempt to design a company based on Ambani’s leadership qualities. Most companies are made up of departments. However, some departments may assume central importance. In the case of a drug company, the research and development department may be that one. Three things have to be attended to when creating an organization: the vision, the design, and the day to day running.

 

The vision will define the organisation’s broad orientation therefore it flows out of the signature and on the level it was allowed to flower at. As Ambani’s signature, with Mahalaxmi as its main component with its fullness at the vital realm, growth and financial success have to be incorporated into the vision.

 

Vision

 

We are going to become the largest company in the market in terms of revenue and market share.

 

Design

 

The personality’s signature will determine the company’s design. Therefore the department that embodies the mahashakti that is strongest in the personality’s signature, will be central to the design. All others departments will acts as aids to enhance that central department. Day to day running is important for the company. But the vision of the company requires, successful expansion to be more pressing to the company’s raison d’etre. The day to day running consolidates the growth and development of the company.

 

Because growth has to be given its due importance, I have split the departments of the company into two groups: 1. Growth & 2. Day to day running.

 

The first group (Growth related depts.) consists of R&D, STRATEGY and MARKETING, taking cars of the company’s expansion. The second group (Day to Day Running related depts.) which consists of OPERATION, HRD, ACCOUNTS, IT and R&D takes care of the day to day running.

 

Mahalaxmi (Harmony/Mutuality) is the principal Mahashakti in this leader’s signature, therefore Marketing which embodies it, assumes the central role in the Growth related departments. The action of this group starts from R&D which embodies knowledge (Maheshwari). After sufficient research has been done on the market and customers by the department, the information is passed to the STRATEGY department which embodies Power (Mahakali) aided by Knowledge. This department processes the information to build an effective strategy. The strategy then is implemented by the MARKETING department, which embodies Harmony/Mutuality (Mahalaxmi) but  is importantly aided by Knowledge and Power.

 

The Marketing department (Harmony/Mutuality aided by Knowledge and Power) maneuvers itself in the external environment to market and advertise the company’s products. It also strikes deals with other firms, so that the company affairs expand quickly.

 

Amongst day to day running departments Operations is the central one because it embodies Harmony/Mutuality. But it requires the backing of other departments embodying other Mahashaktis such as IT, R&D, Accounts etc.

 

Day to day running & Short term impact

 

The day to day running of the company is dependent on the personality’s Mastery and World Impact. Dhirubhai Ambani had sound mastery over the material and vital/financial levels and limited mastery at the conceptual level. Therefore each individual department reflects this broader mastery pattern.

 

The strength of the company lies in the mastery over material and vital/financial levels. Therefore, we can conclude that this capability allows new ideas to manifest at the vital/financial and material levels. Innovation and dynamism are the characteristics of the company at these levels. Conceptual innovation is limited but cannot be altogether ignored because innovation at the lower levels require practical ideals to manifest themselves. In other words  concepts don’t lead the company but they are used to fuel vital growth.

 

I have built  a broad framework for the company’s day to day running abilities and its short term influence which will translate themselves eventually to world impact or market impact.

 

Conclusion

 

So, if inviduals are to build organisations of excellence which have a positive world impact, they must introspect to find out who they really are. They must discover their raison d’etre (Signature), their talents and their strengths and let these flower in their organisation (Play of Signature). In their work they must develop Mastery at the three levels: material, financial/vital and conceptual, otherwise the organisation’s existence will be shortlived due to its weaknesses at some level.

 

They must constantly strive to move from a lower level of functioning to a higher level of fuctioning (Fractal Thought). From existing to just grow and make money, they must allow themselves to be driven by concepts. And finally they must remain open to a conscious design that seems to be shaping the world even if without our direct awareness (Openness to Intuition). If these dynamics were to be consciously fulfilled, then leaders would take their organisations towards permanence and meaningful progress (World Impact).

 

Dhirubhai Ambani was not an ideal leader because he did not fulfill these conditions perfectly. But we must understand that he was a product of his time. Due to his work India experienced a quantum leap in business growth. He seemed to be an instrument of the conscious design that brought about an equity culture and sound manufacturing techniques to India. He also inspired millions of his countrymen to follow after their dreams.

 

I end this presentation by a few inspiring quotes from Ambani[21],

 

·        “We can prove to the world that India can do it. That Indians are not afraid of competition. That India is a nation of achievers.”

  • "I dream India of becoming a great economic superpower."

·        "Pursue your goal, even in the face of difficulties. Convert difficulties into opportunities. Keep your morale high, in spite of setbacks. At the end you are bound to succeed."

·        My advice to young entrepreneurs and not to accept defeat in the face of odds, and challenge negative forces with hope, self-confidence and conviction. I believe that ambition and initiative will ultimately triumph. The success of the young entrepreneur will be the key to India's transformation in the new millennium."

  • "All we have to do is to break the shackles that chain the energies of our people, and India's economy will record a quantum leap and move into a new, higher orbit of growth, competitiveness and productivity."
  • "First and foremost, I owe my success and achievements to the affection, friendship and trust of millions of employees, customers, shareholders, and business associates, who have stood by me and been a major source of my strength all along."

The End


[9] Adapted from India Today magazine, issue March 8, 2002

[13] http://www.rediff.com/money/2002/jul/07amb11.htm

[17] Taken from India Today magazine, issue March 8, 2002

[18] Taken from: http://www.ril.com/eportal/VirtualPageView.jsp?page_id=595

[19] Taken from: http://www.ril.com/eportal/VirtualPageView.jsp?page_id=597&page_id=1260

[20] Taken from: http://www.ril.com/eportal/VirtualPageView.jsp?page_id=596