Self-made businessman Dhirubhai H Ambani started his first venture along with his second cousin Champaklal Damani in Mumbai. A few years later owing to differences between them, Ambani walked out and started his own venture—Reliance Industries, in 1966. A known risk-taker, he did the unthinkable, building polyster yarn inventory hoping to make quick money during price rise. As business boomed over the next decade, in 1977, Reliance went public at a time when the Indian stock market had just a few elite investors, dabbling in a handful of stocks.
Undaunted, he convinced a large number of first-time investors to participate in the unfolding Reliance story to put their hard-earned money, promising in exchange for their trust, a substantial return on investments. This led to a time when fathers unhesitatingly gave their daughters to young men in Gujarat who held Reliance shares. The business interests expanded from textiles to petrochemicals, oil exploration, retail, insurance and telecommunications. What started with a seed capital of just `14,000 in 1966 evolved as one of the country’s top five business houses.
After his demise in 2002, his sons Mukesh and Anil split the Reliance empire into two—Reliance Industries and Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group. But even after walking in different ways, both the groups have only witnessed success. The Reliance Industries has been on the Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s biggest corporations consecutively for a decade. The Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group has been exploring newer avenues and has been one of the market leaders in the telecom industry.