Early life

Dhirubhai Ambani was born on 28 December 1932, at Chorwad, Junagadh in the now state of Gujarat, India. He 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, Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani, and two daughters, Nina Kothari and Deepti. He also worked in Aden, Yemen. for some time during his early years. A short Biography of Dhirubhai Ambani is available on Reliance Communications Ltd.

Reliance Commercial Corporation

Ten years later, 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 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. ^[1]

During this period, Dhirubhai and his family used to stay in one bedroom apartment at the Jaihind Estate in Bhuleshwar. Mumbai^[2].In 1968, he moved to an upmarket apartment at Altamount Road in South Mumbai.

””Bold text’==Reliance Textiles== Sensing a good opportunity in the textile business, Dhirubhai started his first textile mill at Naroda, in Ahmedabad in the year 1966. Textiles were manufactured using polyester fibre yarn.^[3] 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. ^[4]

More on : Wikipedia

I am thinking of posting about an entrepreneur every week.

What say guys, can you people help.

I am starting of with our very own DHIRUBHAI

MTHR Global along with the Atharva Society organized a program on Entrepreneurship Skills building and SIESCOMS students of the Entrepreneurship Club were invited there.

The seminar was conducted in Hotel Sea Princess in Mumbai on 11^th August 2007. 

Mumbai based More Than HR Global (MTHR Global) is a non profit body rapidly growing HRD movement in Mumbai.It is powered by a group of 5 young HR Professionals loaded with over 45 years experience of Old and New Economy Industries who are armed with a passion for people and innovative ideas for HRD and management.Being a non-profit organization, MTHR Global neither charges anything from participant nor from sponsors. They provide knowledge sharing platform to both community as well as speakers. 

This seminar was one such initiative my MTHR Global. The theme of the Seminar was“Nurturing Geniuses: Lessons in Entrepreneurship“.

An “entrepreneur” first defined by the Irish economist Richard Cantillon is a term for a person who undertakes and operates a new enterprise or venture and assumes accountability for the inherent risks.

India today is going through a transition process from being a Developing nation to a Developed nation and in this process the most important role is of an entrepreneur.Any country for that matter has developed only by building up enterprises which not only creates wealth but also employment.To address the opportunities and clear the myths this seminar was channeled. 

The program started off with a small statement made by Mr. Rajesh Kamath former HR Head, Pune Division, Cerebrus Consultants and the founder member of MTHR Global. “Today in India, much more than at any other time, everyone either wants to either be an entrepreneur or else create a team of entrepreneurs. Here’s a brilliant opportunity to understand these and discover what makes up an entrepreneur: A desire to achieve;  Desire to work for themselves; Nurturing quality; Acceptance of responsibility; Risk – Reward orientation; Diehard Optimism; Orientation to excellence; Passion to follow dreams – some of India’s finest will enlighten you, inspire you, enliven you!” 

Then came the lightning of the divine lamp by the Keynote speaker “Suhas Gopinath, President, Globals Inc”.

The actual program started with Mr.Suhas Gopinath giving a small speech on the Topic “Entrepreneurship is an Attitude” were he shared his own experience about how he started his enterprise.

For those who don’t know Mr.Suhas Gopinath a small biography.

Suhas Gopinath was born in Bangalore, India. His father, M R Gopinath was a defense scientist, and his mother’s name is Kala Gopinath. He originally wanted to be a veterinarian, but he was fascinated by the cyber world and launched a website called CoolHindustan.com at a young age.Network Solutions invited him to their headquarters and even asked him to maintain their web site, but he declined as he was not interested in serving a US company.In 2000, at the age of 14 years, Suhas Gopinath founded Globals Inc in San Jose, California, US, as the laws in India did not allow a minor to set up a company. He has been often termed as the world’s youngest CEO in the media.At the age of 17 he was recognized as the “World’s Youngest CEO” by leading Medias across the globe including BBC,CBS News, Washington Times, Indian Express, Streats-Singapore, Times of India, NDTV, The Age – Australia, etc. His team has grown from a mere 4 members to a staggering 600.As of 2007, Globals Inc have served more than 200 clients worldwide, with offices in more than 11 countries USA, UK,Germany, Russia, Italy, Spain, Australia, India, Bangladesh, etc which offers tailor made solutions in the fields of web, mobile, networking, e-commerce and software solutions.

He talked about the problems he faced to start his enterprise and how with his attitude he overcame those challenges. After his speech we had a networking break where we were able to interact with many HR professionals and Entrepreneurs.

click below

see it on multiply

So the first person to get invited was ofcourse, our director Dr. Snegupta.

Dr Sengupta’s speech: Sir’s speech was quite motivating. He himself is a true entrepreneur taking SIESCOMS to new hieghts. Entrepreneurship can be in any field can be really demonstrated by sir. And he truly believes in entrepreneurship. He has this vision of “not bieng emplotyed but employing people“.

He gave all sorts of logic as to why a entrepreneur plays a very important role in bringing a country ahead. Then he told how technology helps to bring the whole innovation into its place. He made a very important point of which I myself had a misconception. He told that its not that technology facilitates an idea to become a success. But its the idea that takes the advantage of the technology. For this he gave an analogy of Silicon Valley. He explained how entrepreneurs created Silicon Valley and not the Technology created it.

The next person to speak was Sunita Singh:

Sunita Singh’s Speech : She basically had a brainstorming session. She took inputs from the audience of what can be the possible problems. She basically took from us the main definition on entrepreneurship. Then she briefed us about Wadhwani Foundation. The guys who are behind NEN and who are funding various upcoming entrepreneurs around the world. NEN stands for National Entrepreneurs Network. It is a network of entrepreneurs as the name suggests. They educate people on entreprenurship. How to go about forming an idea? Hoe to make aproposal etc…

For more information on NEN visit the link: www.nenonline.org

Then came our very own Subramanium Sir :

Subramanium’s Speech : Sir himself is quite youthfull on this whole project or club. He terms himself as the mentor for the club. He is always in a tie, which is not dress code by the college. But on this day he uncovered the reason behind it. He says that he is surrounded by the future entrepreneurs of the country and hence he feels that he should always be in up to date formals.

He gave us a simple example of the paper cutter. How innovative is the idea of having a slit in the cutter so that we can cut out the used part of the blade. Which makes a blade from a blade. With such example he motivated us that an idea is never small or stupid, b ut we have to believe in it and follow our instincts to make it a grand success

Well one thing i personally felt is entrepreneur quality can not only be used for our own business or starting one, but it can also be utilized in an organization for which we work.

Also there is a myth that entrepreneurship acumen cannot be cultivated, but rather it can be taught.

Then the event moved forward with reciting the holly shloka of

“ASAT TO MA SAT GAMAYA

TAMASA JYOTIR GAMAYA

MRUTYOMA AMRUTAM GAMAYA

Ohm Shanti Shanti Shanti ” which was sung by Shubdha and everyone of us.

Shubda Barikh

Then it moved on with Shubda giving some basic talks on Entrepreneurship. What is the definition and all. Well i like to mention a line she mentioned is that “ITS NOT TO DO DIFFERENT DIFFERENT THINGS” but it is “TO DO SAME THINGS DIFFERENTLY”

So we have this common thing with whom so ever tell about Entrepreneurship, be it SOCIAL Entrepreneurship that is :

VISION, MISSION, and INNOVATION.

Then shubdha handed the dais to Chirag.

Chirag Shah

He invited each and every speaker and helped in inaugurating the Club. Also we presented Sunita with a token of love.

Token of Love

Inauguration of Club

P.S : Click on the Links

We had two comparers for the event Shubdha Barikh and Chirag Shah.

The event started with Lighting the Auspicious LAMP in that order

1 – Sunita Singh

2 – Dr. Sengupta

3 – prof. Subramanium

And on Friday finally after a long wait it got inaugurated.The Club also announced its collaboration with NEN.

The program started with Lighting of Lamp and invocation and then with a power punched Speech from Dr.Sengupta.

So what is this NEN…?

The National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN) is a network of academic institutions across India performing research and developing and delivering world-class education, skill-building programs, networking activities and company-starting assistance to new, high-growth entrepreneurs.

How did NEN start ?

NEN was launched in 2003 through an India-wide selection process to select the Founding Partner Institutions to anchor this network. The five NEN Partners are: NEN Advisors who selected the Founding NEN Partners are:

Birla Institute of Technology and Science – Pilani

Indian Institute of Technology – Mumbai

Indian Institute of Management – Ahmedabad

Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology – Bangalore

S P Jain Institute of Management and Research – Mumbai.

NEN Advisors who selected the Founding NEN Partners are:

Ms. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Mr. Jerry Rao, Ms. Naina Lal Kidwai, Mr. Sunil Mittal, Mr. Harsh Mariwala, Prof. Howard Stevenson and Romesh Wadhwani.

What is ultimate goal of NEN ?

To launch 2,500 entrepreneurs who will create a minimum of 500,000 jobs by 2014. This will create as much value for the Indian economy over the next 10 years as the IT industry has over the past 15.

So what role is NEN going to play in the club…?

NEN along with the advisor board and the core faculty of SIESCOMS… (Includes SenGupta Sir and Subramaniam Sir) will design a course structure which helps the students with ideas and passion to become an entrepreneur. Not only the course structure, it will also help students to draft the business Proposal, to approach Venture Capitalists, to participate in various business plan competitions etc. OK…Back to the inauguration…after the speech by the Dean… the Chief Guest “Sunita Singh” from NEN released the official logo of “SIESCOMS ENTREPRENEURSHIP CLUB”. Then we had a tête-à-tête with her.. were she explained how NEN is going to help the students of SIESCOMS…and the method by which it is currently done.

STRATEGY…

In her words “NEN will inspire thousands of talented individuals to choose entrepreneurship, and equip them to build companies that are more successful, on a larger scale, creating 100,000’s of new jobs. A crucial part of NEN is the network. Linking institutions in a formal network allows for a whole much larger than the sum of the parts. Every participating institution will be able to leverage the resources created by other NEN partners, allowing for enhanced offerings. Participation in joint activities creates opportunities for larger networks, and continued sharing of ideas. The NEN interaction will significantly enhance the effectiveness, quality, scale and reach of each individual participant in the network. Research performed by NEN partners will increase our understanding of the needs, contributions and characteristics of entrepreneurs and their ventures. This in turn will allow for the development of ever-more effective world-class offerings tailored for emerging markets. NEN Partners and NEN Affiliates will offer courses, course content and cases, experiential learning opportunities such as internship, networking events, mentorship programs, and company starting assistance including incubation. And I am looking forward for more entrepreneurs from SIESCOMS.”

She also helped us to understand the difference between an Idea and a viable Idea and how NEN and SIESCOMS help in creating successful businesses of Ideas.

And then the program ended with Subbu sir telling us tales about successful Entrepreneurs… (Steve Jobs, Larry Page, Narayan Murthy etc..) . And why he respected all the members in the club. Because he believed he was in midst of Indian Bill Gates…

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!