Reliance

As with all great pioneers, there is more than one unique way of describing the true genius of Dhirubhai: the corporate visionary, the unmatched strategist, the proud patriot, the leader of men, the architect of India’s capital markets, the champion of shareholder interest.

But the role Dhirubhai cherished most was perhaps that of India’s greatest wealth creator. In one lifetime, he built, starting from the proverbial scratch, India’s largest private sector enterprise.

Dhirubhai is widely regarded as the father of India’s capital markets. In 1977, when Reliance Textile Industries Limited first went public, the Indian stock market was a place patronised by a small club of elite investors which dabbled in a handful of stocks.

Undaunted, Dhirubhai managed to convince a large number of first-time retail investors to participate in the unfolding Reliance story and put their hard-earned money in the Reliance Textile IPO, promising them, in exchange for their trust, substantial return on their investments. It was to be the start of one of great stories of mutual respect and reciprocal gain in the Indian markets.

Under Dhirubhai’s extraordinary vision and leadership, Reliance scripted one of the greatest growth stories in corporate history anywhere in the world, and went on to become India’s largest private sector enterprise.

Through out this amazing journey, Dhirubhai always kept the interests of the ordinary shareholder uppermost in mind, in the process making millionaires out of many of the initial investors in the Reliance stock, and creating one of the world’s largest shareholder families.

Click here for a fuller biography of Dhirubhai H Ambani