Sunil Bharti Mittal and Entrepreneurship

August 22, 2011 27 Comments


wealthymatters.comDr.Sunil Bharti Mittal, Padma Bhushan ,was born in Ludhiana.He is a first generation entrepreneur. His father is the late Sat Pal Mittal MP.

Mittal’s first venture was making crankshafts for local bicycle manufacturers.He started in 1976 at the age of 18, with a capital investment of INR20,000 borrowed from his father.  Within three years he had set up two more plants, one that turned out yarn and the other stainless-steel sheets used for surgical utensils.

The initial days proved to be difficult and he earned very little from his businesses. But he kept at it.His businesses required him to travel a lot — sometimes, with very little in his wallet. In those days he travelled alongside his goods at the back of trucks. Travelling by air was out of the question — a train ticket was all he could afford. Hotels were out too — small hostels and clubs were what his budget allowed. He put in 16 to 18 hours each day, but his business just didn’t take off. So after mulling over other possibilities, he changed track. Read more of this post

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Li Ka-shing : Hardworking,Frugal & Steadfast

August 4, 2011


wealthymatters.comThe Honourable Li Ka-shing GBM, KBE, JP (nickname “Superman”) stands 11th in the Forbes List with an estimated wealth of US$26.0 billion.He is the wealthiest person of East Asian descent.

Li is a product of adversity.He sees himself as a gnarled tree firmly rooted among the rocks of a mountain slope.Whenever he has found himself beset by troubles he has found himself “upto”dealing”with it.He describes himself as hardworking, frugal, steadfast,willing to learn and build a credible name.These qualities have taken him very far indeed in life.Presently, he is the Chairman of Hutchison Whampoa Limited (HWL) and Cheung Kong Holdings; through them, he is the world’s largest operator of container terminals(including those in Hong Kong, Vancouver, Canada, China, UK, Rotterdam,Panama, Bahamas etc.- in all, his business controls 13% of all container port capacity in the world) and the world’s largest health and beauty retailer(a subsidiary of Hutchison Whampoa, the A.S. Watson Group is a leading retail operator with over 7,800 stores whose portfolio encompasses popular retail brands in Europe such as Superdrug (UK), Marionnaud (France), Kruidvat (Benelux countries), and in Asia including health & beauty specialist Watson’s Your Personal Store, PARKnSHOP supermarkets, Great Food Hall, TASTE food galleria, gourmet boutique style fine food hall, Fortress electrical appliance stores, Watson’s Wine Cellars and Nuance-Watson airport duty free shops. ASW is also a major producer and distributor of water products and beverages in the region with Watsons Water the top selling brand in Hong Kong). His companies make up 15% of the market cap of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.In fact the story goes that out of every dollar spent in Hong Kong, 5c goes into Li Ka-shing’s cash-registers.His business empire includes: banking, construction, real estate, plastics, cellular phones, satellite television, cement production, retail outlets (pharmacies and supermarkets), hotels, domestic transportation (sky train), airports, electric power, steel production, ports, and shipping. Read more of this post

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Dhirubhai Ambani

February 5, 2011 5 Comments


wealthymaters.comThere is no official biography of Dhirubhai Ambani.In its absence a book like ‘ The Polyester Prince ” has to suffice.That Hamish McDonald was not close to Dhirubhai Ambani is a fact.That is why I kept this article – for the contrast.Here Mukesh Ambani speaks about his father to Pritish Nandy.Enjoy this read!

What were your father’s childhood years like? Does he ever speak to you about them?

Very frequently, in fact. Stories about his childhood have always inspired us, taught us how to cope with life’s vicissitudes.

Papa was always very responsible and enterprising. When he was in school, he went to the foot of Mount Girnar — the famous mountain in Saurashtra, where he grew up in a small town called Chorwad in Junagadh — and opened his own shop. To sell bhajias to pilgrims over the weekend. This is how he earned his own money though his needs were few. Until he left for Aden, he wore only half pants!

Why did he go to Aden? Yemen is not exactly an El Dorado.

He was fond of adventure. I guess Aden provided him an opportunity to experience it. To escape his own background, to see the world. He actually went with a recommendation for a job, like people go to Dubai these days. He had just completed school. SSC at that time. Even that on his second attempt! It was like MABF. Matric Appeared But Failed.

Luckily for him, he had admirers at that young age. One of them liked his spirit of enterprise so much that he sent him off to Aden for a job with an Indian trading company. A pedhi. A pedhi was like a proprietary firm. He started there and then moved on to a job with Shell.

What kind of job?

It began at the petrol pump. Then he went on to logistics. Loading all the ships and airplanes, making sure that the entire fuel logistics for Shell worked in perfect synchronicity. Read more of this post

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Mukesh Ambani – In His Own Words

February 4, 2011 6 Comments


wealthymatters.com Normally here are only 3 types of articles on the Ambanis: Awestruck journalists gushing about the Ambani fortune, trenchant criticism from people who seem to have the belief that all money is evil and that great wealth is singularly evil and society mags featuring the newest Ambani Toys and other tittle-tattle.Just because this article is so very different from the normal ones I have kept it so far.Thought I would share it here even though it dates from 2007. The highlighted bits are stuff I found interesting.I got a couple of good money making ideas out of reading this piece.I hope you do too.

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But very little is publicly known of his beliefs, vision and motivation. In his most expansive interview ever to MoneyLIFE, a personal finance magazine, Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani tells
MoneyLIFE editors Sucheta Dalal and Debashis Basu, what drives him and his business decisions

A lot of details about your life are already known. But we don’t know things from your end. Your life has changed dramatically in just about three decades; will you take us through that process?

From my point of view, very little has changed (Laughs). In terms of attitude to life, little has changed. There are important lessons I have learnt during my upbringing. It is important to share these, though these are tough to practise as a parent (smiles).

We were like a joint family and I was the first child of the family of that generation. There were advantages in being the first child those days. My father navigated through life from Aden in Yemen to Bhuleshwar (a congested commercial precinct in Mumbai , to Usha Kiran (Mumbai’s earliest skyscraper) at Altamount Road to Sea Wind (an exclusive tower which is the Ambani residence).

My first memories are of the early ’60s at Altamount Road which was then an emerging area. We were a close-knit family and the four of us — Dipti, Nina, Anil and I — were left to do what we wanted. There were boundaries, of course, but within those, we were not micro-managed. Things have changed so much now. When my kids, Isha and Akash, were in the third standard, we behaved as though it was our exam.

Our own childhood was totally different. I guess when you are left on your own, you find your true potential. I remember my father never came to our school even once. Nevertheless, he was hugely interested in our all-round development for which he did some amazing things. Read more of this post

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