Sunday 27 October 2013

Billionaire Profile: Mukesh Ambani

undefined
Who’s Who

The latter half of his name is enough to instill a look of recognition on 90% of the Indian population’s faces. We are, after all, talking about none other than the Indian business magnate and the current managing director and chairman of Reliance Industries, India’s largest private company. His stake in this company is nothing less than 48%. Enough said? We could go on and we will.


Money Matters

As of 2011, he is the 2nd richest man in Asia, the 9th richest man in the world, and according to Forbes, "one of the 68 people who matter the most in this world." His personal wealth is over 29 billion USD, a figure so large that converting it to rupees would be meaningless.


Early Days and Career

He is the eldest son of Dhirubhai Ambani. As far as his education goes, he completed a degree in Chemical Engineering from Mumbai University and went on to enroll in an MBA programme from Stanford but dropped out halfway through the 2 year course to return to India and help his father run the company in 1981.

Interestingly enough, he never disclosed that he dropped out of the Stanford MBA program; Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer inadvertently revealed this while making a speech, embarassing Ambani tremendously and forcing him to admit that he had in fact dropped out before graduating. Another urban legend about his education is that after returning from the USA, he went straight from the airport to the Reliance office to get cracking.

Even if it's not true, that sort of behaviour would be in keeping with the reputation he's developed for being incredibly hard working and having a razor-sharp mind and keen business instincts.


Personal Probe

Mukesh is married to Nita Ambani and the couple has 3 children--Anant, Akash and Isha.


Toys

He’s a billionaire after our own hearts since he loves to spend his money--extravagantly and grotesquely, according to some. His vast collection of homes includes Antilla, which we're sure you've heard cost a billion dollars and has a staff of 600 for 6 residents! Aside from this, he also owns the Mumbai Indians IPL cricket team which has the 2nd highest brand value in the league at 57.3 million USD.

Of course, he's also got the usual array of luxury cars, jets, helicopters, and if recent reports are true, even an Airbus A319 (worth 290 crore rupees) that came as a birthday gift for his wife!


Quirky Quotes

-“China and India will, separately and together, unleash an explosion of demand.”

-“I think that our fundamental belief is that for us, growth is a way of life and we have to grow at all times.”

-“The organizational architecture is really that a centipede walks on hundred legs and one or two don't count. So if I lose one or two legs, the process will go on, the organization will go on, the growth will go on.”

-“If it is Asia today, then the African continent cannot be far behind.”

-“We are now investing in each of our businesses to achieve substantial earnings growth in the future and create further value for millions of our shareholders.”

0 comments:

Post a Comment