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Journalism of Courage
India Inc reacted with shock on the death of its First Citizen Dhirubhai Ambani even as corporate leaders lined up at his residence —Sea Wind—in Colaba to pay their last respects. Almost the entire Corporate India descended on to the Ambani’s residence to stand beside the family.
Among the first to visit the Ambani family was Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata who shares his date of birth with late Dhirubhai. He was followed by virtual who’s who of Indian corporate sector; Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman of Rs 27,000 crore Aditya Birla Group, Adi Godrej among others.
Said Birla: “Dhirubhai built an empire that is rock solid, very strong in its fundamentals and he will always remain an icon.”
Adds RPG Group chairman Harsh Goenka: “It is a sad day for the Indian business. He was a great entrepreneur. No other businessman has had such a meteoric rise as Ambani. Some of the first steps he took on were creation of an equity cult. He also believed in thinking big and he taught us the meaning of world scale… the meaning of vertical and horizontal integration. He had the spirit of can-do.”
Echoing a similar view, Godrej Group chairman Adi Godrej: “He has had a very great impact on the Indian business scene. In the last few decades he has built a world class company and changed the equity culture in India. Some of the projects have changed the face of India.”
Mahindra & Mahindra vice chairman and managing director Anand Mahindra said: “Dhirubhai died as he lived—fighting till the very end, against all odds. He was one of the most remarkable businessman since our independence. His ability to transform his vision into reality put Indian industry on the global map. He will be remembered most particularly for revolutionising the capital market by shaping the equity cult.”
Videocon Group chairman V.N. Dhoot said: “As a person and in terms of business perspective, Ambani was a form of encouragement and inspiration. He had started the pace for Indian industry in 1975 and showed the way to 3.5 million investors to invest in the stock market.”
Larsen & Toubro managing director and CEO A.M. Naik said “It’s big loss to the Indian economy, it’s a Indian Industry. Dhirubhai Ambani was certainly visionary and gave a new direction to the Indian economy. He never took no for an answer. His belief and conviction made impossible things possible. He thought far ahead and hence was able to take Reliance to such great height and put India on the global map. He would always say that only if you think big, you do big. This guiding philosophy of him was imbibed in me way back in 1989-90.”
Vinayak Chatterjee, chairman of Feedback Ventures said “Dhirubhai Ambani was one of the business visionary of our age. He built an empire through his vision and set the Reliance group in a path of progress and prosperity. The greatness of the man lies in the fact that not only he built an empire he was also able to set it on self sustaining path”.
Bajaj Group chairman Rahul Bajaj hailed the Reliance patriarch, who died in Mumbai on Saturday night, as a “global visionary” and said his boldness enabled him to overcome the hurdles posed by license and permit raj.
President of CII, Ashok Soota said exceptional success and achievement of Ambani would serve as a role model for the masses and aspiring entrepreneurs.
Ficci president R.S.Lodha described Ambani as the key architect of India’s capital market with four million share holders in his group.
ONGC chairman and managing director Subir Raha termed Ambani’s death as a great loss to Indian petroleum industry.
