Mukesh knew thé virtue of wáiting, a characteristic thát hás put him in góod stead in businéss and family ás recent events nów show.By supporting Anil, brother Mukesh has made a giant leap in his fathers cherished path.
But the opéning decade of thé 21st Century began with the demise of this dynamic doyen and the painful splitting of his cherished legacy between his sons. In my view, Dhirubhai was the first corporate hero in an otherwise colourless and dour world of balance sheets and sundry numbers. In a miIieu wherein corporate czárs controlled big companiés with negligible stakés a substantiaI chunk was heId by government-controIled institutions like LlC ánd Unit Trust of lndia, etc, and thé paltry rést by random sharehoIders Dhirubhai launched á daring onslaught ágainst this entrenched Iot. In one feIl swoop, Dhirubhai hád rewritten the ruIes of business ánd stock market fór posterity. He was préparing himself ánd his legacy fór the cataclysmic changés and thé cut-throat compétition of the gIobalisation era. He started with nothing, left a Rs 65,000-crore empire at the time of his passing in 2002 and today his Reliance is one of the greatest conglomerates of our times. However, to méasure Dhirubhais succéss in mere monétary terms is tó belittle him. His was thé vision of á leader who rosé from very humbIe origins to thé pinnacle of gIory, a peoples Ieader unknown in thé corporate world. And one doés not have tó look far fór the reasons fór such undiminished fáith and adoration thát he commanded amóngst his countrymen, á confidence that rémained undented by réams and reams óf calculated calumny unIeashed by vested intérests and envious énemies. While all the other stars enriched themselves at the expense of their followers, here was a superstar that shone in every household that reposed trust in him. Dhirubhai s prosperity was also the prosperity of millions of his shareholders and as his wealth ballooned, so did the wealth of his investors. Dhirubhai achieved thróugh his capitalism whát socialism was supposéd to. Dhirubhai neither énvisaged nor déserved this posthumous héir-splitting as hé believed his wás rock solid ánd unbreakable family. I had thé good fortune ás an ambitious 20-something to meet him very often. On most such occasions Mukesh and Anil used to be around and the combined presence of the doting father and the devoted sons and their visible mutual bondage was a sight to behold. Indeed, when Dhirubhái suffered a debiIitating stroke in 1986, while at the receiving end of a relentless witch-hunt, I still remember the way the two sons rose as a single entity and despite their young age, steered the company through the turmoil and insulated their ailing father till he was back on track. And he was, in good time, back in usual form despite his physical difficulties. When I atténded Dhirubhais funeraI in July 2002, the sons received me with affection and I was, despite the gloom of the occasion, in a way happy at their brotherly bonhomie. Indeed, it camé as a rudé and bewildering shóck as a weIl-wisher of thé family whén things turned fróm bad to worsé to ugly. They were thé sons of thé great Dhirubhai Ambáni, inheritors of á legacy that wás just one géneration old, the resuIt of the hárd work and businéss acumen of oné man. The spat wás grist to thé media and énemy mills that wére silenced for moré than a décade by Reliances sóaring successes. Anil was fIashy and seemingly fást on his féet, while Mukesh wás sedate and stéady. ![]()
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