Dhirubhai Ambani and the Art of Doing Corporate Business in India

by Guest Sun Jun 19, 2016 10:39 am

Dhirubhai’s penchant for business vengeance was legendary. He never forgot an insult. In the 1970s, he met Kapal Mehra’s father, the founder of Orkay Silk Mills, one of the fastest growing textile firms, for tips to set up a dyeing unit. The senior Mehra flexed his biceps and said, “You need to mix blood with chemicals to make dyes. You can’t do it.” Dhirubhai vowed to destroy Orkay. By 1994, Kapal Mehra, who had once desired to become what Ambani became, was practically on the streets.
Of course, everyone has heard about the mother of all corporate wars—Dhirubhai versus Nusli Wadia, Ram Nath Goenka, V.P. Singh and others—in the 1980s. Wadia, the suave grandson of Mohammed Ali Jinnah and owner of Bombay Dyeing, was Dhirubhai’s rival. And VP, the finance minister in Rajiv Gandhi’s government, wanted to teach corrupt businessmen a lesson they’d never forget.
The late Goenka, owner of Indian Express, became an arch-enemy of former friend Dhirubhai in 1984-85 when, as recounted in Gita Piramal’s Business Maharajas, Ambani told him that “everyone had a price, that Express reporters were on his payroll, and that even Goenka had a price”. Two senior journalists, however, say the differences were somewhat older; Dhirubhai had accused them of “being sent by Goenka” to ask controversial questions when they went to meet him in 1981.
In the second half of the ’80s, Express, with help from Wadia and VP, brutally attacked RIL. Dhirubhai suffered a stroke; RIL’s share price crashed by over 80 per cent; and the group had cases slapped against it. By 1994, however, Wadia was down in the dumps (Dhirubhai referred to Bombay Dyeing as Bombay Dead), VP’s meteoric political career had almost ended, and Goenka was at the receiving end of government ire.
At this stage, everyone recognised Dhirubhai’s ability to ‘manage’ governments. He supported Indira Gandhi in the ’70s, had powerful friends in the Janata Party, which came to power in 1977 on an anti-Congress plank, and then backed Indira’s return to power in 1980. And, despite the initial hostility between them, he got close to Rajiv and was partly responsible for the fall of VP’s government in 1990, helping Chandra Shekhar become the prime minister.

http://www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/kingmakers-sceptre/282686