Rahul Bajaj

“If we had done this 10 years ago, people would have asked what is there in India. But for the last few years, the whole world has been looking at India and investing in India, so there is an Indian story to be told.”

Rahul Bajaj is a prominent Indian businessman. Rahul Bajaj, the grandson of Jaman Lal Bajaj founded the Bajaj Group, one of India’s top business group. Rahul Bajaj is the Chairman of the Bajaj Group, which ranks among the top 10 business houses in India. The Bajaj Group has diversified interests ranging from automobiles, home appliances, lighting, iron and steel, insurance, travel and finance. Rahul Bajaj is one of India's most distinguished business leaders and internationally respected for his business acumen and entrepreneurial spirit.

Rahul Bajaj is an alumnus of Harvard, St. Stephen's and Cathedral. He took over the reins of Bajaj Group in 1965. Under his stewardship, the turnover of the Bajaj Auto the flagship company has risen from Rs.72 million to Rs.46.16 billion. Rahul Bajaj created one of India's best companies in the difficult days of the licence-permit raj. He established factories at Akurdi and Waluj. In 1980s Bajaj Auto was top scooter producer in India and its Chetak brand had a 10-year waiting period. 

The initiation of liberalization in India posed great challenges for Bajaj Auto. Liberalisation brought the threat of cheap imports and FDI from top companies like Honda. Rahul Bajaj became famous as the head of the Bombay Club, which opposed liberalization. The scooter sails plummeted as people were more interested in motorcycles and the rival Hero Honda was a pioneer in it.

The recession and stock market collapse of 2001 hit the company hard and it was predicted that the days of Bajaj Auto were numbered. However, Bajaj Auto re-invented itself, established a world-class factory in Chakan, invested in R&D and came up with Bajaj Pulsar Motorcycle. Bajaj Pulsar is currently a leader in its segment.

 

Recently, Rahul Bajaj was elected to Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra. About 100 Rajya Sabha members have declared their assets worth more than one crore rupees with independent Parliamentarian from Maharashtra Rahul Bajaj being the richest. According to an analysis by an NGO, renowned industrialist Bajaj has declared his movable and immovable assets worth over Rs 300 crore.

Warren Edward Buffett

“Rule No. 1: Never lose money. Rule No. 2: Never forget rule No.1.”

It is true that Buffet is known as one of the greatest investors. Yet take a closer at youth attributes, instinct and activities. You may agree at the end of this tribute, he is indeed an entrepreneur. Multi-billionaire, Warren Buffet does not hide the fact that his goals are to amass wealth. In fact, it is his mission and his skill is the reason that investors back him and the holding company he manages.

In 2008 Warren Buffett was ranked the richest person in the world. He made his fortune from investing in the stock market and buying out companies.

"Wall Street is the only place that people ride to in a Rolls Royce to get advice from those who take the subway."

Even as a child Buffett displayed an interest in making and saving money. He went door to door selling chewing gum, Coca-Cola, or weekly magazines. For a while he worked in his grandfather's grocery store. While still in high school, he carried out several successful money-making ideas: delivering newspapers, selling golfballs and stamps, and detailing cars among them. Filing his first income tax return in 1944, Buffett took a $35 deduction for the use of his bicycle and watch on his paper route.

Buffett's interest in the stock market and investing also dated to his childhood, to the days he spent in the customers' lounge of a regional stock brokerage near the office of his father's own brokerage company. On a trip to New York at the age of ten he made a point to visit the New York Stock Exchange. And about this same time he purchased shares of Cities Service for himself and his sister.

He tried to get a position with Graham’s firm and was at first unsuccessful. He finally got the job and, as he generously acknowledges, learned a lot about stock investment from The Master. Graham eventually retired and Buffett started a limited partnership in Omaha, using capital contributed by family and friends. The partnership was a great success and Buffett is said to have averaged an annual rate of return for the partnership in excess of 23 per cent, far in excess of the market.

Buffett, after several years, decided to wind up the partnership, returning the lucky investors their capital and their share of the profits, and bought an interest in Berkshire Hathaway, a textile company, giving his original investors the chance to invest. The smart ones did so. Buffett’s early days at Berkshire Hathaway were not great. The company was in an industry facing real challenges from exports and high manufacturing costs. Warren Buffett had not, however, forgotten what he had learned under Graham, and arranged for the company to buy out two Nebraska insurance companies. This was the start of Buffett’s interest in insurance and the rise to financial fame of both himself and Berkshire Hathaway.

Naresh Goyal

Naresh Goyal (नरेश गोयल) (born December 23, 1950) is a founder Chairman of Jet Airways. He was born in Patiala in Punjab in the house of a jewellery dealer. When he was 11 his family went through an economic crisis and his house was auctioned. He lived with his mother's uncle.

Naresh Goyal had to walk for a few miles everyday to school as his parents could not afford a bicycle for him, and started his career as a cashier at his maternal uncle's company at a starting salary of Rs 300 a month.  Goyal, however, hasn't forgotten his humble past. A reason why he remains modest and avoids the limelight. For e.g. minutes after announcing his decision to buy Air Sahara for Rs 2,225 crore (Rs 22.25 billion) - a deal, which gives him control over almost half of India's domestic aviation airspace - Goel refuses to give it much importance and said, "It's no big deal. I am neither happy nor excited. Such acquisitions have been the way of life in the west."

Naresh Goyal completed his graduation in Commerce in 1967 and joined the travel business with the GSA for Lebanese International Airlines. From 1967 to 1974 he learnt the intricacies of the travel business through his association with several foreign airlines.

In May 1974, Naresh Goyal founded Jetair (Private) Limited to look after Sales and Marketing operations of foreign airlines in India. Naresh Goyal was involved in developing studies of traffic patterns, route structures, and operational economics and flight scheduling. His rich and varied experience made him an authority in the world of aviation and travel.

In 1991, when the Indian economy was being opened up, Naresh Goyal took advantage of Open Skies Policy of the Government of India and set up Jet Airways for the operation of scheduled air services on domestic sectors in India. Jet Airways started commercial operations on May 05, 1993.

Finally, in 1992, he took the big step of setting up his airline - Jet Airways. A firm believer in numerology, Goyal is fond of number "5". People close to him say his decision to acquire Air Sahara was also taken on the 5th many months ago.

Along with Jet's meteoric rise, Naresh Goyal too rose in the entrepreneurial arena. He has won several honors and accolades. These include Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Services' from Ernst & Young in 2000, 'Distinguished Alumni Award-2000 for meritorious and distinguished performance as an Entrepreneur', Outstanding Asian-Indian' award for leadership and contribution to the global community given by the Indian American Centre for Political Awareness, 'Aerospace Laurels' for outstanding contribution in the field of Commercial Air Transport twice, in April 2000 and February 2004. Naresh Goyal also received the first BM Munjal Award for Excellence in Learning & Development in the Private Sector category in 2006.

 

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Dhirubhai Hirachand Ambani

“Growth has no limit at Reliance. I keep revising my vision.
Only when you can dream it, you can do it.”

The saga of dreams and destiny wherein the possibility and ability to challenge every obstacle was literally larger than life, such is the chronicle of the legend who lives perpetually in our minds and hearts, Dhirubhai Hirachand Ambani.

Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani, one of the leading Indian businessmen, was born on December 28, 1932 in Chorwad, Gujarat. Popularly known as Dhirubhai Ambani, he heads The Reliance Industries, India’s largest private enterprise.

Dhirubhai started off as a small time worker with Arab merchants in the 1950s he was 16 years old and worked with A. Besse & Co. for a salary of Rs.300. Two years later, A. Besse & Co. became the distributors for Shell products, and Dhirubhai was promoted to manage the company’s filling station at the port of Aden. Later he moved to Mumbai in 1958 to start his own business in spices. After making modest profits, he moved into textiles and opened his mill near Ahmedabad. Dhirubhai founded Reliance Industries in 1958. Dhiru Bhai Ambani built India's largest private sector company, Reliance India Limited, from a scratch. Over time his business has diversified into a core specialisation in petrochemicals with additional interests in telecommunications, information technology, energy, power, retail, textiles, infrastructure services, capital markets, and logistics. Reliance later started seizing opportunities thrown up by a combination of the growing Indian economy and the opening up of the regulation-driven sectors of the economy.

The world, they say, steps aside
for the man who knows
where he is going

Dhirubhai Ambani is credited with shaping India's equity culture, attracting millions of retail investors in a market till then dominated by financial institutions. Dhirubhai revolutionised capital markets. From nothing, he generated billions of rupees in wealth for those who put their trust in his companies. His efforts helped create an 'equity cult' in the Indian capital market. With innovative instruments like the convertible debenture, Reliance quickly became a favorite of the stock market in the 1980s.

In 1992, Reliance became the first Indian company to raise money in global markets, its high credit-taking in international markets limited only by India's sovereign rating. Reliance also became the first Indian company to feature in Forbes 500 list.

Dhirubhai Ambani was named the Indian Entrepreneur of the 20th Century by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). A poll conducted by The Times of India in 2000 voted him "greatest creator of wealth in the century".