Mukesh Ambani to pen RIL’s polyester-to-petrochem story

HE IS known as a man of few words as much as for his execution skills of mammoth projects, but industrialist Mukesh Ambani will now put his thoughts and business philosophy into words in a new avatar, as that of a writer. The book, expected to hit the shelves early next fiscal, would be the first by Ambani and is likely to be published by global publishing major Penguin, according to sources.
    Incidentally, Mr Ambani, chairman of India's most valued corporate house Reliance Industries, was ranked on Thursday as the richest Indian, for the third year in a row, by business magazine Forbes. When contacted, an RIL spokesperson did not offer any comments and queries sent to Penguin India were unanswered.
    Sources, however, said the book would dwell upon the growth chart of the polyester-to-petrochemicals RIL group as also the business philosophy of the biggest corporate house of the country, as seen by its chairman.
    Mr Ambani may give some insights into how the Reliance group grew into India's biggest entity, but might not dwell into the personal space of one of the most talked-about Indian business families. In 2007, on her 75th birthday, Ambani family matriarch Kokilaben brought out a pictorial biography on the life of her husband the late Dhirubhai Ambani.
    Books on Reliance group has always sparked intense interest in corporate circles, but so far there have not been any authorised published piece. In 1998, undivided Reliance had to move court to stop the publication of 'The Polyester Prince: The Rise of Dhirubhai Ambani' in India. However, a new book by the same author, Hamish McDonald, 'Ambani & Sons' was released here this month. None of the two works were authorised by the Ambanis. Writing about Mukesh Ambani, Forbes India magazine said that he ended a long-running feud with younger sibling Anil in May and scrapped their non-compete pact.
    "...jumped into telecom, paying $1 billion for wireless broadband firm Infotel. His Reliance Industries, India's most valuable company, is investing in shale gas assets," Forbes added.
    Mukesh, the elder son of Dhirubhai, joined the group in 1981. A Chemical Engineer from the University of Mumbai and an MBA from Stanford University, USA, he initiated Reliance's backward integration journey from textiles into polyester fibres and further into petrochemicals, petroleum refining and going up-stream into oil and gas exploration and production.