For the year 2003-04, Reliance was the largest wealth creator in the private sector in India. In size, it has grown larger than the two biggest and oldest industrial housesthe Tatas and Birlas. Within a short span of its existence (in less than four decades), Reliance has emerged as the largest private sector company by any parameter. What has made this possible? What was the strategy behind this impressive growth record?

When Dhirajlal Hirachand (Dhirubhai) Ambani, the founder of the Reliance Group, one of India's largest business houses, was hospitalized on June 24, 2002, every individual's mind was flooded with questions about the convalesce capabilities of Ambani senior, the future of the burgeoning industrial giantthe Reliance Group and the competence of the two American-educated scions of the Ambani familyMukesh and Anil to lead the company on the growth path set by the company's founding father. While everyone at the Beach Candy Hospital, in Mumbai, was praying for the well-being of Ambani, it was business as usual at the Maker Chamber-IV, the corporate headquarters of the Reliance Group. The company's top executives were busy holding meetings with large companies for probable alliances, chalking out plans to replace high cost debt with a low cost debt, making use of the low interest regime, mopping up funds worth $400 mn through Global Depositary Receipts (GDRs) and so on. When asked (by a business weekly), Mukesh Ambani, the eldest of the Ambani siblings replied, "we have been brought up in the belief that once you have a goal, you should be focused on it and not on the obstacles. The day you start focusing on the obstacles, you'll miss the goal. That has actually kept us busy that we had no time to think."

Reliance, Ambani, business, industrial, obstacles, company's, capabilities, executives, existence, focusing, headquarters, hospitalized, Mukesh, probable, alliances, strategy, scions, mopping, headquarters, Dhirubhai, Depositary, convalesce,impressive, Receipts, impressive, flooded, Dhirajlal,convalesce.