On a B School website, I certainly won’t talk about castes, neither am I trying to praise Gujaratis for their great Business Sense. Rather, I have just tried to draw an analogy between two great revolutionaries of our country, and both of them incidentally happen to be Gujaratis.

I am talking about Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani - Two famous scions of Modh Bania, Two great leaders of the century and Two Indians who helped India gain in their own ways. If Bapu helped us politically, Dhirubhai helped economically.

Before I actually start talking about them, I would like to put a note of caution…I am not comparing them. I have just extracted the best of those qualities, which I believe, they had in common.

Both of them had some power within, which helped them to lead their teams in an extraordinary manner to make them extra efficient and highly motivated. They have not only touched the minds of people but have gone down to their hearts, where they have left some philosophies which act as an instrumental force in building new leaders for our country and this world. If one has given Gandhigiri… the other has left Dhirubhaism behind. No wonder if one is Dhirubhai other was perceived as “Bhai” (In South Africa Bapu was called as Bhai by all his friends….)

Passion can be the single simplest word to describe both of them. But still, lets catch a glimpse of the most common and influencing qualities of these leaders.

1. Both of them were incredible when it comes to betting on people and making them share their vision. They were very well aware of the fact that Vision can be transformed into reality only if you can motivate people around you to always support your vision. Though both of them were not MBAs they were very well aware of the “Team Building and Goal Congruence Concept.”
2. Both of them could actually sense circumstances around, well before they occurred. Moreover on occurrence of such events they would lead their team…and they would lead from the front. That’s the similarity in their leadership style. They would never back out in critical situations; rather they will pacify their teams.
3. Every step…every instinct of these revolutionaries was an outcome of the following qualities…..

· Lots n Lots of reading….

· Continuous thinking and pondering over critical issues

· Careful listening….

· Capacity to forecast…..

· Living The Bhagavad-Gita

But above all, they had Guts…Guts to be a pioneer in their move….and while doing this, both of them had the tendency to disregard one's own invaluable contribution to society as significant.

4. If one was strong believer of Satyagraha and used it as tool to free India, Other was strong believer of Supply Creating Demand and used it to benefit Indian consumer by crashing down prices, this automatically created a need in the minds of people and market flourished thereby changing our economic landscape for better.

Eg: Initial cap of Reliance Patalganga was 10,000 tonnes of Polyester way back in 1980, while the demand in India for it was approx. 6000 tonnes.

So, in my belief both were rebels to the then existing condition of our country.

5. In crude language, both were stubborn when it came to realizing their dreams. They will never let it go. One saw the dream of an Independent India while the other dreamt of an ultramodern, profitable, global enterprise in India itself and that too in a generation wrapped with socialism which did worse things for economy than its rival capitalism.

6. Their life was full of experiments. No wonder one named his autobiography as “My experiments with truth” while other kept taking huge risks all his life by experimenting and exploring new business & new markets”

7. Dhirubhai ignited Indian Stock Market, convinced people to load on Reliance stock and made people share dream of Reliance, after all this he never disappointed them. (On a comical note…you ask somebody in Gujarat to prove something he will probably say “Reliance ki Kasam”--- that’s the level of trust and faith investors have on Reliance.)

At the time when violence was the only obvious solution for people to rescue them from British hand, Gandhiji ignited the fire of Passive Resistance & the rest is History. So can we definitely say Expect the Unexpected was the mantra of these one in a million revolutionaries.

8. If Bapu has inspired people just to make other revolutionaries like Martin Luther King, and Nelson Mandela…Dhirubhai has inspired a whole lot of people with the spirit of entrepreneurship to Think Big, Think Fast & Think Ahead and realize their dreams with continuous hard work.

Finally I would say, “How Dhirubhai built Reliance” and “rational behind many philosophies of Bapu” remains and will always remain Debated by their fans and their critics. But one thing is sure Gandhigiri and Dhirubhaism will keep inspiring generations to create new role models.

References:

"My Experiments with Truth" by M. K. Gandhi

"Dhirubhaism" by A. G. Krishnamoorthy