The-Polyester-Prince

Dhirubhai was again lucky in that, around this time, the British hold on Aden wasbecoming more tenuous. Even ahead of the British withdrawal in 1967, foreignnationals felt threatened by the insurgency mounted by the People’s Liberation Front.Many of the Indians working for Besse & Co decided it was time to go home. SoDhirubhai had a ready-made source of educated managers, accountants andsalesmen, drilled to European standards. The word went around that Dhirubhaiwould find jobs for his old colleagues, and a dozen old hands from Besse & Coaccepted his offer. Most stayed for the rest of their working careers, with the last fewbeing retired from senior management positions in 1993 in a deliberate move byDhirubhai’s sons to rejuvenate the company’s leadership.None of them knew very much about textile production, however, and it was a caseof learning by trial and error. ‘All of us were new,’s recalled M. N. Sangvi, who leftAden in 1967 and immediately joined Reliance. ‘It was very small, only about 20people in the whole factory, about five or six from Aden. Nobody was familiar withtextiles, and after 15 years in Aden I was not knowing anything about India either.The first two years, 1966-67, was a very hard time. The product had to beestablished. We worked from morning to late evening. Dhirubhai was veryencouraging, and we had a family atmosphere. The employer- employee relationshipwas not there. He put a lot of trust in us’.Susheel Kothari, who had returned from Aden in 1966, said that at one point in 1967it appeared the mill would have to close down because Reliance could not sell thecloth it was making. Dhirubhai told Kothari that if the factory had to shut down heshould do it gradually and see that no blame attached to his older brotherRamnikbhai. But the Aden hands rallied. After putting in a full shift at the factory inNaroda, from 7 am to 3 pm, they would spend the afternoons and evenings touringmarkets around Ahmedabad trying to persuade shopkeepers to stock Reliancefabrics. ‘We were determined we should not fail,’ Kothari said.Dhirubhai worked everyone hard, often calling his managers in Naroda at 6 am fromBombay before they started out to work. They were expected to solve problems ontheir own initiative. Dhirubhai himself set the example. Suresh Kothary recalled oneincident when spare parts were urgently needed for imported machines at Naroda.Dhirubhai had the parts flown in from Germany, and then discovered that no truckswere available for the haul up to Ahmedabad. He bought two trucks, one to carry theparts and one as a backup, and sent up the consignment. The trucks were then soldin Ahmedabad.But he was forgiving of honest mistakes, recalls Sangvi. In one case, Sangvi wasover trusting of some merchants who had placed an order from Patna, the capitalcity of Bihar state across in eastern India. Sangvi sent the consignment by rail,collectable on presentation of a payment receipt at a Patna bank branch. Themerchants forged the receipt and took delivery from the railway yard. Reliance lost900000 rupees, a considerable sum at that stage, and it took months to recover it.Sangvi said: ‘Dhirubhai just told me: “Nathu, nothing to worry in business, anythingcan happen. I know you have done it to increase the sales. I am with you and youjust concentrate on the business.” Reflecting back on his career, as vice-president ofthe Reliance textile division, Sangvi said: ‘I feel myself very fortunate that I havebeen working under such a legendary figure.’ I, Patel, who had been recruited by hisrelative Maganbhai Patel to Besse and Co in 1953, returned to India in 1965. Soonafter, Ramnikbhai Ambani, with whom he had worked in the Besse automotivedivision, hired him for Naroda and put him in charge of the knitting machines. Patel