Ajay Harinath Singh Greatest Brand Leader 2018-2019

Lakshmi Mittal
Rising on Steely Resolves
to Lead the World
Having reached the top as the world’s third-richest person in 2017 behind Gates and Buffet (currently,
he is number 9), Lakshmi Niwas Mittal – Chairman and CEO of ArcelorMittal – is a story of rare
mettle, unshakeable faith in one’s abilities, inimitable entrepreneurial acumen, and phenomenal business
& trading strategies, as challenges & competition only go up, not down, at the global supreme level
Simultaneously being part of Rich
Lists in the UK, India, Asia and
the world, steel tycoon Lakshmi
Mittal’s graceful presence in & powerful
contribution to top economies in all
continents has awed young and experienced
entrepreneurs all over the world.
Known for courageous and ingenious
decisions to acquire small and large
steel-making companies, he made a huge
splash in the global steel industry when
he announced the merger of his Dutchbased
company Mittal Steel with Arcelor of
Luxembourg in 2006, becoming the world’s
biggest steel-maker with a revenue figure
of $76 billion as of June 2019.
He shares, “With an industrial presence
in 18 countries, we are the leader in all
major global steel markets including
automotive, construction, household
appliances and packaging, with leading
research and development and technology,
sizeable captive supplies of raw materials,
and outstanding distribution networks.”
Spinning the Globe of Steel
The hand that spins the steel globe today
was skilled gradually over a few decades,
as Lakshmi Mittal learnt the most basic
tricks of steel trading and manufacturing
first-hand as he built his steel empire stepby-step.
Born in a simple and modest family,
Lakshmi Mittal earned a BCom degree from
the University of Calcutta, and worked in his
father’s company after classes. He aspired
to full-time help his father, Mohanlal Mittal,
in his steel company, Nippon Denro Ispat,
along with his two younger brothers,
Pramod and Vinod. However, always a
maverick, Lakshmi Mittal convinced his
family to venture overseas to Indonesia,
due to the curb of steel production by the
Indian government, and founded his first
steel factory PT Ispat Indo in Sidoarjo, East
Java, Indonesia, at the ripe age of 26, in
1976 with his father’s support. Lakshmi
Mittal is known for transforming obstacles
into opportunities, and though he was
forced to look elsewhere for business
opportunities, he made good use of them
to succeed extraordinarily.
He established a state-of-the-art
mill, investing USD 15 million at that
time bringing the latest steel industry
technology to Indonesia. In 1978, he
founded Ispat International as part of his
father’s company. Years passed and by
1989 Lakshmi Mittal had firmly established
his company in Indonesia. Confident and
eager to explore faraway opportunities, he
acquired Iron & Steel Company of Trinidad
& Tobago in 1989. His style of expansion
was brilliant, as he would buy the unwanted
“We have the platform and the
programmes, with Action 2020, to deliver
further structural improvement that
will enable us to succeed and prosper in
any environment”
assets of other steel groups or snap up worn
out state-owned plants. When he bought
the loss-making government-founded steel
firm in Trinidad and Tobago, it was losing
$1 million a day and US consultants and
German experts failed to find a solution.
However, the genius Lakshmi Mittal turned
things around within a year and doubled the
output and made the business profitable.
Next, in 1992 he acquired Mexico’s thirdlargest
steel producer, Sicartsa for $220
million, and then acquired Siderurgica del
Balsas SA at Lazaro Cardenas in Mexico,
followed by more companies in Canada,
Germany and Ireland. In 1995, he acquired
the state-owned blast furnace steel plant in
former Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan and
renamed it Ispat Karmet. Though experts
considered it quite a risky acquisition as
workers had not been paid for six months,
genius Mittal found unprecedented
solutions and within a year not only made
Ispat Karmet profitable but also doubled
its production from 120,000 tons a month
to 250,000. In 1995 itself, he entered
into Europe and acquired a steel plant in
Hamburg, Germany.
With success and expansion arose
differences in the family, and while Pramod
and Vinod decided to stick to the family
business, Lakshmi Mittal split his business
in 1994 to blaze his own trail and founded
Mittal Steel. Having tasted success by
acquiring loss-making steel companies
and brilliantly transforming them into
highly successful as soon as making them
a part of his own company, he moved on
a merger & acquisition spree. In 1997,
after acquiring Walzdraht Hochfeld GmbH
and Stahlwerk Ruhrort, he decided to go
public as Ispat International NV, based in
Rotterdam managed from London.
Without changing his style of expansion
and functioning, in 1998 he acquired Inland
Steel Company, in 1999 acquired Unimétal,
in 2001 acquired ALFASID and Sidex, in
2002 bought a majority stake in Iscor, and
in 2003 acquired Nowa Huta.
Then, came the biggest and the most
famous takeover and merger of Mittal
Steel! In the last two and a half decades,
he had made about a dozen acquisitions
to ambitiously build a global steel empire.
Now, in 2006, he took over Arcelor for USD
33 billion, and created the world’s largest
steelmaker ArcelorMittal. The merger was
initially opposed by the Luxembourg firm;
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