Introduction:
The book is written on eight business maharajas from India. Their combined turnover runs into billions of rupees, and between them they employ some 650,000 people, while indirectly affecting the lives of millions more. In day to day activity we use various products, Sip a cup of tea, drive to work, listen to music, and build a house? the chances are that they manufacture and market these.
The achievements of these men would rank among the great business stories of our time. This book reveals following questions:-
How these men reveal their enormous empires?
What are their management secrets?
How did they thrive and prosper even as others failed?
What are their visions for future?

The eight Business Maharajas are:
Dhirubhai Ambani
Rahul Kumar Bajaj
Aditya Vikram Birla
Rama Prasad Goenka
Brij Mohan Khaitan
Bharat and Vijay Shah
Ratan Tata

Dhirubhai Ambani
The first Indian industrialist to appreciate ordinary investors and their needs. His philosophy that management has a responsibility toward its shareholders to ensure the capital appreciation of their shares has changed the entire mindset of corporate India and its way of doing business. Between 1977 and 1995, Ambani mobilized Rs 64.23 billion from the public (the company went public with 58,000 investors, today there are more than 3.7 million), making Reliance India’s most popular enterprise in the process.

Rahul Kumar Bajaj
Born 10 June 1938 is an Indian businessman, politician and philanthropist. He is the chairman of Indian conglomerate Bajaj Group and Member of Parliament. Bajaj comes from the business house started by a Rajasthani Marwari businessman Jamnalal Bajaj. He was awarded the third highest civilian award Padma Bhushan in 2001.

Aditya Vikram Birla (14 November 1943 – 1 October 1995):
He was an Indian industrialist. Born into one of the largest business families of India, Birla oversaw the diversification of his group into textiles, petrochemicals and telecommunications. He was one of the first Indian industrialists to expand abroad, setting up plants in South east Asia, the Philippines and Egypt, among other places. His unexpected death at the age of 52 left his young son in charge of his group of companies and also much doubt about whether it would survive him. These doubts however proved unfounded as his company has enjoyed success and so has his legacy of philanthropic activities.

Rama Prasad Goenka
He is the Chairman Emeritus of the RPG Group, a multi-sector Indian industrial conglomerate. Goenka was born in 1930 and attended the Presidency College in his home town of Kolkata and Harvard University in the United States. He is currently an M.P. in the Rajya Sabha, or upper house, of the Indian Parliament. Goenka also held the position of Chairman of the Board of Governors, International Management Institute and is a trustee of the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund, the Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust and the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation. He is Former president of the FICCI and the immediate past Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur. Goenka has also been twice awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasure by the Emperor of Japan.

Brij Mohan Khaitan
The Harrods bombing was a car bombing that occurred at Harrods department store in London on 17 December 1983. Brij mohan and Pradip Khaitan, a cousin close business associate. They had flown into London that morning for an important meeting with Richard Magor, BMs partner. A Scotland Yard investigation revealed later that dynamite hadbeen concealed in the car next to the Khaitans Volvo. Pradip and Brij mohan Khaitan were both thrown about twenty yards away. They were unconscious for 4 to 5 minutes. Brij was bleeding badly, but he patted pradip on the cheek and said, "Dont worry, were still living, we aren’t dead yet.” Richard Magor, joined hands with one George Williamson to promote Magor to manage tea gardens in Assam.
FROM BURRA BAZAAR TO BURRA SAHIB Mulling over offer, the thirty-four-year-old Khaitan figured a one-third share in Williamson Magor. There was also the little matter of prestige. Many Marwaris were cornering British tea gardens and becoming Burra sahibs. In 1964,Khaitan was appointed as managing director of Willinamson Magors.• Matters came to head when Pat Williamsons died a few months later, Khaitam become a chairman of Willinamson Magors. This was the first step towards becoming the world‟s biggest individual tea planter.
GARDENS OF FEAR Gardens of FEAR On Tuesday, February 11, 1991 at Lahowal. Three gangsters burst into the office of D.K. Chowdhury, pumped nine bullets into him and escaped on scooters before they could be caught. ULFA (United Liberation Front of Asom), a terrorist organization was behind this. "Donations were frequently extorted from living in far-flung and isolated tea estates, but the tents were small.• The commander of ULFA demanded ,Khaitan alone have to shell out Rs 23.5m to buy peace.
Khaitan refused to pay it. Instead he increases its gardens security. Today the gardens are guarded night and day by Khaitans private army. Two thousand armed guards, forty per garden, patrol its perimeters constantly.• No manager is allowed to go outside the garden without some protection. If he does, and he is kidnapped ,the management is not responsible for his ransom• Khaitans protective attitude towards his executives has earned him their unflinching loyalty. I was the last person to pay and I was the softest Target in the whole of Assam. I have gone through nights of literally torture in my mind, putting my head on the pillow and not knowing who will be the person to be killed tomorrow morning. That was the time that l decided to build a good school in Assam. I have put in Rs 22crores into the project, brought in the finest faculty--the principal of Londons Westminster School.”Can a mere school buy peace with ULFA? "No. I want to prove that a good school will produce a good student, and that a good student will produce a good citizen, and a good citizen will produce a good country.1 have gone out of my way to put money back into Assam, and people will realize it someday."

RATAN NAVAL TATA (Born on 28th December 1937)
INTRODUCTION In 1962, after graduatingpresentchairman of Tata sons and Tata group. from Cornell university with adegree in Architecture and structural Ratan‟s childhood wasengineering, Ratan joinedthe family business. “I wouldtroubled as Naval and Sonoo didn‟t getalong with each other. probably want to do something more for the uplift ofthe people of India.I have a strong desire not to make money butto see happiness created in a place were there isn‟t.”
 In30. A SRATEGIC PLAN Ratan Tataoctober 1978 he took over the chairmanship ofTata industries. wrote out a new plan for the groupcalled 1983 Tata “strategic “There was a need to look into the future and planfor it moreplan”. than in the past,and to look at newbusiness areas in a different kind of He foresaw that india would one day stop being asellers market.way”
 31. Trouble at truck manufacturers pune had startedCORPORATE SPURS Nobody anticipated that an assault on Ratan‟s position wouldbrewing. come not from anautocratic Tata executive Russi Moody but an unknown Ratan launched measures to build bridgestrade union leader RajanNair. Nair announced that he and hisbetween the management and theworkforce. For Tata,supporters would go on an indefinite fast atShaniwarwada fort. Tata‟sthe Telco crisis became the test of his managerial ability. victory: Tata believed it was a Vindication of principles and values whichthe group had so zealously protected and propagated all along.
 32. Aware of the criticism and whisperingQUESTIONING THE UNQUESTIONABLE going on behind his back,Ratan understands the challenges that face him. RatanHe knows that thedecisions he takes today will decide the future. wants to radically change the Tata culture, make it morecompetitive and “change is not going to come by merely making that aagile. mandate.change is not going to come by writing letters to various groupcompanies. change is going to come from the competition thatenvironment provides.”
 33. WHAT WE LEARNT FROM THIS DHIRAJLAL HIRACHAND AMBANI: “Dream with your eyesopen”, “itsBOOK RAHUL BAJAJ: “Know thedifficult but not impossible”, “Be innovative”. BRIJ MOHANADITYA BIRLA:path you want to take”, “Be a risktaker”. RATAN TATA: “Be committed”, “Be Courageous”, “move closer totheKHAITAN: goal even if the goal keeps shifting”