Vedanta's Anil Agarwal on the secret to his success: ‘always take your people with you’

A throwback photo shared by Vedanta CEO Anil Agarwal (Image: AnilAgarwal_Ved/Twitter)

Anil Agarwal, founder and CEO of Vedanta Resources, spoke about the early days of his business the people he credits his success to. Agarwal, who has been documenting his journey on Twitter bit by bit, yesterday shared that he hired the best experts and equipment from around the world to set up his telecom cable factory in India.

Anil Agarwal acquired Shamsher Sterling Cable Company in 1976. The company ran into losses and put a huge strain on his finances – until 1986, when telephone cables were allowed to be manufactured by the private sector for the first time ever. That changed things for Agarwal, who got into the business of producing jelly-filled cables. According to a 2005 piece published on Rediff, Agarwal set up Sterlite Industries, for which a plant was bought in Illinois and shipped back to India.

In his post yesterday, Agarwal shared that when he first landed in America, he did not even have a place to stay. “My dear dreamers, I believe that the biggest roadblock in life is to never take a risk at all. When I landed in America, I had no place to stay but that didn’t matter,” the billionaire businessman behind Vedanta wrote.

“I came back to India with dreams bigger than my reality. As my feet touched the ground, I looked at the vast land in front of me & dreamt of setting up my telecom cable factory.”

...As my feet touched the ground, I looked at the vast land in front of me & dreamt of setting up my telecom cable factory. I got the best experts & equipment from America, some from Nokia in Finland, & the best bunch of youngsters to set up the plant in Aurangabad...(2/9)

— Anil Agarwal (@AnilAgarwal_Ved) May 2, 2022

“A true entrepreneur keeps expanding their capacity - & so we did. Moved from producing jelly-filled cables to optical fiber cables,” he wrote, adding that with their efforts, the average time to get a phone line in India (eight years, at the time!) also went down.

At the same time, he says, his team expanded to include “an IIT graduate, Dr Anand Agarwal; a future entrepreneur, Mukesh Arora; a government employee from Patna, B. Ahmad; and our star civil engineer, Ali Ansari.”

…We kept adding young, bright minds to our team, including an IIT graduate, Dr Anand Agarwal; a future entrepreneur, Mukesh Arora; a govt employee from Patna, B. Ahmad; and our star civil engineer, Ali Ansari...(4/9)

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— Anil Agarwal (@AnilAgarwal_Ved) May 2, 2022

“Within 5 years, these young freshers became by far the largest producers of telephone cables in India - it was unbelievable!” he wrote.

Agarwal says he is often asked “How did you do it?”. The answer, he says, lies in valuing your best employees.

“No matter how far you get in life, you must always take your people with you. Whether it is your CEO or your factory worker on the ground,” he wrote. “You must empower your people to deliver their best.”

As an example, he cites Ahmad, the government employee from Patna he had earlier mentioned. “I remember I got Ahmad to quit his prestigious job at Hindustan Cable and work with me because I knew he was the best at his job. And you will not believe it, he worked with me until he retired,” he said.

…that's where magic happens. I remember I got Ahmad to quit his prestigious job at Hindustan Cable and work with me because I knew he was the best at his job. And you will not believe it, he worked with me until he retired…Despite these wins, I kept thinking about…(7/9)

— Anil Agarwal (@AnilAgarwal_Ved) May 2, 2022