Lakshmi Mittal - The Man of Steel

          Lakshmi Mittal, the London-based, Rajasthan born steel baron is the Chairman and CEO of Mittal Steel Company and the world’s 3rd richest man. Lakshmi Narayan Mittal also known as Lakshmi Niwas Mittal is a billionaire industrialist, born in Rajasthan, India in 1950. Lakshmi graduated from St. Xavier’s College in Calcutta where he received a Bachelor of Commerce degree. He later married Usha Mittal, and had a son and daughter.

         Mittal began his career working in the family’s steelmaking business in India, and has over 30 years of experience working in steel and related industries. Mittal founded the company Mittal Steel (formerly the LNM Group) in 1976 and has been responsible for the development of its businesses ever since. Mittal Steel is a global steel producer with operations in 14 countries. 

           Mittal pioneered the development of integrated mini-mills and the use of Direct Reduced Iron or “DRI” as a scrap substitute for steelmaking and led the consolidation process of the global steel industry. Mittal Steel is the largest steelmaker in the world, with shipments of 42.1 million tons of steel and profits of over $22 billion in 2004.

           Mittal was awarded Fortune magazines “European Businessman of the Year 2004” and also “Steelmaker of the Year” in 1996 by New Steel, and the “Willy Korf Steel Vision Award” in 1998, for outstanding vision, entrepreneurship, leadership and success in global steel development from American Metal Market and PaineWeber’s World Steel Dynamics.

            Mittal is an active philanthropist and a member of a few trusts. Mittal is a member of the Foreign Investment Council in Kazakhstan, the International Investment Council in South Africa, the World Economic Forum’s International Business Council and the International Iron and Steel Institute’s Executive Committee. He is a Director of ICICI Bank Limited and is on the Advisory Board of the Kellogg School of Management in the U.S. In March 2005, Forbes Magazine named him the 3rd richest man in the world and the richest non-American, with an estimated wealth of US$25 billion.

            He is the wealthiest person in Britain. His house in Kensington, bought in 2003 for $128 million is the most expensive house ever purchased.

            In my view, Lakshmi Mittal is a very determined and courageous man. Despite sleeping in thin mattress, he learned that he should wake up and see his future. He planned and makes strategies so that he can enhance his business. He is also has great patience and brave enough to take risk in his life. He might have just carried out his family’s steelmaking business, but he did not. He takes risk to expand the business rather keeping him in a comfort zone. His secret of success merely lays on his positive characteristics and his enthusiasm in business line.