From cotton trader’s dream to empire, new book chronicles the rise of Ambuja Cement

Published by HarperCollins India, ‘The Ambuja Story’ by Narotam Sekhsaria will be released on 29 January on SoftCover, ThePrint’s venture to launch select non-fiction books.

The book, ‘The Ambuja Story: How a Group of Ordinary Men Created an Extraordinary Company’ by Narotam Sekhsaria, has been published by HarperCollins India.

New Delhi: The beginnings of one of India’s biggest cement empires was spurred by the  “invisible hand of destiny”, a new book chronicling the story of Ambuja Cement reveals. 

The book, ‘The Ambuja Story: How a Group of Ordinary Men Created an Extraordinary Company’, has been written by Narotam Sekhsaria, chairman of Ambuja Cements Ltd, who said he decided to pen this autobiography “after much persuasion” from family and friends. 

Published by HarperCollins India, the book will be released on 29 January on SoftCover, ThePrint’s venture to launch select non-fiction books.

The prologue sets the tone for how Ambuja Cements was born out of Sekhsaria’s dream of becoming an “industrialist”, when he was a cotton trader with little knowledge of the cement industry. 

What started off as a plan to open a cement factory in Uttar Pradesh led to doors being opened in another direction — Gujarat — all thanks to a coincidence.

“I felt it was the right time to tell the story of how a handful of colleagues and I built a wonderful company that everyone knows as Ambuja Cement. This book is also a tale of the highs and lows of entrepreneurship in India, spanning several decades. Most of all, it is a chronicle of the virtues of self-belief and trust in building an institution — my colleagues’ trust in me and my vision; and my belief in their ability to realise that vision,” Sekhsaria, who led the company for decades, said about his experience writing the book. 

The book has garnered praise from Sekhsaria’s contemporaries. Uday Kotak, managing director and CEO of Kotak Mahindra Bank, called the book “fascinating, representing the old spirit of Marwari and Gujarati joint family tradition transforming into modern corporate leadership”.

Sachin Sharma, executive editor of HarperCollins India, called the book a “case study” for startup builders, adding, “The Ambuja Story is a celebration of the spirit of entrepreneurship, and we are excited to be publishing this exceptional book.”

Apart from chairing Ambuja Cements, Sekhsaria is also chairman of ACC Limited, and the Ambuja Cements Foundation. He also manages the Narotam Sekhsaria Foundation, a leading philanthropic funding agency.