Ahead of the festival of lights 50-year-old Surat-based diamond baron Savji Dholakia grabbed eyeballs around the world when news of his company Hari Krishna Exports Pvt. ltd giving Fiat Punto cars, two bedroom flats and diamond jewellery to 1200-odd employees as Diwali bonus, appeared everywhere. Now, on Diwali, Dholakia and three other tycoons, also from Gujarat’s second biggest city, are floating an airline company Diamond Aeronautics on a no-profit, no-loss basis.
Today, Dholakia may be running a business empire worth Rs 6,000 crores, but his is a classic rags-to-riches story. Hailing from a small village, Dudhala in Amreli district, Dholakia a Class IV dropout migrated to Surat in 1978 in search of a steady job in the diamond cutting and polishing industry.
The son of a farmer, he got a job in a local firm at a monthly salary of Rs 169. Gradually he grasped tricks of the trade and also started working in a diamond brokerage firm apart from doing his primary job of diamond cutting and polishing.
A family friend of Dholakia told The Pioneer: “At that time, he purchased a Bajaj M80 to run around on the streets of India’s diamond city Surat, where eight out of ten of the world’s diamonds are cut and polished as per an estimate.”
However, the enterprising Dholakia always wanted to start his own business rather than work for others. During those days, he didn’t have adequate money to start a venture. Hence, he went to his uncle and took a small loan from him to start a small diamond cutting and polishing unit. The rest, as they say, is history. From there, the hardworking Dholakia never looked back. He finally established Hari Krishna Exports Pvt ltd in the year 1991. His exports were then worth Rs 1 crore.
“Once Hari Krishna came into existence, our exponential growth started. We opened offices in Belgium, Hong Kong and England too,” said Dholakia.
Talking about the reason behind giving such generous bonuses to his employees Dholakia said: “Since I have worked my way up from a humble background, I understand the needs of my employees. In our company, employees are always treated as stakeholders. The stress is on making the employees good and happy human beings.”
In an interview to a news channel, he said: “My son has done an MBA from New York and has been working with me for six years. We have our own method of choosing people. Everyone got together and analyzed who the people responsible for our growth were. We know who has added what value to the company. What we have given them is nothing compared to the efforts put in by these people.”
Dholakia’s motto is: “I will not have less if I give. It is the law of nature. When I sow one seed, I’ll have a hundred seeds in my kitty later.”