COMPANIES TO ADMIRE: success story of L.N.Mittal
“Raise yourself so high that one day god himself asks you “what else do you want?” “
Many of you reading this would want to start-up a venture of your own and some of you already have established enterprises. I want to ask you a question “is only the idea and the execution enough?”
I believe it isn’t, because becoming an entrepreneur isn’t a one day task. It takes years of toil, in fact I believe it isn’t your usual 9-5 job and so each day is a different journey. What really binds all of us, established and aspiring entrepreneurs are “idols”. And this brings me to one of those businessmen who have been so many people’s idol MR.LAXMI NIWAS MITTAL, from his firm to his personality, to his success story, everything about him is inspiring.
Most of us know Mr. Mittal as “Biggest steel maker of the world” as he happens to be the largest steel producer of the world. The story of how Mittal rose from relative obscurity to become a modern day Andrew Carnegie is relatively well known.

He was born in Sadulpur, Rajasthan. His father's business Ispat India has weathered many storms in the last decade. At the tender age of 26 Lakshmi Mittal was despatched to Indonesia to oversee the family's mill now called Ispat Indo. Lakshmi Mittal parted ways with his father's in 1995. In the late '80s, Mittal moved into acquisition mode and bought mills in places like Trinidad and followed that up in Canada. The greatest coup was when he snapped up the loss-making Sibalsa Mill in Mexico for $220 million in 1992. The 20-year-old facility was originally built by the Mexican Government for around $2 billion. Most steel industry analysts say the deal was extremely favourable and till recently the plant was the mainstay of the LNM empire.
His mills in Trinidad and Canada and Ispat Mexicana gave him a strong base in North America. In 1998 he consolidated his position in the continent by buying Inland Steel.

In the mid-'90s Mittal decided that he needed a more central base for his rapidly growing empire and shifted to London. There he set the tone that other Indian industrialists have watched enviously -- and some have tried to emulate. His neighbours in Bishop's Avenue, Hampstead include the Sultan of Brunei and King Fahd of Saudi Arabia. And other Indian businessmen -- perhaps hoping that the Mittal effect would rub off on them -- have also taken up premises near the LNM office in Berkeley Square House, Mayfair.

Mittal has always insisted that he is on the lookout for buys anywhere in the world. But he seems to have followed a clear pattern. In the early '90s he focused mainly on North America then he shifted focus to Western Europe and bought plants in Ireland, France and Germany.
These moves gave him a strong hold in the western European market for what are called long products. His moves in eastern Europe could also pay off in a big way. By 2005 the Czech Republic and Poland will be part of the enlarged EU and by 2007 Romania will also join the fold.

What next? Mittal once said that a modern steel company would be right-sized at around 20mt. He has now upped that to around 40mt and admits that he might double that once again. But as the industry consolidates it looks certain that Lakshmi Mittal will be out there in front stoking up blast furnaces around the world.
He produces 70 million tonne steel every year. He has a gap of 28 million tonne between him and the next guy. Guy Dolle and Arcelor New Mittal are planning to take over Arcelor—A Dutch steel company. It is the next station in the journey of dreams of Mittal. Through there are problems but we hope that he may do it again. Perhaps that would be his new golden moment.
So, we can see that in life only those who dream and have the courage to survive can make it big! Personalities like him have always inspired people and will continue to do so. And, I being an Indian feel so proud of the fact that people like him are there, proving to the world that “if we want, then we can!” he surely is a person to look up to and his firm is definitely a company to admire.