By Rashmi Rajput
This profile was written in August 2018 during the author's Modlingua internship. Figures and roles are as they stood at the time.
There are many influential personalities in India and abroad who motivate people with their deeds and achievements. They are experts in different fields - social, political, entertainment or business - but the common factor among them is their dedication and perseverance, which keeps them going in spite of all the hurdles in life. One such personality is Lakshmi Mittal, the UK-based steel magnate who rose to incredible heights through sheer effort, hard work and a remarkable mindset.
From a very young age, Lakshmi Mittal did not let any restriction interrupt his plans for progress beyond borders. His innovative thinking and self-confidence led him to take over loss-making companies and turn them into huge successes.
Early life
Lakshmi Mittal was born in June 1950 in Sadulpur, a small village in Rajasthan, India, the son of a steel producer. Electricity reached the village only in 1960. His family later moved to Calcutta in West Bengal, where his father Mohan Lal Mittal set up a small steel plant. His parents named him Lakshmi after the Hindu goddess of wealth. He studied business and accounting at St. Xavier's College in Kolkata and worked with his father in the family steel mill after classes.
Realising that opportunities for higher growth were limited in India, and with his father's support, he moved to Indonesia at the age of 26 to build his first steel mill, on rice paddies owned by his father. Much of his success came from buying up state-owned firms that were running at huge losses and making them profitable. In 1989, he turned a government-owned firm in Trinidad and Tobago that was losing $1 million a day into a profitable business - a situation where US consultants and German experts had failed to find a solution.
Building the world's largest steelmaker
He created Mittal Steel in 2004 by combining his publicly listed Ispat International with the closely held LNM Holdings. A year later, he bought billionaire Wilbur Ross's International Steel Group for $4.7 billion. In 2006, Mittal Steel won a five-month battle to buy Luxembourg-based Arcelor, creating the world's largest steelmaker.
Mittal has lived in London since 1997. His daughter Vanisha's wedding to Delhi-born investment banker Amit Bhatia in June 2004, held at the Palace of Versailles, was reputed to have cost more than $55 million. For the wedding of his son Aditya in 1998, the Mittal family celebrated at Calcutta's Victoria Memorial. His wife Usha ran the Indonesian business, while Aditya and Vanisha joined the Board of Directors of Mittal Steel.
Achievements
In 1996, he was named Steel Maker of the Year by New Steel Magazine in the USA. In 2004, the Wall Street Journal named him Entrepreneur of the Year, and Time magazine included him in its list of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2007, the President of India awarded him the Padma Vibhushan. He also received a Fellowship of King's College London and was decorated with the Grand Cross of Civil Merit by the Government of Spain.
The ArcelorMittal Orbit
Mittal played a part in the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games through one of the city's most iconic structures, the ArcelorMittal Orbit, designed by Anish Kapoor and Cecil Balmond. The opportunity came from a chance meeting between London Mayor Boris Johnson and Lakshmi Mittal in a cloakroom at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in 2009. Knowing that the India-born Mittal had adopted London as his home, the Mayor explained his vision for an iconic landmark to commemorate the Games. Mittal offered to donate the steel, and in that 45-second conversation the plan for the ArcelorMittal Orbit was born.
In his own words: "Building a huge steel structure to celebrate the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games was a great opportunity for ArcelorMittal to showcase the unique qualities of steel and its critical role in the world's infrastructure."
The company
At the time this profile was written, ArcelorMittal was the largest producer of steel in North and South America and Africa, a considerable producer in the CIS countries, and the largest steel producer in the European Union, with significant operations in France, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Luxembourg, Poland, the Czech Republic and Romania. Its mining arm operated 14 units across Brazil, Bosnia, Canada, Kazakhstan, Liberia, Mexico, Ukraine and the United States. The company reported revenue of $68.7 billion in 2017 and ran 12 major research centres working on cleaner processes and greener products, including ultra-high-strength steels and ultra-low CO2 steelmaking.
Success mantra
His management strategy focuses on product diversity, geographic reach and diversification. His leadership not only brought him global success; he also encourages others to do their best. In his opinion: "We should not only continuously challenge and improve ourselves; we should also actively encourage and foster talent and responsibility in others. We want everyone in our company to find in their professional lives a capacity to put the best into what they do. If you show initiative and accept challenges, then there will be no hindrance to your growth."
