Ravi Pillai: Tower of Strength
We often assume that those studied in globally renowned universities become big achievers, due to the quality of education and the higher level of training they receive. This need not be true, because often it's an erroneous assumption. In the book, The Formula: The Universal Laws of Success, Albert-László Barabási, a Romanian-born Hungarian-American physicist who is best known for his discoveries in network science and medicine, claims that ambition is the key element of success.
Ambition is what drives people to new heights and creates the motivation to accomplish goals. It's ambition that often causes innovators to create new products, or ordinary people to take steps to improve their financial position. Without a sense of drive or ambition, things would remain mostly stagnant. However, excessive ambition can be detrimental to true success, because an individual’s hubris can cause him to be reckless and arrogant. Such misplaced ambition may impact family of physical well-being while others may come to perceive such people as self-interested or unrealistic.
It was his ambition and never-say-die attitude that led Ravi Pillai, who was born in a poor family, to venture into a chit-fund business and later to undertake engineering contracts in Kerala, India, at a young age. However, he was forced to wind up his engineering business, due to labour issues. Thereafter, in 1978, he left for Saudi Arabia. Today, the entrepreneur of Indian descent has a formidable global business empire, RP Group, that ranks as the top business in the UAE, with a net worth of $3.1 billion. Ravi Pillai is also the first Indian to own the Rs 100-crore Airbus H145 helicopter.
Ambition to Succeed
Born in Chavara in Kollam in Kerala, India, Ravi Pillai earned a degree in Commerce from the University of Cochin. During his university days, he launched his first business, a chit-fund in Kollam. Later he started an engineering contract business. He worked for some of the major industrial houses in Kerala, including Fertilisers & Chemicals Travancore Ltd, Hindustan Newsprint Ltd, and Cochin Refineries. But labour issues forced him to discontinue the operations. However, his ambition to make it big led him to travel to Saudi Arabia in 1978, and soon he set up a small trading business. Within a couple of years, he moved into the construction business with the establishment of Nasser S. Al Hajri Corporation (NSH). And over the years the business grew and became the flagship company of RP Group. Currently, the group has over 70,000 employees spread across various business units. Also, he has built a shopping mall, RP Mall, in Kollam, Kerala.
Over the years, Ravi Pillai expanded his business to the UAE, Qatar and Bahrain. He has business interests in construction, hospitality, steel, cement, and oil & gas industries. Moreover, RP Group has stakes in hotels, such as Leela Kovalam, Hotel Raviz, Kollam, and WelcomHotel Raviz Kadavu, Kozhikode in Kerala. He also has interests in the health care sector through Upasana Hospital and Research Centre, a 300-bed multi-speciality hospital in Kollam.
RP Group
In the 1970s, the newly discovered hydrocarbon assets spurred rapid economic growth and development in the Gulf region. RP Group received the impetus for growth as it began its operations during this developmental period. Today, the group has a presence across most of the GCC countries and others. It has gained reputation for its engineering expertise and timely delivery of complex projects that comply with the highest global quality standards. Being one of the best companies, the group is the preferred partner for governments in the Gulf and some of the largest companies in the region, which are actively engaged in the hydrocarbons industry in the Middle East.
In recent years, RP Group built a distinct identity in the global real estate market. It has unveiled two projects in Dubai, the business and leisure hub of the MENASA region. Its expertise in contracting and industrial development is increasingly being leveraged to develop iconic real estate projects across the Arabian peninsula. Also, the group has exceptional competency in hospitality services in the UAE and India. Raviz Group, an ancillary of the RP Group of Companies, has a slew of resorts and hotels in both the UAE and India, with a large cross-section of guests and individual properties ranging from high-end luxury to budget.
The group also has an extensive presence in the travel and tourism sector led by a strong team of professionals. Apart from individual travel-related services, the group is reputed for corporate travel business. Its footprint in the sector has been expanding into medical tourism through total healthcare packages provided in partnership with world-class health and wellness providers. It has state-of-the-art hospitals that provide high-quality and modern healthcare facilities, with free medical services for the poor.
The group's business has evolved beyond its initial objectives into education to serve the community. It made a foray into education with a K12 school in Bahrain and later a nursing college in Kerala, India. Both institutions have carved out a niche for themselves in their respective fields. It intends to establish more educational institutions in the future.
Today, RP Group is amongst the largest employers of Indian workers in the Middle East. Ravi Pillai rose to wealth and fame, thanks to the construction giant that earns revenue of $7.8 billion (Rs 64,000 crore). He was rewarded with the Pravasi Bhartiya Samman in 2008 by the Government of India. He also was honoured with a doctoral degree from New York’s Excelsior College. In 2010, the Government of India honoured him with the prestigious civilian honour of Padma Shri. Arabian Business ranked him as the 4th most powerful Indian in the Middle East in 2015.
Family
Ravi Pillai is married to Geetha Pillai, and they have a son Ganesh Ravi Pillai and a daughter Arathi Ravi Pillai. The family lives in Dubai, UAE. He celebrated his daughter Arathi's wedding with Adithya Vishnu at Kollam, Kerala, in 2015, at a total expense of $7.5 million (Rs 55 crore) in accordance with Nair community's customs and cultural traditions. His daughter's marriage is considered the most expensive in his native-place Kerala to date. His son Ganesh Pillai, who is married to Anjana Suresh, is an engineer by profession. He is currently the vice-chairman of the RP Group. He has been charting a new path for shaping the future of the conglomerate. The group plans to employ 80,000 more employees, including 6,000 engineers, in 2024. As per company sources, 80% of these recruitments will be made in India. Moreover, the construction of the proposed luxurious 100-storeyed building in Dubai is slated for commencement shortly. The group has bagged a major contract to build a few petrochemical plants in the GCC countries.
Despite being the son of a farmer struggling in poverty, Ravi Pillai achieved extraordinary success by his ambition and determination.
(Photo: Courtesy RP Group)
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