Ardeshir Godrej

Ardeshir Burjorji Sorabji Godrej (1868–1936) was an Indian businessman, who co-founded the Godrej Brothers Company, the precursor of the Godrej Group of companies.

Ardeshir was born in 1868 as the first of six children to Burjorji and Dosibai Gootherajee. The Gootherajee's were a wealthy Parsi-Zoroastrian family of Bombay (now Mumbai), and Ardeshir's father Burjorji and grandfather Sorabji dealt in real estate. In January 1871, his father had the family name changed to Godrej.

In 1890, Ardeshir married Bachu (Bachubai), who had just turned eighteen. On April 25, 1891, Bachubai and Ardeshir's a second cousin Pirojbai Sohrabji Kamdin decided to climb to the viewing platform of the 85 meter high Rajabai Tower. At the top, one or two miscreants accosted them. According to legend, rather than give into their demands, the two good-looking women jumped. Both lost their lives. Ardeshir rarely spoke of his loss, nor did he ever remarry. Ardeshir and Bachubai had no children.

In 1894, Ardeshir, fresh out of law school, was hired by well-known firm to argue a case on a client's behalf in Zanzibar.

One morning Ardeshir read an article in a daily newspaper on the rise of burglary incidents in the city and in which the commissioner of police called for better security of homes and places of business. Ardeshir grasped that a better lock was needed, and began to research the subject. He soon discovered that the locks made in India were all fashioned by hand, a labor intensive and inefficient means of manufacture, and Ardeshir resolved to manufacture a lock that would be guaranteed "unpickable".

Ardeshir set out to revolutionize the Indian lock-manufacturing industry. In a 20 m² (215 ft²) shed next door to the Bombay Gas Works, with forty steam presses and a dozen skilled workers he had sent for from Gujarat and Malabar, production began on May 7, 1897. Ardeshir began with the manufacture of high security locks – under the Anchor brand - to which he attached a guarantee of "unpickability". Only later did he begin production of simpler and cheaper tumbler locks, to which he attached a note that their security was not guaranteed. The notes that he attached to the locks also attempted to clear up any misconceptions about the number of levers – as he put it, a well-made four-lever lock was infinitely more secure than a poorly made eight-lever lock. In addition, he guaranteed that each key/lock pair was unique, and that no key except those delivered with the lock would succeed in unlocking the device.

So this was the start up story of one of the India’s biggest Business enterprise