New Delhi:
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani spoke on Tuesday about the leadership transition at his energy-to-retail conglomerate, saying he wants the process to speed up with seniors, including him, and yield to the younger generation.
Mr Ambani, 64, who previously did not speak about succession plans at the country’s most valuable company, said Reliance is “now in the process of delivering a momentous leadership transition.” Ambani has three children – twins Akash and Isha, and Anant.
Speaking at Reliance Family Day, which marks the birthday of the group’s founder, Dhirubhai Ambani, he said Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) will become one of the strongest and most renowned Indian multinational companies in the world in the coming years, propelled by forays in the clean and green energy sector, as well as in the retail and telecom sectors which reached unprecedented heights.
“Achieving big dreams and impossible-looking goals is all about getting the right people and the right leadership. Reliance is now in the process of bringing about a momentous leadership transition… from seniors belonging to my generation to the next generation of young leaders,” he said.
And he would like to see this process ‘speeded up’. The speech was reported by a news channel owned by Mr Ambani.
The company did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment on Mr Ambani’s comments about the succession.
“All seniors – myself included – should now give in to the highly competent, extremely committed and incredibly promising young leadership talent at Reliance,” said Mr. Ambani. “We need to guide them, enable them, encourage them and empower them… and sit back and applaud them for outperforming us.” He didn’t work out.
Reliance now has three vertical markets: energy business consisting of oil refineries in Jamnagar in Gujarat, petrochemical plants and new power plants, retail consisting of brick and mortar stores and online e-commerce unit in JioMart, and telecom and digital operations in Jio.
Ambani said Reliance needs to build an organizational culture that outlasts its leaders. “I have no doubt that Akash, Isha and Anant as the leaders of the next generation will take Reliance to even greater heights.” In it, he saw “the same spark and potential” that the legendary industrialist and his father had “to make a difference in millions of lives and contribute to the growth of India.” “Let’s wish them all the best of luck in their mission to make Reliance ever more successful with even more transformative initiatives and even more accolades for our Reliance,” he said.
He sounded careful not to slacken vigilance, saying that while normalcy is slowly returning after the pandemic, it is still clouded by uncertainty about the spread of the new variants.
Mr Ambani said that despite the pandemic, Reliance has completely redesigned its energy business.
Energy activities were previously limited to oil refining, petrochemicals, fuel retailing and natural gas production. Now it is investing billions of dollars in setting up clean energy factories.