India’s top business brand, Reliance Industries, is effecting a generational change. At age 65, Mukesh Ambani has stepped aside as chairman of the Board of Jio Infocomm Ltd and installed his son Akash there. The message is loud and clear: that new blood is vital for the global conglomerate’s forward march. Having set the ball rolling, Reliance can be trusted to carry forward the process of reinvention in a more sweeping manner as time passes. Dynamism is what takes an enterprise forward; the Reliance Industries that was a relatively new entrant in the business horizon, starting in 1973, diversified from textiles to petrochemicals to natural gas, retail, and telecommunications in a span of half a century. It was the first Indian company to cross the 100 billion dollar mark in terms of revenue earned. The Reliance empire split in 2005 when Mukesh and Anil parted ways. Anil Ambani was the first to venture into the telecommunications sector but burnt his fingers. However, this did not hurt the Reliance brand.
The dynamism with which the Reliance Industries function under Mukesh Ambani is a continuation of what founder Dhirubhai Ambani had inspired the entity from its very start, from a tiny two-room apartment in South Mumbai. He kept his sons on both his sides from then on, forming a threesome that wove a success story on the lines of a fairy tale. What the Ambanis, and now the Adanis, have been accused of are their close and perhaps questionable engagements with the powers-that-be. Fact is, large numbers of Indian businesses grew and thrived by virtue of their closeness to the various governments. The socialist mindset in India, since the time of Jawaharlal Nehru, was anti-enterprise. India suffered as a result. It was only after the Liberalization since the early 1990s that Indian businesses began growing fast and making a mark in the global arena. Communist China did precisely this; and it encourages private enterprise that had been frowned upon during the Mao Zedong era. China learned lessons from capitalism, effected a turnaround in its national economy and is on track to emerge as the world’s largest economy.
Companies in the growth mode know the importance of a generational change. Businesses cannot hold themselves on to archaic styles; they need to constantly improve and reinvent. It’s only natural that Mukesh Ambani has begun the process of a generational change. A message from this must reach India’s political class too. Old hats must step aside and give a chance to the next generation that’s in wait. Else, they would only be doing a disservice to the nation.
