For Reliance Industries, the telecom foray through its launch of Jio was by far the 'biggest risk' undertaken in pursuit of scale, Mukesh Ambani told McKinsey's Leading Asia series on June 25, adding that he had considered the worst-case scenario of the venture not having worked out financially.
"The biggest risk we have taken so far was Jio. At the time, it was our own money that we were investing, and l was the majority shareholder. Our worst-case scenario was that it might not work out financially because some analysts thought India was not ready for the most advanced digital technology," Ambani said in the interview.
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He added that the company has always taken big risks because scale is important to him. Nonetheless, Ambani backed the foray and told his board to go ahead with the venture. “In the worst case, we will not earn much return. That’s okay because it’s our own money. But then, as Reliance, this will be the best philanthropy that we will have ever done in India because we will have digitized India, and thereby completely transformed India.”
Mukesh Ambani recalled his late father and visionary leader Dhirubhai Ambani's words to him, "“Reliance is a process. It’s an institution that should last. You have to make sure that Reliance lasts beyond you and me.” As Reliance approaches its golden jubilee next year, Mukesh Ambani told McKinsey he wants the company to continue to serve India and humanity even after 100 years, revealing his belief in the 'businesses of the future'.
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"The fact that the technology landscape is changing at an exponential speed is self-evident. I think that the big challenge will be in the confidence of the next generation to succeed in this new landscape," Ambani added.
Compared to the Reliance of the 1960s and '70s, or of 2000s and 2020s, today it is a completely different organization, he said, highlighting the changing nature of the world every 5-10 years. This, he added, has changed a lot of conventions about businesses. "It goes against everything that we learned in business school, such as not integrating across the value chain. We have challenged all of those things. What has also happened is that, as we chase the opportunities of technology into the future, some of these opportunities become bigger than our existing opportunities. And we cannot leave them alone," Mukesh Ambani said.
Disclosure: Moneycontrol is a part of the Network18 group. Network18 is controlled by Independent Media Trust, of which Reliance Industries is the sole beneficiary.
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