‘Reliance is an institution that will last beyond us’: Mukesh Ambani on his father’s vision

Reliance will turn 50 in 2027, but Ambani says the goal is to serve India for a century.

Mukesh Ambani says his biggest commitment is to ensure Reliance Industries Ltd lives well beyond its founders.

“We are believers that, at the end of the day, you come without anything into this world, and you leave without taking anything with you. What you leave behind is an institution,” Ambani said in an interview with McKinsey’s Gautam Kumra. “My father said to me, ‘Reliance is a process. It’s an institution that should last. You have to make sure that Reliance lasts beyond you and me.’ That’s my commitment to him, that Reliance will last beyond us.”

Reliance will turn 50 in 2027, but Ambani says the goal is to serve India for a century. “I want Reliance to continue to serve India and humanity even after completing 100 years. And I am confident it will.”

The group’s transformation over the decades, from polyester to petrochemicals, telecom and now green energy, has been driven by bold bets, none bigger than Jio. In 2016, Reliance invested $25 billion to enter a highly competitive telecom market.

“We’ve always taken big risks because, for us, scale is important. The biggest risk we have taken so far was Jio,” Ambani said. “At the time, it was our own money that we were investing, and I was the majority shareholder.”

“But I told my board, ‘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 digitised India, and thereby completely transformed India.’”

He credited his father, Dhirubhai Ambani, for inspiring this mindset. “He saved his first $100, about $1,000 today, working in Yemen as a gas station attendant. He came to Mumbai in 1960 and said, ‘I will build a business of my own, and make it one of India’s biggest and most consequential.’”

“That’s the mindset we have when we say we believe in the businesses of the future,” Ambani said.

“He came to Mumbai in 1960 and said, ‘I will build a business of my own, and make it one of India’s biggest and most consequential.’ He started with one table, one chair, a telephone, and that $100 as capital.”

That early vision of backing future-focused businesses with scale continues to guide Reliance even today. “At the beginning of building any new business, we ask ourselves: ‘What is the most critical need for India’s development, and how can we fulfil it at scale and over a long arc of time?’ That remains a fundamental piece of Reliance,” he said.

“That’s why we didn’t hesitate to build polyester first or to build 4G before its time. The same is now true about our newest business venture in new energy,” he added. “We are building one of the world’s largest manufacturing ecosystems for green and clean energy. It covers solar, batteries, hydrogen, bio-energy and much more. This is our contribution to saving planet Earth from the looming climate crisis.”

When asked how Reliance unlocks that extraordinary potential, Ambani pointed to the clarity of purpose. “I think it’s clarity about the goal, the purpose, and the mission. I am a big believer that, individually, all of us have great potential, but we are limited by our habits. Habits prevent us from realising our potential.”