Reliance's Ambani: Deep-Tech Focus & Reinvention

New Delhi, Jun 25 (PTI) Billionaire Mukesh Ambani says his oil-to-telecom conglomerate Reliance reinvests business every 3-5 years and is aiming to become a deep-tech and advanced manufacturing company.

In an interview to McKinsey and Company's Leading Asia series, the chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries Ltd shared his vision of the future of the company.

His playbook includes reinventing before being forced to, betting big on the future and staying anchored in long-term impact.

At Reliance, reinvention has meant building the world's largest refinery, launching 4G connectivity across India, and investing USD 25 billion to digitise India through Jio. It is now building one of the world's largest manufacturing ecosystems for green and clean energy, covering solar, batteries, hydrogen, and bio-energy.

Ambani said the technology landscape is changing at an exponential speed and the key challenge for the next generation will be succeeding in this new order.

"Businesses of the future will have to be good at harnessing technologies of the future. So, our North Star has always been that our vision and purpose of doing business have to be impact-led," he said. "That's in the DNA of Reliance. We will figure out where to get to, what we want to do - as long as we have the right talent and we have the right goal."

The goal, even at the beginning of Reliance's journey over four decades ago, was to contribute to making India a prosperous nation and enabling all Indians to live a better life. "Between my father and I, as owner-leaders, we believed in this goal and we built a team that also believed in it and executed it with equal zeal."

That focus on the North Star, on achieving continuous growth through excellence, and creating large-scale societal impact remains unchanged in Reliance.

"What changes is our business strategy. Even today, we reinvent our business every three, four, or five years in terms of what we do," he said.

Ambani said the ambition for deep-tech began with the telecom foray, when Jio launched 5G in 2021, building every aspect of the service within the company. "We built everything ourselves, end to end—the core, the hardware, the software, every single piece. We used Ericsson and Nokia to help us on 20 per cent, just to make sure that the 80 per cent that we put in was good," he said.

The desire to develop technology stemmed from the era when the landscape was subjected to a lot of licenses for the technology. "When we grew up, we were the users of technology, and it was clear that we had to license technology from abroad to ensure high quality. But we were subjugated to so many licenses. It was also high risk because, at the end of the day, if a plan didn't work, you could lose your shirt," he said.

He encouraged his leadership to be 'owners of technology' to become innovators.

"The change now for Reliance is that we are going to be a deep-tech and advanced manufacturing company," he said.

Reliance has set its purpose in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) game by choosing to develop things that are 'downstream' and avoid the high-risk GPU game, he said. "Our big purpose is to solve the complex problems before society and create wealth for the nation and the people. For this, we need not go into the high-risk GPU game. Let's do everything downstream."

Asked about what is the guiding light or 'North Star' for Reliance, Ambani said, "I am very loyal to my father's vision... Our North Star has always been that our vision and purpose of doing business have to be impact-led. My father used to say that if you want to start a business to be a billionaire, you are an idiot; you will never get there. If you want to start a business to impact a billion people, then you have a good chance of success, and, as a byproduct, you can make a reasonable amount of money."

He also further shared his aim for longevity of Reliance and leaving behind a legacy through the company. "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."

Recalling his father's words, he said: "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. In 2027, Reliance will celebrate its golden jubilee. But I want Reliance to continue to serve India and humanity even after completing 100 years. And I am confident it will," he said.

On how he gets the 'right people' for his company and vision, Ambani said that the focus is on three Cs - character, competence and culture.

Character is more important than competence because competence can be built.