What leadership transition means for Reliance Industries

Mukesh Ambani has seen the succession battle from very close quarters. In 2002, when his father died without writing a will, he was locked in one such bitter confrontation with his brother Anil Ambani. After over three years of face-off, a family pact divided the Reliance businesses between the two brothers.

So now, at 64, Ambani doesn’t want to take any chances. About a month ago, several reports had surfaced that the Reliance chairman was planning to move his family’s holding into a trust-like structure. Similar to what some other billionaire families like Waltons and Kochs did.

Now, Ambani has hinted that the preparatory phase for handing over the baton of his business empire to his three kids is coming to an end. His children have been increasingly playing more visible roles at the company – from speaking about the future roadmap at AGMs to brokering billion-dollar deals.

And he chose his father’s birth anniversary, December 28, to make the big announcement. The family marks the day as Reliance Family Day.

In what cements the future roles of his three Ivy League-educated children Isha, Akash and Anant at Reliance, Ambani said he had no doubt they would lead Reliance to even greater heights.

It is the first time that Ambani has spoken publicly about succession planning at his $215 billion business empire.

While he has not disclosed any timeline to step back from his responsibilities, the latest speech shows that the time for his children to take up major roles at Reliance is almost here after years of grooming.

Now 30 years old, twins Isha Ambani and Akash Ambani had joined the board of Reliance Jio Infocomm and Reliance Retail Ventures as directors in 2014, at the age of 24.

Isha graduated from Yale University in 2013 with a double major in Psychology and South Asian Studies and had a brief stint with consultancy firm McKinsey before joining the family business.

Akash, meanwhile, majored in economics from Brown University and worked with Jio before becoming a director. As Jio’s head of strategy and a member of its executive committee, Akash is closely involved with its product development.

Today, they are also on the board of Jio Platforms, the holding company for Reliance’s telecom and digital assets and have been a constant feature at the company’s product launches. Its strategic investment deals with companies like Facebook, Google and Intel were negotiated by the duo.

Besides, Isha also engineered the launch of fashion portal Ajio while Akash handles the IPL team Mumbai Indians.

Kavil Ramachandran, Professor at the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, gave his views on the timing of Ambani’s announcement regarding the succession plans.

26-year-old Anant Ambani is also a Brown University alumnus like his brother. In February, he became the last of the three to join Reliance when he was inducted as a director of the O2C subsidiary, which would have housed the refining and petrochemical business. But the plan did not go ahead.

And in July, Anant was appointed to the board of solar companies that were incorporated as part of Reliance’s green energy initiatives. The company is investing $10 billion over the next three years in green energy.

Mukesh Ambani’s actions suggest that eventually his three children could be leading separate divisions of Reliance. The promoter stake is today worth $110 billion.

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