Mukesh Ambani’s carefully charted succession plan!

Mukesh Ambani recently laid his carefully charted succession plan for India’s largest conglomerate Reliance Industries. He stepped down as the director of the company’s digital and telecom arm, Reliance Jio Infocom. Subsequently, His eldest son Akash was handed over the reins of the company. 

It isn’t like India’s most prominent business tycoon is set to retire, as he will be the Chairman & MD of Reliance Industries, which owns 67% stake in Jio platforms. 

So, Reliance Industries has three broad businesses
     
- Oil refining and petrochemicals
- Retail 
- Digital services which include telecom. 

While retail and digital services are housed in two separate wholly-owned subsidiaries, the oil-to-chemical or O2C business is a functional division of Reliance. The new energy business is also with the holding company.

It is anticipated that Akash, would be in charge of the Digital & Telecom business, while Isha, would lead the Retail arm of the company.

This would be the first time after 2002, that somebody else would lead the company. The timing for succession planning couldn’t have been better, as with 5G rolling out in the country, Akash may get hands-on experience in leading a big project. 

Reliance’s telecom business is already fine-tuned, with just three players in the industry and Reliance on top, the business is already reliance crown. The digital arm though is undergoing some structural changes and it could test Junior Ambani’s leadership skills.

But, Akash has been a crucial part of the telecom giant since it was in the conception stage, and Ambani’s resignation could provide him a playground to experience and evolve.

He was a non-executive director at Reliance Jio. He was part of teams that negotiated Meta Platforms Inc.’s investment into Jio’s parent and has led major acquisitions by Jio in the digital space in the last few years. 

He also led the launch of Jio’s 4G services in India with his sister, Isha, and worked towards the launch of JioPhone in 2017.

With the change in the reins, it’s all going to be new for Reliance. The Senior Ambani is still going to call the shots for all the big actions in the company.