Reading success stories of the greatest professionals stimulates motivational enzymes within us and we all wish to emulate them on the path of success.

 

Mukesh Ambani, the face of sustainable Indian business for the last four decades, powerfully represents a strong image of the Indian business sector that is cosmopolitan, advancing, and progressive.

 

Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani, an Indian billionaire businessman, and the chairman, managing director, and largest shareholder of Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL), a Fortune Global 500 company and India's most valuable company by market value. He is the richest person in Asia with a net worth of US$ 85.1 billion and as of March 3, 2021, the 11th richest in the world.

 

Mukesh Ambani chairs and runs $88 billion (revenue) Reliance Industries, which has interests in petrochemicals, oil and gas, telecom, and retail. Reliance was founded by his late father Dhirubhai Ambani, a yarn trader, in 1966 as a small textile manufacturer.

 

Mukesh is the eldest son of late Dhirubhai Ambani, the founder of Reliance Industries. Mukesh’s stake in Reliance Industries is 48%.

 

His younger brother Anil Ambani is another corporate bigwig and runs the competing company Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) after his split from his from Mukesh in 2006.

 

Mukesh’s big ‘power moment’ came in 2007, when a strong rally in the Indian stock market and the appreciation of the Indian rupee boosted the market capitalization of Reliance group companies, making him the world’s richest man for a brief period.

 

Born on 19 April 1957 in Aden, Colony of Aden (now Yemen), Mukesh did his schooling from Abaay Morischa School in Mumbai (India) and completed his graduation with a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the UDCT, now Institute of Chemical Technology (Mumbai). He later enrolled for an MBA from Stanford University but dropped out in 1980.

 

During the Indira Gandhi regime, the doors of PFY (Polyester Filament Yarn) manufacturing were open to the private sector in early 1980. His father Dhirubhai had applied for a license to set up PFY and amidst stiff competition from the Tatas, Birlas, and 43 others, Dhirubhai was awarded the license. To help build the PFY plant, Mukesh dropped out to help his father and initiated Reliance’s backward integration from textiles into polyester fibers and further into petrochemicals, petroleum refining, and going up-stream into oil and gas exploration and production in the year 1981.

 

Following his father’s footsteps of “dare to dream and learn to excel”, Mukesh has not only taken over the reign and responsibility of Reliance Industries Limited but has also been quintessential in making the company a global entity. He set up one of the largest and most complex information and communications technology initiatives in the world in the form of Reliance Infocomm Limited (now Reliance Communications Limited).

 

Hailed rightly as the ‘wealth creator’ he directed and led the creation of the world’s largest grassroots petroleum refinery at Jamnagar, India, with a current capacity of 660,000 barrels per day (33 million tonnes per year) integrated with petrochemicals, power generation, port, and related infrastructure.

 

An oracular thinker and optimist futurist at heart, Mukesh holds the Indian economy in a salubrious thought; buoyant about its capabilities and prospect. He holds ‘inclusive’ growth and ‘value’ addition as the key propellers of India’s economic prosperity.

 

Mukesh Ambani has been ranked as one of the world’s most respected business leaders and conferred various awards for his leadership skills.

Apart from being the head of the conglomerate empire, Mukesh is a member of the board of directors of Bank of America Corporation and a present member of the international advisory board of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is a former Chairman of the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIM-B). He is an Honorary Fellow of IChemE (the Institution of Chemical Engineers).

 

He also owns the Indian Premier League team, the Mumbai Indians, and grabbed headlines for his private 27 storey building in Mumbai (India) named ‘Antilia’. It is valued at $2.2 billion, deemed to be the world's second most valuable residential property, after British crown property Buckingham Palace, and the world's most valuable private residence.

 

During the Covid-19 lockdown, Ambani raised more than $20 billion selling a third of Jio to a string of investors, such as Facebook and Google.

The recent announcement of the biggest foreign investment by Japan’s Softbank in Reliance Jio and Saudi giant Aramco in Reliance Industries’ refining and petrochemical business is a lesson to Young Entrepreneurs how to take advantage of the opportunities by taking some risks in life. His meticulous plan to deleverage business by selling stakes shows his visionary leadership. Mukesh always believes “Investment in excellence is Investment in Future”.

 

Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani is a worthy example of business tycoons carrying forward the legacy. He has played a pivotal role in taking Reliance Industries Limited to the zenith of success in his illustrious career. He will always remain the top business mentor and the idol of every Young Entrepreneur in India who aspires to emulate his capabilities and establish a name for him in the competitive business world.