'We can build businesses of the future, just like my father did,' says Mukesh Ambani

Industrialist Mukesh Ambani has revealed how his father, Dhirubhai Ambani, business approach is still followed by his company while starting a new venture.

According to Ambani, his father was a prudent person who set up a greenfield polyester factory, the biggest of its kind in India, in record time in the 60s.

Ambani, in an interview with McKinsey & Company said his father's teachings still exist in the DNA of Reliance. He said that the oil-to-retail conglomerate focuses on the critical need for India's development and how it can be fulfilled over a long arc of time. Consequently, Reliance has built businesses of the future.

"We can extrapolate the future 20 years from today. That’s why we didn’t hesitate to build polyester first or to build 4G before its time", Ambani added that the North Star always has been that the vision and purpose of doing business have to be impacted.

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Remembering the teachings of Dhirubhai Ambani, the business tycoon said, "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".

The 68-year-old businessman said he is loyal to his father's vision. Ambani recounted how his father started a business through $100 savings. "He was the founder of Reliance, an initiative that was started even before the garage start-ups in the United States. My father Dhirubhai Ambani wasa son of a schoolteacher. He saved his first $100—about $1,000 today —working in Yemen as a gas station attendant. He came to Mumbai in 1960, and started with one table, one chair, a telephone, and that $100 as capital".

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Textiles were very big in India in the 1960s, and polyester had just been invented. "My father decided to start trading in polyester. He demonstrated the benefits of economies of scale.

And now, four decades later, the conglomerate is building manufacturing ecosystems for green and clean energy amid a looming climate crisis, the industrialist added.

RIL has aimed to achieve Net Carbon Zero by 2035. At the 2021 AGM, Ambani announced an investment of over Rs 75,000 crore ($10 billion) in building a comprehensive ecosystem for new energy and materials in the country.