Mukesh Ambani bats for young RIL, to keep average age of talent at 30s

The billionaire also set a target to grow RIL into the world's top ten conglomerates

Mukesh Ambani, the billionaire chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries (RIL), on Thursday listed growth, talent enrichment, and adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) as targets for the company in 2024 and vowed to make it one of the top ten business conglomerates in the world.

Address employees on the 91st birth anniversary of RIL’s founder Dhirubhai Ambani, he set the ambitious goal to grow the company into the top ten business conglomerates of the world.

“RIL can and will grow to be among the top ten business conglomerates of the world,” he said, without giving a timeline for the target.

Referring to his workforce as his “perpetual recharge battery”, Ambani said, “Usher in 2024 with three key messages – AI adoption, talent enrichment, and institutional culture”.

His other time-bound targets for the company included the completion of an AI transformation across all businesses in 2024 to emerge as a “pioneer” in developing AI to solve India’s urgent national priorities in education, healthcare, agriculture, and employment generation.

“To make RIL an AI-immersive tech company, we need to develop the skill set at all levels in the company,” he said.

The past two years have seen the billionaire set the stage for succession. This year also saw the appointment of the third generation of the Ambani family at the company board level in a non-executive role.

“RIL is going through a generational transition,” Ambani said, adding that the future belongs to Isha, Akash, and Anant (Ambani’s children) and their generation.

Ambani also emphasised the need for a young talent pool, stating, “We must keep RIL forever young, to keep the average age of all our talented teams in their 30s.”

He urged employees not to brood over the mistakes of the young. “Young leaders will commit mistakes. That's for sure. But my advice to them is simple: Do not waste your energy conducting a post-mortem on past mistakes,” he said.

At age 66, Ambani is Asia's richest man as of December 12, according to the Forbes Rich List, with a net worth of $94.3 billion. In the past, Ambani has used his late father Dhirubhai's birth anniversary to launch new services, such as the soft launch of its telecom venture Jio in 2015.

He concluded his Thursday address by saying: “2023 was a great year for RIL and India; 2024 would be even better.”