Reliance Industries Ltd. (4Ps Publication, IIPM)

Well, how innovative is Reliance Industries Ltd? To answer this inimitable query, one should perhaps ask another as inimitable question: how innovative is Mukesh Ambani? Of course, he was ranked 42nd amongst the World’s Most Respected Business Leaders (and second amongst Indian ones) by PricewaterhouseCoopers two years back. Of course, he came 13th in Fortune’s Asia Power 25 List. Of course, he was the reason why Reliance’s manufacturing capacities increased by over 1200% within a short period of time. But innovative? Beyond doubt, yes! And a quality that has most imperatively rubbed off on his company. No doubt, Mukesh’s much talked about Rs.25,000 crore investment in the retail sector would be written about for ages to come, but what might be forgotten quite easily is the fact that Mukesh has converted Reliance Industries Ltd into one of the savviest and most innovative project management corporations ever seen in the history of Indian operations. Under this umbrella of project management, is the most important critical success factor of financial planning, including brilliant aspects of tax planning, that Reliance has not only mastered, but has taught in the year 2002, with the merger of Reliance Industries and Reliance Petroleum, the group in one shot saved hundreds of crores of rupees in taxes due to many legally allowed loopholes. A master of even the capital markets, Reliance – India’s only non governmental claim to the Fortune 500 list – has given more appreciation to shareholder value even during its recent demerger, than perhaps any other private corporation in India’s history. And now with its new found impetus to dominate the Indian retail industry, Reliance is replicating the same famed innovative practices in project management, that have allowed it to comfortably beat all that the competition had to offer. With even the likes of global giants like Wal-Mart studying Reliance’s progress with keen interest, it is no doubt that this corporation has a lot of rewriting work to do in the future; the work of rewriting established rules – something that Mukesh would be comfortable with!


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Editor: Arindam Chaudhuri

Source: IIPM Publication