Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani has revealed the one principle that he has followed for over 40 years in his career. In an interview with McKinsey & Co, the richest man in India revealed that he set an "eye contact" rule for top leadership at Reliance to show sincerity to employees.
"About 30 or 40 years ago, I said that another principle I should personally have is to look any of my employees in the eye. At Reliance, we tell our leaders that it’s important to have eye contact because then you express your sincerity. I think we can put all our principles to our top 100 leaders by saying, “These are our principles. We’ll do what is right. Whatever we do, we should be able to look at each other and say we are not embarrassed," he said.
The 68-year-old billionaire and businessman said that this 'eye-contact" principle is a vital part of Reliance's "institutional culture", which he believes is their "best insurance against any kind of risk."
Mukesh Ambani's biggest risk
In the interview, Ambani revealed that his 2016 return to the telecom industry with Reliance Jio was the "biggest risk" he had ever taken. However, the industrialist said that even if analysts' predictions of financial failure had come true, he would have considered the risk worth it for the role it played in transforming India digitally.
{{/usCountry}}In the interview, Ambani revealed that his 2016 return to the telecom industry with Reliance Jio was the "biggest risk" he had ever taken. However, the industrialist said that even if analysts' predictions of financial failure had come true, he would have considered the risk worth it for the role it played in transforming India digitally.
{{/usCountry}}"I told my board, 'In the worst case, we will not earn much return. That's okay because it's our own money. But then, as Reliance, this will be the best philanthropy that we will have ever done in India because we will have digitised India, and thereby completely transformed India'," he added.
Since its launch in 2016, Jio has transformed the Indian telecom landscape, offering free voice calls and ultra-affordable data plans.