Scalability, size matter: Anil Ambani

Our Corporate Bureau

Mumbai, Dec 1: “Scalability and size matters.” These were the pearls of wisdom from corporate baron Anil Ambani, managing director, Reliance Industries, who delivered a keynote address Business Today’s ‘Managing Tomorrow’ series, on the theme “Entrepreneurial challenges during an economic downturn.”

Mr Ambani, who is currently steering the group’s new ventures into infocom while also setting in overdrive its leadership in old economy sectors like petrochemicals, alongwith brother Mukesh Ambani, stressed that size and scalability are the key to manage business during a downturn.

Mr Ambani was addressing a large gathering from the corporate and consulting world — listening with rapt attention to memorize every word that was uttered by the corporate guru — at the Taj Ballroom.

As Mr Ambani unveiled strategies in an eloquent demeanour, he emphasized that size mattered because one has to act big in tough times.

This statement was not made in thin air, but was loaded with what the corporate giant had already put into practice with the implementation of a giant size complex at Jamnagar in Gujarat, reiterating the fact that scalability does matter.

Besides, Mr Ambani opined, innovation and not invention, and adaptability to times are the important ingredients. While professional and high quality management is essential to manage implementation of the various project deadlines, at par with global standards, there should not be any conflict on ownership of business and independent management. This is because the ultimate parameter is performance, independent of whosoever manages the show, he said to the audience that was caught in a thoughtful silence.

Alongwith these basic requirement on the policy front, capital account convertibility should be brought at the earliest so as to facilitate seamless access to international financial markets, and thus to unleash the full potential of entrepreneurial spirit, he said, mincing no words.

By stating that to achieve global competetiveness, international quality and global best practices, which were earlier the essential qualities and have now become standard norms for international competiveness, Mr Ambani again proved that moving ahead with the times is what would determine the strength and foresight of an entrepreneur.

The event also witnessed the launch of four new entrepreneurs — Sulajja Firodia Motwani of Kinetic group, Sunil Mittal of Bharti Enterprises, GV Sanjay Reddy of the GVK Group and Uday Kotak of Kotak Mahindra Finance. In her address, Ms Motwani said that in the era of global competitiveness, one needs to take radical steps and not incremental jumps.

Besides, every new strategy needs to be assessed in a holistic approach in tandem with all other external and internal parameteres. Citing the example of her own group, she said that as against the earlier strategy of selling what the company made, the key word now is planning what it could sell.

Mr Mittal, chairman, Bharti Enterprises emphasised that right kind of partnership is essential for a good ride in tough times, rather than looking for big players. He also reiterated that besides credibility and transparency, good management is important for better utilisation of entrepreneurial skills.