Things to Learn from Mukesh Ambani’s Succession Plan

You must have already heard that renowned billionaire Mukesh Ambani has written his Will and has made a fantastic succession plan. Yes. Ambani – the owner of RIL has distributed his estate among his three successors – 2 sons and a daughter.

But we’re here to talk about the past that made Mukesh Ambani take this wise step!

So, buckle up because we’ll be telling you an interesting story now.

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Almost 14 years ago

Mukesh and Anil Ambani, sons of Dhirubhai Ambani, lived under one roof with their mother. However, the two brothers were under a fraternal property dispute. The reason? Their father, Dhirubhai Ambani, passed away in 2002 and he had not written a Will for his family. Dhirubhai made such a decision thinking his sons would live in peace and harmony. But apparently, things turned out to be the complete opposite of his plans.

The two brothers took turns to the court. In 2005, Mukesh acquired the deep-sea fields of the Bay of Bengal where they produced gas. However, this family settlement required him to supply rationally priced feedstock to Anil’s power plant for 17 years at a fixed rate.

Although such a settlement would have ended the 8-hour electrical cut-offs in New Delhi, it would have hampered Mukesh’s Reliance Industries Ltd.

In 2010, however, things turned out favourably for Anil by the Indian Supreme Court’s verdict. The gas was claimed to be Indian sovereign property and not private. And two weeks after the verdict, the two brothers finally began living in harmony.

Both Anil and Mukesh Ambani decided to end the non-competing clauses that created barriers between them and their properties.

And with further developments in their situations, Mukesh Ambani re-entered the industry soon. Ambani then rose to his current standing as one of the top 10 richest business tycoons with a net worth of more than $90 billion.

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The current scenario

All the fraternal disputes taught Mukesh Ambani a valuable lesson and he was against history repeating itself. He did not want his children to go through the same fraternal, financial, and judicial disputes because of one mistake – not writing a Will, not having a proper plan, and not defining a succession plan in place.

As such, billionaire Mukesh Ambani distributed his estate among his three children. He laid down a clear succession roadmap at the $220 billion conglomerate that had once been subjected to a bitter fraternal feud.

Mukesh has set clear-cut roles for each of his three kids wherein his older twins, Akash and Isha Ambani will be leading RIL telecommunications and retail businesses respectively. Additionally, his youngest son, Anant Ambani would be trained to look over new energy.

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Lesson Learnt

Having learnt a lesson from history, Mukesh Ambani made the wisest decision of creating inheritance plans for his heirs before time.

Family capitalism in India is not new and shall continue to evolve unless a more corporate phase comes in. Until then, the solution to such fraternal feuds is good succession planning, which also includes mentoring for leadership roles.

Planning for the future has never gone to waste. When done at the right time, you shall save yourself and your family from a lot of time wastage and unnecessary family and financial troubles.

So, what are your views on this?

Ready to change your mind about the Will you’re still yet to make? Get it done !! AasaanWill Zaroori Hain