Mukesh: All the best

Mumbai, June 20: The air in Reliance corridors was thick with nostalgia today as Mukesh and Anil Ambani bid goodbye to their old colleagues in businesses they were leaving.

Mukesh, who will control Reliance Industries and IPCL, wrote to employees of Reliance Infocomm, the pet project he single-handedly conceived and built up in recent years.

Anil penned his farewell note to employees of Reliance Industries (RIL). “Mukesh, I and all of you helped translate Dhirubhai’s dreams into reality. The journey we took was momentous. In 1982, the market capitalisation of Reliance Industries was a little over Rs 240 crore. Today, it stands at over Rs 88,000 crore. More than three million shareholders have benefited in the process,” the former vice-chairman and managing director of RIL said.

Passing the Reliance Infocomm baton to his younger brother, Mukesh was the first to shoot an e-mail from Goa, where he was attending the wedding of Anand Jain’s daughter.

The emotional message to 40,000 “Infocommers” was shorn of the aggression seen at the height of the ownership tussle ? when Mukesh told colleagues he was the boss.

“My younger brother Anil is taking over the stewardship of Reliance Infocomm. He has enormous energy and drive and we share a common commitment to take forward the legacy of Dhirubhai Ambani,” Mukesh said in his letter to the staff at the telecom firm.

Anil gave no hint of rancour, too. “I am confident that under Mukesh’s outstanding leadership, and supported by your hard work, dedication and professionalism, Reliance Industries will continue to grow and flourish and scale greater heights,” Anil told RIL employees.

Trying to explain the separation of business between the two brothers, Anil quoted his father to say “the world is a series of orbits, stacked up in a hierarchy”. “The challenge for all of us is to break out of our present orbits and aspire for higher ones. I see the current juncture as one such change of orbit for Mukesh and myself. Going ahead, there can be no greater tribute to Dhirubhai Ambani’s legacy than for both of us to excel and move to yet higher orbits,” he wrote.

Mukesh applauded the efforts of employees at Reliance Infocomm, which realised Dhirubhai’s dream of making the cost of a phone call cheaper than that of a post card. “I take this opportunity to congratulate you for your contribution in translating that dream into reality.”

Since 2001, I had the opportunity of working shoulder to shoulder with all of you to build this enterprise from scratch. Together, we have the satisfaction of taking forward this initiative that envisioned bringing about a digital revolution in India,” Mukesh said in his letter to what he described were 40,000 bright young men and women in 1,400 locations.

Mukesh said he wished the new leadership at Infocomm the best for greater accomplishments. This is seen as an indication that the past was clearly behind him.

Anil also launched into a mild sales spiel, asking RIL staff to remain “valuable and loyal customers” of Reliance Infocomm, Reliance Energy and Reliance Capital.