India’s richest and most powerful industrialist says he “has a boss in office”. Though the comment was made in jest by a loving father, it shows how Reliance Industries chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani is looking at women empowerment.
Speaking impromptu at the Express Awards for Women Entrepreneurship after his daughter Isha Ambani got the Newsmaker of the Year, Ambani said “from being newsmakers, women will become history makers for their industries, countries and civilisations”.Congratulating the Express group for putting women entrepreneurship on the forefront, he said he was a late bloomer in appreciating women entrepreneurs, “but Isha and wife Nita have opened his mind in the last decade”.
Ambani said the world over, industry is moving from hardware to software. The world is becoming a more compassionate, more loving and more empathy-filled. “Isha tells me it’s no longer survival of the fittest but survival of the kindest,” he said.
Exuding pride over his daughter’s success, “I already have a boss in office. Isha grades my performance at the meetings. Sometimes, she gives me D ranking. In fact, she is perpetually grading me,” Ambani said as the audience clapped in unison.
Ambani said Reliance group is pushing women space to the forefront. Most group companies, hospitals and the Reliance foundation have women leaders. The Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (NMACC) is also run by women. Asked by Anant Goenka, executive director of the Indian Express group, on any advice he would like to give women entrepreneurs, Ambani said the important thing is to “win in the mind no matter who you are. You just have to go for it. You will ultimately be there.”