5 MORE YEARS FOR – WHAT IT MEANS FOR ? Ibrahim Ahmad | [email protected]

ukesh Ambani’s decision to continue is not just cash rich, but more as the CMD of the company for than that Mukesh Ambani, who leads from the front another 5 years (with an annual salary is a man who strongly believes in innovation, disrup- Mof Rs 4.17 crore and Rs 59 lakh of tion, and a mass market approach. His earlier stint perquisites and allowances), also means that high when he launched (later octane action in Indian telecom and digital lifestyle taken over by younger in 2005 when industry is far over, perhaps to the discomfort of they parted ways) was the first time when he shook rivals like Airtel, Vodafone and Idea (so on to be the telecom industry with his technology and price Idea-Vodafone). offerings. And in the second stint when he perceived

38 PCQUEST AUGUST 2018 pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected] and launched Jio, he has once again disrupted the categories, besides consumer durables. It also has industry and is completely changing the rules of the ResQ, the service arm which is a full-fledged service game. The final beneficiary will be the consumer, but organisation and is India’s first multi-product, multi- for Reliance group Jio could turn into a mint. brand and multi-location service network that pro- Ambani hopes that his consumer businesses— vides solutions encompassing end-to-end product Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd and Ltd— life cycle requirements for the entire range of digital will contribute on par with its energy and materials products digital and consumer durables products businesses over the next decade. Already Reliance’s and other value-added services. It has built the larg- consumer businesses has attained a threshold from est distribution reach for devices in India. Reliance which they will start contributing meaningfully to Retail has developed a strong portfolio of products consolidated profits. From a mere 2% in FY17, Reli- offered under its own label Reconnect. Reliance ance Jio and Reliance Retail (which has a significant Retail offers a wide range of 4G LTE smartphones digital component) accounted for 13.1% of RIL’s and 4K TVs under its own brand LYF. The LYF range consolidated segment Ebitda in FY18. Reliance Jio, of smartphones offers features like Voice over LTE that started in late 2016, turned profitable in the (VoLTE), Voice over Wi-Fi (VoWi-FI), HD Voice and HD very first year of operations. Jio earned a net profit quality video calling. Jio Stores caters to the rapidly of ₹723 crore on a turnover of ₹23,714 crore in its growing market for mobility and communication first year of commercial operations. Reliance Jio had products offering a wide range of mobile phones, 186.6 million customers at the end of March 2018, tablets and accessories. Within a short span of time

ë )URPDPHUHLQ)<5HOLDQFH-LRDQG5HOLDQFH5HWDLO ZKLFK KDVDVLJQLȖFDQWGLJLWDOFRPSRQHQW DFFRXQWHGIRURI5,/äV FRQVROLGDWHGVHJPHQW(ELWGDLQ)< ë 5HOLDQFH-LRWKDWVWDUWHGLQODWHWXUQHGSURȖWDEOHLQWKHYHU\ ȖUVW\HDURIRSHUDWLRQV ë -LRHDUQHGDQHWSURȖWRI`FURUHRQDWXUQRYHURI`FURUH LQLWVȖUVW\HDURIFRPPHUFLDORSHUDWLRQV ë 5HOLDQFH-LRKDGPLOOLRQFXVWRPHUVDWWKHHQGRI0DUFK DQGWKHORZHVWFKXUQLQWKHLQGXVWU\DWSHUPRQWK and the lowest churn in the industry at 0.25% per Reliance Jio Stores has grown to become India’s larg- month. Each Reliance Jio subscriber on an average est retail chain with presence in over 3,700 cities. consumes 9.7GB data, 716 minutes of voice calls, Everybody, including Mukesh Ambani’s em- and 13.8 hours of video per month. Jio also recently ployees, partners, and rivals unanimously agree announced enterprise solutions, FTTH, and IOT, with that Ambani not just perceived and conceptualized beta trials initiated in a few locations. Jio because of his vision of a digital world and the Reliance Retail has the distinction of operat- opportunities it will throw up; but also that he has ing the largest consumer electronics store chain been a hands on man who has lead the company in India through a network of over 5,700 Reliance in terms of all the path breaking technology and Digital and Jio stores offering over 200 national and business models. That he will be personally driving international brands offering a widest assortment of and monitoring almost every small and big technol- products spanning across audio & video products, ogy and business decisions for another five years is digital cameras, gaming consoles & games, comput- great news for Jio, but certainly not for its competi- ers, laptops, tablets & peripherals, mobile and fixed tors in the market,who are already under severe line instruments as well as a wide range of accesso- pressure. ries and new-age gadgets across all major product pcquest.com twitter.com/pcquest facebook.com/pcquest linkd.in/pcquest [email protected] AUGUST 2018 PCQUEST 39