Akash Ambani shares ‘simple funda’ on work-life balance, says his ‘biggest priorities’ he learnt from Mukesh Ambani and Nita Ambani

Work life balance isn’t a new concept and these days it has become much talked about after Infosys CEO and co-founder Narayana Murthy’s remark that young Indians should work for 70 hours per week sparked a debate around the topic.  

Akash Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Jio Infocomm, was also asked about his views on work-life balance during a conversation at Mumbai Tech Week held at Jio Convention Centre with Dream Sports CEO Harsh Jain. Dream Sports is an Indian leading sports technology firm with over 250 million users. It has various brands under it including Dream11, fantasy sports platform, FanCode, a sports content and commerce platform, and much more. 

Akash Ambani opened about work-life balance and shared a general rule that his parents Mukesh Ambani and Nita Ambani taught him, since then he has been following this rule. Harsh Jain asked Ambani, who has a responsibility of managing the biggest Indian company, that how he balances his responsibility and personal life.  “How do you manage Jio, this amazing company and this work-life balance between them?”. Before answering the question, Akash first thanked everyone and mentioned that he’s not a public speaker and thanked his companions Shloka Mehta and Isha Ambani to accompany him and “give him the confidence.” 

How Akash Ambani manages work-life balance? 

“Coming to balance you know, I have been very very fortunate that I have grown up with a very close-knit family. The first thing is about the values inside the family and for us the work was never looked at as the balancing part of life, it was always something which was the biggest part of our life,” he said. 

“Growing up… you know… we saw our parents both my father and mother… you know… not only try to balance family and work but make them both the biggest priorities of our lives,” he added. He also said that he has followed this learning for the whole time while he worked at Reliance.  

“So the question of balance really does not come... of balancing family or work. Both are the biggest priorities of my life. And, there is one simple funda that I think we all need to embody is… you know… the priorities of your life… and as you grow older, your priorities change, but you want to make sure that your priorities are something that is meaningful to make your life what you imagine it to be,” he concluded. Akash Ambani’s wife Shloka Mehta smiled and gave him a thumbs up.  

Who is Akash Ambani and what is he doing now? 

Mukesh Ambani’s elder son Akash Ambani is currently the chairman of Reliance Jio Infocomm. He has been the chairman since June 2022 before which he worked as non-executive director at Reliance Jio Infocomm’s board. Apart from working in the telecom unit of Reliance Industries, Ambani also works as director in Jio Platform Ltd’ board, Reliance Industries’ digital services section. In addition to his other roles, he has served as a director on the leadership team of Reliance Retail Ventures (RRVL), the retail division of RIL, since October 2014. He has completed a bachelor's degree in economics from US’s Brown University in Rhode Island.  

He is responsible for developing and innovating products and services that harness cutting-edge technologies such as 5G, AI, blockchain, and IoT to drive transformative changes in India's commerce, education, and healthcare sectors.