Jio-poly and India's Gilded Age

Non-linear web Notebook to explore India's Gilded Age and Jio Platforms

Men Who Built America

NirantK14th June 2020 at 9:04am

Borrowed from the popular History channel docu-drama by the same name.

References:
Characters

We explore our themes with the lens of two characters: Mukesh Ambani Dhirubhai Ambani and Rockefeller.

The other characters include:

Maharajas

Men Who Built America

Industrialists

index

First time here? Begin at Narrative

This web book originated from this single tweet by @MohapatraHemant

We'll explore a quick History of the Jio Platforms, Reliance Industries and Mukesh Ambani. I'll contrast this with the Men Who Built America and try to make informed guesses about the same.

  1. READ THIS FIRST

    This work borrows heavily from the sources mentioned in the References. My thinking is also influenced by the limited exposure to Modern History, Sociology and Business History at large.

    I am fundamentally, a maker, an engineer. I bring the biases of that thought process into this writing and editing. I break information into lego pieces. I do not aim for being

    MECE

    Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive

    For widely read folk: https://www.caseinterview.com/mece

    /rant

    In practice, I've seen people conflate mutually exclusive with independent levers in a business or system.

    That is fine I guess, as long as you don't go around thinking that savings on employee perks are your revenue. Don't be an idiot.

    /endRant

    From Concepts popular in Management Consulting and structured business thinking

    .

    I also attempt to separate fact from opinion.

    Yet, I'm but human. My selection of facts might be warped by the innate human need to build a Narrative

    : How to make the most of this guide
  2. Narrative

    At the heart of very synthesis, lies a narrative. This is neither complete, nor true.

    Although I'm violating the tradition of Epistemic humility, I encourage you to check the Commonplace first for caveats first.

    Here are the questions we want to ask:

    Standard Oil:Rockefeller :: Jio:Ambani

    1. What was Standard Oil and who was Rockefeller?
    2. What helped Standard Oil become a virtual monopoly?
    3. What makes Rockefeller a useful metaphor for Mukesh Ambani's goals? The similarities, differences and place in time.
    4. What are the possible ambitions behind Jio Platforms?
    5. What makes Jio Platforms a force to reckon with?

    We also touch

    2020 Jio Fundraise

    Who has Jio raised the money from?

    All info here is best effort. Have a more to add? Tweet to me @NirantK:

    BaseStakeAmountOther Notes
    FacebookUS
    KKRUS
    MubadalaAbu Dhabi1.85%$1.2 B
    Silver LakeUS2.08%$1.35 BGartner, Alibaba’s Ant Financial, Dell, and Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing
    General AtlanticUS
    TPGUS0.93%$600 M
    Vista EquityUS
    ADIAAbu Dhabi1.16%$750M
    , but that is less interesting to me in the larger scheme of things.

    India's Gilded Age

    This is a topic which I may or may not explore - depending on my own time and curiosity trade offs.

    If you have questions though, tweet to me @NirantK

    1. Fiscal Take: India's "House of Debt"
    2. Raghuram Rajan's PoV: The Role of Natural Resources and Resource-Raj
    3. Jayant Sinha's PoV: The 3 kinds of Capitalism
    4. Amartya Sen PoV: Income Inequality and Role of State
  3. Frameworks: Vertically Integrated Supply Chain
  4. People

    We explore our themes with the lens of two characters: Mukesh Ambani Dhirubhai Ambani and Rockefeller.

    The other characters include:

    Maharajas

    Men Who Built America

    Industrialists

For the Curious

Sorted by Top

Books

  1. The Billionaire Raj by James Crabtree
  2. Saving Capitalism from Capitalists by Raghuram Rajan
  3. Zero to One by Peter Thiel

Rockefeller

The Oil Tycoon of the Gilded Age, modernized oil supply chains: tankers, pipelines and petrol pumps. He is considered among the Men Who Built America along with the likes of Edison, Tesla, JP Morgan, and Henry Ford.