Making profits is not important to me. Profits will flow if you provide a good product, that is the entire value system which has been inculcated from my father to me, and from me to my next generation


the office, before they completed their education. “Before I completed my undergraduate studies


I would spend three to four hours each day at the office with my father, along with my studies. I do not think that was a very good thing. You should do one thing with total concentration. For the three boys, my two nephews and my son, I didn’t let them enter the office even during the holidays!” This puts him at odds with a lot of Indian


families. “It does not happen very much in Indian


for steelmaking. Sunil’s oldest son, Snehil (30), is now chief executive of Radha Smelters having graduated in 2009 from Purdue University in the US with a Bachelor of Science in Accounting with Finance and worked as an equity analyst at Batlivala and Karani Securities. Sunil’s youngest son, Kushaal (26), completed


his undergraduate degree at Hyderabad’s Amity University and his MBA from S P Jain School of Global Management. Meanwhile Suman’s son, Akshat (23), completed his undergraduate degree at Indiana University Bloomington. Since late 2017 he has overseen steel plant operations at Radha Smelters and is hoping to start his MBA in August 2019 having applied to nine US Ivy League colleges. Sunil joined the business in 1985 and Suman in


1988, although with hindsight Suman regrets not pursuing his tertiary education further. “My mother wanted me to go to the US and


study, but I always wanted to get into the business of manufacturing steel. Immediately after graduating I started working and I did not go for my MBA. That was a mistake because things could have been different,” he says. This experience has shaped his forthright views


on next-generation succession into the business— he didn’t allow his nephews or son to enter the business, even restricting them physically entering


ISSUE 75 | 2019


families where the mentality is, ‘We want our boys back to work’. We place a lot of importance on education,” he adds. Despite the brothers’ emphasis on formal


education, nothing can replace on-the-ground experience in India’s notoriously tricky steel business. “Steel manufacturing is not an easy business in


India. We have our own supplier ethical issues in our country, so we have to give a lot of personal attention to details. We are not a Tata Steel where they can move to having 100% non-family executives. We do have a professional set up, but major decisions have to be taken by us.” Indeed Radha Smelters has professional managers


overseeing the steel plants, and a professionalised office including a chief financial officer, president of sales, and other key functions, but purchase of raw material is taken care of by Sunil and Suman. “Steel is a very fluctuating commodity. Like the


stock market, the price of steel changes every hour. A non-family executive cannot catch the market pulse as well as we can because of our experience,” he says. Yet the next generation is getting a shot at the


responsibility. Snehil has now been trained over the past five years so he can helm the company for up to a month at a time on his own. “We have been blessed that all the three


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