children, in spite of their wealth, are very well- balanced and hardworking. They can work from 8am to 10pm. That is what is what we feel is a basic achievement that we have done. Our children are so focused on the business,” Suman adds. “We have seen everything in life,” he says.
“We have made mistakes and we have learnt from them.” What advice would he give to other family
businesses who are bringing their next generation into the business? “The thinking of the next generation differs
from family to family. We were fortunate that our children are very grounded, so we did not have much difficulty in moulding them,” he says. But Suman is critical of the increasing
unwillingness of the next generation of Indian families to start from the shop floor (see box out). “There is a lot of new money so children are not
as dedicated as they should be if they want to take the group forward. They don’t want to grow the business, they want to inherit a business,” he says.
He is concerned by what he sees in other
families. “[These next generation] are wielding the power of the money to have the position, but without having good knowledge of the industry. If you have to be a master of an industry you have to start at the bottom. You cannot learn this at business school.”
TRUE VALUES Suman points to the example of Vijay Mallya, the multimillionaire former chairman of United Spirits and self-proclaimed “King of the Good Times”,
There is a lot of new money so children are not as dedicated as they should be if they want to take the group forward. They don't want to grow the business, they want to inherit a business
freedom to pursue their passion, youngsters prefer to go [out] on their own,” he says. This is particularly so in families with internal strife. However, there can be more scope in large family businesses to be more entrepreneurial, says Ramachandran.
“We find a huge drive towards determining their own destiny without feeling guilty about the implications for the preservation of that which they inherited,” he adds.
Suman Saraf, managing director of Radha Smelters, is one of those critical of the increasing
unwillingness of the next generation of Indian families to work their way up from the shop floor (see main feature).
“[These next generation] are wielding the power of the money to have the [executive] positions, but without having good knowledge of the industry. If you have to be a master of an industry you have to start at the bottom. You cannot learn this at business school,” he says.
Vishal Gada, a partner at Dhruva Advisors, encounters situations where a second generation member is ambivalent about joining his or
her family business, or learning the ropes of the business from the bottom up. Gada says this can reflect a genuine lack of interest from the next generation member, or the need for a formal succession process to groom them for business operations.
“At times, it is a conflict between what one perceives as a joy versus a pursuit of success in a family business,” says Gada. His recommendation? “Every family needs to create a developmental and mentoring plan for its future leaders.”
ISSUE 75 | 2019
CAMPDENFB.COM
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