Gurdaspurattack: T he rightturn that didIndia in

KarnatakaLokayukta sonheld in extortioncase

Gurdaspurfallout: Nationalhonour first,peace with Pak

later, says Rajnath

Gurdaspurterroristsinclude awoman

India World Videos Photos Cricket Movies Auto Sports Lifestyle Tech Education Business Real Estate

NEWS TV MAGAZINE

BEST COLLEGES 2015 BREAKING NEWS NEWSLETTER BOOKS SUPPLEMENTS SHOPPING LIVE TV

46 SHARES

M.G. Arun | Follow @MGArun1 | July 23, 2015 | UPDATED 13:45 IST MAILPRINT

A+ A-

Anant Goenka, 33, managing director of top tyre manufacturer Ceat and scion of the Rs 18,000-

News Archive Cover Story August 3, 2015

India Inc's inheritorsIf the family-run set-up typifies Indian business, its future is in good hands. The nextgeneration is infusing new entrepreneurial energy to take their firms to greater heights.

Anant Goenka

Rishad Premji

crore RPG Group, often asks his staff a quest ion: what improvements have you brought into yourarea of work? That one quest ion, he says, conveys a st rong sense of purpose to his employees. "Intoday's compet it ive environment , it 's no good if you can't bring in cont inuous improvement to yourbusiness," says Goenka.

That 's the new mantra in family businesses, which account for 90 per cent of India's indust rialoutput and provides 25 per cent of the country's overall employment : cont inuous improvement in acompet it ive environment , and daring to do things different ly.

"We will play in areas where we can win," says Goenka, son of indust rialist Harsh Goenka, explainingCeat 's decision to focus on two-wheelers and ut ility vehicles instead of the convent ionalcommercial vehicles segment . Under his watch, Mumbai-based Ceat has gained a market share of25 per cent in two-wheeler tyre sales compared to 11 per cent when he took over in 2012, and hasalso achieved a 14 per cent share in ut ility vehicles tyre sales compared to 7 per cent earlier."Anant 's academic credent ials from Wharton and Kellogg, his st ints in companies such as Unileverand Morgan Stanley have given him a solid foundat ion," says his father, adding that his st rengths arefocus, understated aggression and an eye for detail.

"Improving the old is the f irst mustdo for any new generat ion leader," says business historian andauthor of Business Maharajas Gita Piramal. "If you can't take advantage of the old, how will you usherin the new?" Rishad Premji , 38, the eldest son of Wipro Chairman Azim Premji and an MBA fromHarvard Business School, was inducted into the company's board on May 1, 2015, taking him a stepcloser to the CEO's posit ion. Rishad, who joined Wipro in 2007, has the experience of working acrossmult iple funct ions in the company.

As its chief st rategy off icer before being named director, he oversaw mergers and acquisit ions andinvest ing in start -ups. Ashok Ganguly, chairman of the nominat ions commit tee of Wipro's board,says Rishad brings a unique blend of except ional st rategic insights, understanding of thetechnology landscape and diverse business expert ise.

Isha Ambani and Akash Ambani

Alok Kirloskar

Akash Ambani, 23, son of Reliance Indust ries Chairman Mukesh Ambani , is an undergrad from BrownUniversity where he majored in economics. "As an economics major I came in to (Reliance) Jio with atheoret ical approach to business," he tells INDIA TODAY. "What I have learnt of management frommy t ime at Jio has widened my perspect ive. Real- life business situat ions are bet ter at teaching oneabout agile thinking, quick execut ion and team-building."

In Pune, Alok Kirloskar, 32, turned around a st ruggling Kirloskar Brothers Ltd (KBL), the f luidmanagement solut ions provider and manufacturer of pumps, with a new focus on high-end process

Vinita Gupta and Nilesh Gupta

pumps to serve chemical and pet rochemical indust ries. Son of KBL Chairman Sanjay Kirloskar, healso took charge of the company's knowledge management tool 'Dolphin', which provides real- t imedata to its sales force, to reduce work t ime for certain processes drast ically. "Alok is a people'sperson with an avid interest in knowledge management and new technologies," says his father.

"He is ext remely conscious of the legacy he has inherited and the fact that one has to contributeto society." Like Goenka, Ambani and Kirloskar, the new generat ion at the helm of businesses theyinherited are navigat ing a landscape that is challenging in more ways than one. Technology ischanging at a pace faster than ever before, creat ing new business paradigms and making prominentproducts and companies of yore obsolete.

The new leaders not only have a bet ter grip on the challenges they face but many of them have infact gone a step ahead, leveraging the st rengths they inherited to spin new success. Siblings Vinita,47, and Nilesh Gupta, 41, CEO and MD of the Rs 11,000-crore Lupin respect ively, have worked togrow the Mumbai-based pharmaceut ical company's business several fold even before they wereoffered the top posts. While Vinita led the company's aggressive push into the US market , Nileshfocused on research and development .

The company, over t ime, has t ransformed from a manufacturer and seller of most ly TB medicinesto a generic behemoth that derives more than 44 per cent of its revenues from the US market . Inan interview, Nilesh recalled that he always wanted to grow out of father Desh Bandhu Gupta'sshadow and take up research as a focus area. He eventually did.

Adar Poonawalla

In a similar vein, Adar Poonawalla, the 35-year-old CEO of Serum Inst itute, aggressively focused onthe exports market for vaccines, result ing in his company now registering 85 per cent of itsrevenues from overseas. In his 15 years in the family business, the graduate from London'sUniversity of Westminster has several milestones to his credit , including the launch of SerumInst itute's oral polio vaccine.

The education edge

"The next generat ion of business leaders is much more educated, have global exposure andambit ion," says Kavil Ramachandran, Thomas Schmidheiny chair professor of family business andwealth management at the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad.

Kirloskar, for instance, is a graduate from the Carnegie Mellon University in the US in Indust rialEngineering and Finance. Sudharshan Venu, 25, joint managing director at TVS Motor Company, has amaster's in internat ional technology management from the Warwick Manufacturing Group, UK. Whilepursuing his master's, he underwent hands-on t raining in the die cast ing division of SundaramClayton Limited and in TVS.

"What is important is not just a foreign degree but exposure to a different world," says ManishSabharwal, founder of TeamLease, a recruitment consultancy. When these children come backfrom foreign universit ies, they f ind that the surface area of the business has changed signif icant ly.

Henry Mintzberg, who has authored several books on business and management , however notesthat an MBA, for instance, gives one the tools but not leadership ability and that such degrees caneven be counterproduct ive as they tend to reduce the importance of gut feeling and emot ionalintelligence.

But insofar as the need for scions to invest in people, brands, technology and innovat ion goes, theoverseas exposure is handy. "In the past 10 years, India has demonstrated that one need not bewestern to be modern," Sabharwal points out .

Radha Kapoor

Off the beaten track

Then there are several others who inherited the opportunity but decided to use their st rengths tonurture new ideas. Radha Kapoor, 30, daughter of Yes Bank's Rana Kapoor , wants to convert LowerParel in cent ral Mumbai into a hub for innovat ion and design. For this, she founded the Indian Schoolof Design & Innovat ion (ISDI) in 2013 in associat ion with her alma mater, Parsons The New School forDesign, New York. "Design is key to any organisat ion today and what bet ter way to promoteentrepreneurship than invest in an inst itut ion like this," says Radha.

In 2009, she had launched Do It Creat ions, a holding company for her ventures to conceptualise andpromote new creat ive and innovat ive concepts. She has also forayed into the media business, withDo It Creat ions acquiring a 40 per cent stake in Businessworld magazine. Radha has also taken astake in the Pro Kabaddi League and the Hockey India League. Her younger sister Raakhe Kapoor, anMBA from the Wharton Business School, has set up a business incubat ion f irm named Rural AgriVentures India aimed at nurturing agri businesses.

Soundarya R. Ashwin

In a similar story, Soundarya R. Ashwin, 30, daughter of actor Rajinikanth, founded Ocher PictureProduct ions and inked an agreement with Warner Brothers to produce and dist ribute Tamil f ilms.Her directorial debut , Kochadaiiyaan, is India's "f irst mot ion capture photo-realist ic 3D animatedfilm".

Then there are those who veer off the 'chosen' course after dabbling in the family business. RajviMariwala, 35, daughter of Harsh Mariwala, the chairman of FMCG major Marico, worked at herfather's f irm for two years before quit t ing to pursue a career as a canine behaviourist . Mariwala'sson, Rishabh, 34, also left Marico in 2011 after spending three years developing Kaya Skin Clinic,Marico's beauty salon business, to become an ent repreneur and f loat a company that makeshandmade soaps.

"I don't think children should be forced to do what their parents did," Mariwala Sr said in an interview."It should be perfect ly f ine if they are interested in some other career pursuits."

Anjali Mody, 28, daughter of top corporate lawyer Zia Mody, has declared that law "bores" her. Afterpursuing a bachelor in f ine arts degree in indust rial design from the Rhode Island School of Design,she went on to establish Josmo, a furniture design studio, in Mumbai.

Testing their mett le

Ramachandran draws a clear difference between scions who go through the grind and then takeover the reins and those who get parachuted direct ly into company boards. "Youngsters who havedirect ly joined boards of companies missed out on the opportunity to learn from someone in thefamily or a professional," he says.

Karan Adani

Karan Adani, 27, of the Adani Group , learnt it the hard way. For six months, he interned at AdaniPorts and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) without even let t ing colleagues know his surname. Thehands-on t raining led to a deeper understanding of new processes and systems for Karan, now theexecut ive director of APSEZ.

This is also t rue of Bhairavi Jani, 35, execut ive director of logist ics f irm SCA Group, who wasencouraged to found and nurture a company for four years before joining the family business. Abachelor of science in business from Miami University, Ohio, Bhairavi had also been a summer t raineeat age 17 in the operat ions department of her family-run Blue Dart in Mumbai and two years withKPMG Consult ing in Washington, D.C., as a 19-year-old.

Vishal Kampani

"There, I understood what it takes to be a person who mot ivates people to work for you," she says.When Vishal Kampani, 38, took over day-to-day operat ions at JM Financial from his father NimeshKampani in 2011, he had already been groomed for the role, having worked as a senior banker in theinvestment banking division of JM Morgan Stanley. But his biggest lessons were learnt as a childwhen he used to hear his father talk endlessly to clients over the phone. "I learnt the value of t rustand confident iality in the merchant banking business from my father," says Vishal.

"Scions in family businesses bring the best of both worlds," says E. Balaji, president , people services,TVS Logist ics. "They understand the responsibility, recognise the hard work of generat ions andcarry the family baton. They hone their skills in different aspects of the business before moving onto larger roles."

Spark of innovation

Out -of- the-box thinking is what sets some inheritors apart . For a business group that is ascustomer-cent ric in its products as the Godrej Group, the biggest challenge is to stay ahead ofcompet it ion by cont inuous innovat ion.

Navroze Godrej

Kavin Mittal

Navroze Godrej, 33, an execut ive director on the board of Mumbai-based Godrej & Boyce, comeswith a razorsharp focus on disrupt ive innovat ion, a process- leveraged technology to create newmarkets. Navroze, who holds a master of design degree from the IIT Inst itute of Design, Chicago,drives st rategy and innovat ion at Godrej & Boyce and has been in the family business since 2005when he joined as a management t rainee.

Innovat ion should be the middle name of Kavin Mit tal, son of Sunil Mittal of Bhart i Enterprises. In hisfinal year at Imperial College London, Kavin, along with classmate Namit Chadha, founded AppStark-a

Kulin Sanjay Lalbhai

start -up that develops apps for mobiles. A year later, AppStark launched MoviesNow, an app to buymovie t ickets on the go. It was recognised by Apple as one of the 10 essent ial movie-goer apps foriPhone.

Kavin's big moment , however, came in 2012 when he launched India's f irst homegrown instantmessenger service Hike, a joint venture between Bhart i Enterprises and Japanese technology giantSoftBank Corp. In January, Kavin made his f irst acquisit ion, Zip Phone of the US, which will help himoffer free voice-calling service on Hike.

When Arvind Mills forayed last year into the fashion e-tailing space with Creyate, a custom clothingbrand, it marked a great beginning for Kulin Lalbhai, 28, execut ive director of Arvind Mills and son ofSanjay Lalbhai. The idea had been incubat ing in his mind from the t ime he was studying businessadminist rat ion at Harvard a few years ago.

The eager beavers

Then there is the much younger lot , entering the fray largely uninit iated, but ready to draw on awealth of experience from the company boards. When Isha Ambani and her twin brother AkashAmbani, children of Mukesh Ambani, were inducted into the boards of two group companies ofReliance Indust ries Ltd (RIL), analysts were quick to proclaim that the move took them a stepcloser to their joining the parent company's board.

It was in October last year that the duo were inducted into the boards of Reliance Retail, which runshundreds of stores across India, and Reliance Jio Infocomm, the group's vehicle for 4G telecomforay, as directors. A few months earlier in June, Nita Ambani, Mukesh's wife, was inducted into theboard of RIL as a director. Isha is a Yale University undergrad who boasts of double majors inpsychology and Asian studies.

Akash, a technology buff , is involved with the development of products and digital services

Jai Anmol Ambani

applicat ions in Reliance Jio. Isha, on the other hand, had a st int with consult ing f irm McKinsey &Company, where she was a business analyst . Both Reliance Retail and Reliance Jio Infocomm, valuedat more than Rs 75,000 crore according to media reports in October last year, are seen as the nextmajor drivers of business for RIL, which has seen uncertaint ies in its gas explorat ion business andpetrochemicals operat ions.

"At Jio, we're at a special place-the intersect ion point of a startup and a large corporat ion," saysIsha Ambani. "The most interest ing part of my job is working with my father and learning from him-his discipline and scale of thought is absolutely inspiring."

Meanwhile, Jai Anmol Ambani, 23, the elder son of Anil Ambani, joined group f irm Reliance Capital inJuly 2014 and is being groomed by two of its senior off icials, Amitabh Jhunjhunwala, vice chairmanand group MD, and Sam Ghosh, CEO. Jai Anmol is armed with a degree from the Warwick BusinessSchool in the UK.

Jai Anshul, 20, his younger brother, is st ill pursuing his studies abroad. Avarna Jain, 29, daughter ofSanjiv Goenka, chairman of the Kolkata-based RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group, always knew what shewanted. "I wanted to be in a line of work that dealt with customers and that 's why I decided tostudy communicat ion at the University of Pennsylvania," she says. It was during her days at UPennthat she fell in love with the US-based Au Bon Pain.

"For a student in the US, it was one of the very few pocket -friendly opt ions that offered goodwholesome food," she says. Avarna loved it so much that she was convinced she had to bring thegroup to India. It now has 27 out lets across India. "She is very clear-headed, can manage t ime andleads by thought ," says the proud father. Shashwat , Goenka's 25-year-old son, a Wharton BusinessSchool graduate, is in charge of Spencer's, the retail chain run by the group, for the past two years.

Another world is possible

Some have taken it upon themselves to shape the dreams of those who are not so privileged as

Manasi Kirloskar

they are. Roshni

Nadar Malhotra, execut ive director and CEO of the Rs 40,000-crore HCL Corporat ion, is one suchinheritor. She is a t rustee of the Shiv Nadar Foundat ion and runs the VidyaGyan init iat ive that givesfree educat ion to underprivileged children.

Manasi Kirloskar, 25, daughter of Toyota Kirloskar Motor Vice Chairman Vikram Kirloskar, has beenworking with children from a disadvantaged background for years. Besides being a director atKirloskar Systems, she is also involved in the running of Sakra World Hospitals which current ly has ahospital in Bengaluru and plans to build one each in Pune and Delhi.

Experts say the next generat ion stepping into family businesses is welcome as long as they addvalue and bring in expert ise. "The quest ions to ask are these: Are you bringing in the right people torun the business? How does the family member compare to a professional whom you can hire at thesame remunerat ion?" says Amit Tandon, founder and MD of Inst itut ional Investor Advisory Services.

Some companies may be compelled to bring on board young family members with no experience tosignal that a succession plan is in place, but it always helps to put them through the grind beforegiving them higher responsibilit ies. "Promoter-directors are expected to have 360-degreeknowledge of the sector, domest ic and global compet it ion, and of how to liaison with thegovernment ," says investment adviser S.P. Tulsian.

They also need to be accepted by professionals inside the organisat ion, he adds. Sabharwal ofTeamLease says the jury is st ill out on professional CEOs outperforming family members.

In 2013, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) conducted a survey of business families, looking at someof the issues India Inc is mulling over. The survey ident if ied innovat ion as a key to survival.Companies need to invest in modernisat ion, promote a culture where mistakes are permit ted andinst il in the ranks that innovat ion is crucial to survival. Second, at t ract ing and retaining the righttalent . Third, mentoring the next generat ion of successors and leaders. And fourth, the need to

FACEBOOK

19

T WEET

20COMMENT (1)

DO YOU LIKE THIS STORY?

3 1

adapt to new technological advancements.

The next generat ion of India Inc will f ind these issues challenging in addit ion to the unexpected thatcan always come up while managing the business. But they seem to have their hearts in the rightplace, which is good news for shareholders, employees and the indust ry.

with Uday Mahurkar, Kaushik Deka, Adit i Pai, Aravind Gowda, Kavitha Muralidharan, Suhani Singh, J.Binduraj and Malini Banerjee

Follow the writer on Twit ter @MGArun1

For more news from India Today, follow us on Twitter @indiatoday and on Facebook atfacebook.com/IndiaToday

For news and videos in Hindi, go to AajTak.in.

Industries

YOU MAY LIKE by TaboolaSponsored Links

Babbel7 Übercool German Words We Should Be Using In English