Togetherness in Indian family businesses
Kavil Ramachandran, PhD
Family business - Kavil
Kavil Ramachandran, PhD, Thomas Schmidheiny Chair Professor of Family Business and Wealth Management, Indian School of Business, shares the findings of a recent study on ‘Togetherness in Indian family businesses,’ during a brief interaction on February 26, 2014.
Changing society
• Indian society is changing rapidly.• The meaning of being together within families
is varying.• Reasons: Individualism, aspirations,
opportunities.
Break up
• Business families break up, and get into trouble, sometimes painful, when togetherness is destroyed.
Study
• To understand what they mean by being together, we received 276 responses from Indian business families.
Conclusions
There are 3 dimensions of togetherness:• Familial (emotions, celebrations, ceremonies –
non economic).• Business and operations (involving power,
money, opportunities).• Trans-generation (starting new ventures,
inheriting shares).
When family members do not communicate well
• That leads to assumptions• Which in turn cause differences, and• Ultimately result in destruction.
Remedial measures
• Families have to sit down and discuss policies required, to improve the quality of togetherness, by appreciating these dimensions.
• This is particularly relevant to Indian context, where we assume that the elements of joint families are still in place.
Also…
• Do not take togetherness in families for granted. Have a family shared goal. Pay attention to family governance.
• Appropriate business structures are needed. Develop mechanisms to manage exits.