The Inheritors Their True Story

Being the scion of a multi-crore family business empire is not all that it's cracked up to be. Not only must Gen Next bear the weight of tradition and expectations but also ensure their journey ahead is as outstanding as the previous generations or it doesn't take long for gains to turn to losses. Those who do, make it on the back of inheritors with a passion to excel and carve out their own niche. A fact amply brought home at the recently concluded "Between the lines Young Turks" webinar organised by the NHRDN. And even as the spotlight was on noted business writer Sonu Bhasin's book ‘The Inheritors Stories of Entrepreneurship and Success’, a book that showcases the stories of nine inheritors to some of India's most iconic business houses, Corporate Citizen thought it would be an idea to review the book

Family owned businesses are the backbone of the Indian economy. Not only have they played a major role in scripting India’s success story, but they are also the ones who are least likely to let go of employees when there’s a market downturn. Truth be told, they are the unsung heroes of the Indian economy (read author interview). And yet, it’s not easy to be the scion of a family owned business. The data, for one, tells its own story: only three per cent of family-owned businesses make it to Gen Three. The reasons range from the conflict in management styles when the founding member and/or siblings are joined by their respective children, the politics that ensue and the mismatch of goals. Few patriarchs can boast of having a Gen Next with the same fire in the belly as they. Besides, the weight of tradition and the burden of expectations are not easy to carry.

These and other points were brought to light through author Sonu Bhasin’s fantastic saga of entrepreneurship, individuality, success and loss in her much-acclaimed work ‘The Inheritors Stories of Entrepreneurship and Success’ published by Penguin Random House.

A fascinating behind the scenes look into what goes into the making of names like Marico, Dabur, Keventers, Berger Paints, Select Group, Max Group, Luxor, Motilal Oswal Group and the family youngsters who are taking the legacy forward, thereby adding their own pages to an already overflowing book of achievements, ‘The Inheritors’ stands out not only for the lucid narration and painstaking research but also the humanisation of several corporate honchos most of us perceive to be uni-dimensional success stories, the supposed chosen few born with the proverbial silver spoon in their mouth.

We learn about their hopes and dreams, their failures and frustrations even as we root for them to carve their own niche. And one thing we are decisively deprived of is the notion that it’s all been handed over to them on a platter. So the book tells us one fascinating story after the other...

"The Inheritors’ stands out not only for the lucid narration and painstaking research but also the humanisation of several corporate honchos most of us perceive to be unidimensional success stories"

“I May Be A Nut, But A Hard One To Crack”

The story of how Harsh Mariwala (the man we know as founder chairman, Marico) left his family business (Bombay Oil Industries) to establish his very own company, Marico in 1990, now one of India’s biggest players in the FMCG space is a particularly riveting one. As readers know, Marico, is the manufacturer of Parachute, India’s best-known coconut oil. Lest you thought that enviable fact made him invulnerable, you couldn’t be more wrong. The following episode best demonstrates it.

One day Mariwala got a call from the HLL top honcho, Keki Dadiseth. The latter wanted to buy out Parachute as they were soon to launch their very own brand in the same segment. The initial offer to pay Harsh enough to set up his next few generations in style soon gave way to open threats when Harsh did not budge. He was told that HLL would wipe them out. To which, Harsh replied: “You may think I am a nut not to sell, but you will find that I am a hard nut to crack. Thanks, but no thanks.” This story ends on a note of sweet victory for Harsh when it was Marico who went out to buy out HLL’s brand instead.

“Failure Is Ok, Giving Up Is Not”

When Amit Burman, then the Vice Chairman, Dabur Group, brought his much-loved Real Juices out into the market, the result was out and out rejection. The reason? A product sans preservatives just did not appeal to the palate of thousands of desi customers used to the taste of preservatives. Refusing to give up, he ultimately made it a resounding success through painstaking strategising, building up his own dedicated team and tweaking the recipe a bit.

Painting Their Own Destiny; One Stroke At A Time

The chapter of the Dhingra brothers who turned a suffering business into India’s second-largest paints company is a particularly readable one.

As children, the much feted Dhingra brothers, Kuldip Singh and Gurban Singh Dhingra, chairman and vice chairman of Berger Paints respectively, saw a downturn of family fortunes when their widowed mother was left with little else other than the original paint shop started by the family patriarch. With firm resolve and presence of mind, she decided not to sell it but instead got working partners to run it for them (a practical necessity considering they did not live in Amritsar.) Before doing so, she made them swear unflinching loyalty to the family on a trip to The Golden Temple of Amritsar. It was precisely this decision of Surjit Kaur that kept the shop going which, years and years later, resulted in the Dhingra brothers buying Berger Paints – the second largest paints company in India.

Gradually, the brothers grew up and built Rajdeep paints. Kuldip’s innovative schemes kept the working capital coming in and the factories running. The watershed moment came in 1980 when they bagged a huge order from the erstwhile Soviet Union and emerged as being among the top three exporters to the SU.

But the big turnaround was when Kuldip a traditional “dukandaar” bought Vijay Mallya’s Berger Paints. The brothers made it a resounding success story and did so on the basis of the family tradition of providing ESOPS (Employee Stock Ownership Plan). How this came to be is a story in itself. Kuldip tried to communicate this to the team through the CEO, but the CEO was non-committal. It would be some time before he would discover that the CEO had not passed on this information to the others, simply because he did not like the idea of being on the same level as the others on the team. But the ESOPS ensured a massive profit. The rest is history.

"The book is a must-read for anyone who dreams of setting up their own business or enterprise"

The Comeback Was Better Than The Setback

When Agastya Dalmia, grandson of Ramkrishna Dalmia and scion of the illustrious Dalmia family, decided to revamp the iconic brand ‘Keventers’, the bid was not a success. Not initially.

To give a bit of history, Keventers is a brand known for its milkshakes dating back to 1925. The story behind its legacy began in the 1880s when Edward Keventers, a Swedish dairy technologist, made his way to Indian shores. He took over the running of the Aligarh Dairy Farm in 1894 and made it profitable. The business was expanded to other cities soon, including Calcutta (now Kolkata), Darjeeling and Shimla.

Eventually, a huge dairy plant was set up in Delhi’s Chanakyapuri area. People soon came to associate the brand with butter, cheese and milkshakes.

After Independence, Keventers was acquired by the Dalmia Group, under Ramkrishna Dalmia. It went on to become a supplier of milk powder for the Indian Army. The government later acquired the land from Keventers, leading to the closure of the dairy factory and the dissolution of the brand. Until Agastya Dalmia stepped in.

Agastya decided to reintroduce the brand to a whole new generation. Easier said than done. Reinventing Keventers was a challenging task, as was converting the company from a manufacturing unit to a retail business. A complete overhaul of the brand and products was also planned.

However, Agastya had little experience in the food and dairy industry. He also made the mistake of launching other snacks instead of concentrating only on milkshakes. Besides, the original formulations were hard to come up since most of the people associated with it were long gone.

The result: complete rejection.

It was back to the drawing board for Agastya and team. The comeback after an interlude was a firm tribute to the country’s colonial history. As things stand, Keventers is on a steady upward keel. Whether or not it will be able to keep up the momentum is something that only time will tell but Agastya Dalmia’s innings have clearly gotten off to a good start.

Small Events Lead To Not So Small Events

Motilal Oswal Financial Services may not have even come into existence but for a small gesture by Raamdeo Agrawal. The fact Raamdeo offered Motilal a lift on his motorbike changed their lives forever! (Not only did their lives changed but also the lives of many Indians who now look at broking and investing with respect.)

As it happened, they got talking. Each discovered that the other was far from happy with work. However, both were considerably interested in each others’ interests. Motilal was fascinated by the research that Raamdeo did in equities and Raamdeo, in turn, was excited about the equity trading that Motilal carried out. The logical question then was “Why not do something together?” The decision resulted in what is today one of the largest and most respected financial services companies. Motilal became group MD while Ramdeo is joint MD.

The Rest Of The Roll-Call

Other names in the book include the young and dynamic executive director of Luxor-Pooja Jain who had some pretty big shoes to fill in post the demise of her father due to cardiac arrest and Tara Singh Vachani (youngest daughter of Max Group’s Analjit Singh) who is founder and managing director of Antara – a residential community for senior living.

Arjun Sharma runs the most popular and most successful retail mall in India. As chairman of the Select Group with diversified interests in shopping, travel and tourism, retail and hospitality, the flagship project of the group is India’s No.1 Shopping Center Select Citywalk. But no one had actually expected him to be in retail. After his father, Indra Sharma sold off his business of SITA travels, everyone expected Arjun to focus on hospitality. Instead, here he is, in retail. These days the company is pretty much on cruise control mode managed on by professionals. It is time, according to him, to challenge himself once again.

And what better way to do that than to change the eating habits of Indians? So here is he is in his new avatar not just as a farmer, but as an organic farmer.

Last but not the least, the book features Rishabh and Saloni Shroff, the power lawyer couple of the Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas group who call their firm ‘a Hundred Year Old Start Up.’

The Corporate Citizen Review

Sonu Bhasin’s insight is that of an insider. An erstwhile senior banker with close to three decades of experience, she is clearly on home turf as far as investigating corporate India’s untold stories go. Her own understanding of entrepreneurship and vision helps the writing. While the title ‘The Inheritors’ suggests that the book must be about the second, third or further generations of the owners simply getting the ownership of their family-owned businesses, that’s not actually what the reader gets. Rather, what he/she understands is that the inheritors had to work their way to the top.

Plenty of momentous events including the Partition of India, globalisation and the entry of MNCs add to the book’s inherent value as a resource/reference book for anyone interested in the rich and diverse business history of India. The entire timeline from the starting point of business to its current day status is covered. The book focuses on the culture, family politics, business rivalries between and within families, ego battles and a lot more, thereby ensuring a compelling read. The trivia about corporate India is indeed memorable.

There are several inside stories of business rivalries and brand warfare from the mouths of top management who are known to be notoriously tight-lipped. The in-depth interviews and the author’s examination of the complexities of the generation gap as well as intra-family warfare, the hierarchy and tight control enjoyed by the eldest are not only detailed but also remarkable for the author’s neutral stance.

The writing is top-notch, laced with humour and sarcasm.

As a timely nod to gender equality, it also looks at the tricky issue of female inheritors and the oft-held reluctance of the men to hand over significant control to the women for the fear that women marry into different homes and in times of trouble, the selling of their shares could lead to trouble and interference in the core businesses of the group.

The Inheritors is a must-read for anyone who dreams of setting up their own business or enterprise. The stories of blood, sweat and tears, the lost dreams and the tough moments juxtaposed with each protagonist’s trajectory provide readers with enough insight to observe and learn. What separates ‘The Inheritors’ from a standard “How to succeed in business” kind of book is that it is a detailed case study of real-life successes, and not a compilation of theories and formulae. What must also be mentioned is the book’s stress on honesty, integrity, self belief and passion as the core human values that take a business from zero to a hundred.

The Three Takeaways:

In Sonu’s own words, the three takeaways of the book are as follows:

A. The inheritors of family-owned businesses do not enjoy a cakewalk in terms of building their career or proving their mettle. They are begrudged their role and position by others and the bounce back from losses is not easy.

B. No matter how successful a stint a generation may have had, the old must eventually give way to the new. No one wants to relinquish power, but the new generation has to take over.

C. Those businesses who succeed do so on the back of their faithful adherence to certain core families. Speaking at the webinar, Sonu was clear to point out just why it is so tough for Gen-Next to succeed. “Unless the message is clear, it is difficult for the next generation to succeed on the same level.”

SCIONS

Amit Burman - Chairman, Dabur

A product sans preservatives just did not appeal to the palate of thousands of desi customers used to the taste of preservatives. Refusing to give up, he ultimately made Real a resounding success through painstaking strategising, building up his dedicated team and tweaking the recipe a bit.

Harsh Mariwala - Founder chairman, Marico

"You may think I am a nut not to sell Parachute, but you will find that I am a hard nut to crack. Thanks, but no thanks." (Harsh Mariwala to Keki Dadiseth, Chairman, HLL)

Pooja Jain

Is taking the legacy of her father forward at Luxor.

Agastya Dalmia - Director, Keventers

Agastya decided to reintroduce the brand to a whole new generation. Easier said than done. Reinventing Keventers was a challenging task, as was converting the company from a manufacturing unit to a retail business. A complete overhaul of the brand and products was also planned. However, Agastya had little experience in the food and dairy industry. He also made the mistake of launching other snacks instead of concentrating only on milkshakes. Besides, the original formulations were hard to come up since most of the people associated with it were long gone. The result: complete rejection. It was back to the drawing board for Agastya and team. The comeback after an interlude was a firm tribute to the country's colonial history. As things stand, Keventers is on a steady upward keel.

Kuldip and Gurbachan Singh Dhingra - Chairman and Vice Chairman, Berger Paints

When Kuldip and Gurbachan Dhingra lost their father at a young age, their mother was left behind with four small children in Delhi and a running shop in Amritsar. With firm resolve and presence of mind, she decided not to sell it but instead got working partners to run it for them (a practical necessity considering they did not live in Amritsar.) Before doing so, she made them swear unflinching loyalty to the family on a trip to The Golden Temple of Amritsar. It was precisely this decision of Surjit Kaur that kept the shop going which, years and years later, resulted in the Dhingra brothers buying Berger Paints – the second largest paints company in India.

Arjun Sharma

Runs the most popular and most successful retail mall in India. As chairman of the Select Group with diversified interests in shopping, travel and tourism, retail and hospitality, the flagship project of the group is India's No.1 Shopping Center Select Citywalk. But no one had actually expected him to be in retail. After his father Indra Sharma sold off his business of SITA travels, everyone expected Arjun to focus on hospitality. Instead, here he is, in retail.

Tara Singh Vachani

Is pioneering senior citizen community living in India

Motilal Oswal - Chairman and MD and Raamdeo Agrawal, Joint MD of Motilal Oswal Financial Services

Big changes in life happen due to small innocuous incidents. This small gesture of Raamdeo offering Motilal a lift on his motorbike changed their lives forever! Not only did their lives changed but also the lives of many Indians who now look at broking and investing with respect. Both had time during their ride to talk about what each one was doing. The fact that both were not satisfied with their current jobs was another strong connection. Motilal was fascinated by the research that Raamdeo did in equities and Raamdeo, in turn, was excited about the equity trading that Motilal carried out. The logical question, then, was ‘why not do something together’? Their decision resulted in what is today one of the largest and respected financial services company.