In a panel discussion on Gen-Next Legacy Builders: Young Guns steering family businesses at the second edition of Moneycontrol’s Indian Family Business Awards 20922, Sudarshan Venu, MD of TVS Motor Company, Roshni Nadar, Chairperson of HCL Technologies and Puneet Dalmia, MD of Dalmia Bharat Limited shared interesting points in their journey as they took charge of their family businesses.

The session co-moderated by Chandra Ranganathan, Editor – Technology, Startups & New Economy at Moneycontrol and Soumya Rajan, Founder and CEO of Waterfield Advisors, saw these young turks highlight the challenges they overcame and their vision for the future.

Speaking about family businesses, Sudarshan Venu said, “Those of us who have the opportunity to inherit a family business are very lucky.”

“The Indian market helps family businesses have enough space to learn and use those learnings when growing in markets abroad,” he said.

Shedding light on her journey Roshni Nadar said that she shifted from film and media to business school to gain financial literacy. “I was the only person at business school to never have used an Excel sheet,” she said. “The first place I worked in HCL was in finance. By 28, I had already been made CEO of the holding company.”

Highlighting the fact of not being able to learn from any siblings, she said, “My journey has been a trial by fire as I have no siblings to learn from.”

Dismissing the popular belief that heirs of family businesses have it easy, Puneet Dalmia said, “In order to gain credibility I had to move to our new plant in Tamil Nadu to learn. I had to show my father that I was capable of running a business. My father told me I can’t put Rs 500 crore behind you because you don’t have credibility. He gave me Rs 2 crore and I started an internet company.”

“I sold my first company at 6X of our investment,” he added.

“In a family business, you are in an artificial bubble. It helped me that I didn’t start my career there. I was planning to McKinsey after going to IIM. I didn’t join McKinsey after a consultant told me that if I want some free time and opportunity to make a difference I should join my family business,” the Dalmia Bharat MD said.

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Talking about the values of family businesses, Puneet said, “I believe that family businesses need to preserve values that define them and destroy the bureaucratic structure to grow. Family businesses have a big advantage as they can create a nurturing environment and treat employees like family members. Family businesses can create a culture. You have to treat family members like professionals and professionals like family members.”

Sudarshan Venu said, “Values form the bedrock of any family business.”

“My parents, my partner and Srinivasan are my mentors. If family businesses create institutions that outlast the founders then family businesses will always grow,” said Roshni Nader.

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“If you want to build institutions that outlast founders in profit or non-profit, corporate governance can’t be ignored,” she added.

When asked about his alternative plan besides joining the family business, Sudarshan Venu said, “I would have gone into real estate.”

On the discussion about succession plan, he said, “I am more focused on spending time with my 5-year-old rather than discuss a succession plan.”

“If my kids are passionate about going to the business they are more than welcome, but if they are not then I wish them the best to be successful,” said Puneet. “The Dalmia group succession plan was a product of our own trial and error and the advice of our well-wishers,” he added.

Also read: Indian Family Business Award 2022: Sudarshan Venu, the Next-Gen Leader for TVS Motor Company

“The succession plan at HCL Tech was in line even before I was a part of the company,” said Roshni.

Speaking about philanthropy and sustainable methods adopted by their businesses these next-gen leaders expressed pride and shared their visions of a sustainable future focused on environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) goals.

“Sustainability is a part of the values that TVS follows. Investments in electric mobility have been an important part of our efforts to embrace sustainability. The focus on sustainability has been a part of TVS Group’s investment into electric mobility,” said Sudarshan.

“We are very proud of the philanthropy that we have done. ESG compliance is now a very important plan of the decision-making process at HCL Tech. A lot of our investment especially from the HCL foundations only have taken place after an ESG compliance check,” Roshni said. “I just committed $15 million at the World Economic Forum to help 50 acquapreneurs over 5 years,” the HCL chairperson added.

“India is a champion of sustainability even before it became fashionable. Our group is trying to become carbon neutral by 2030,” said Puneet.

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