Fly The Nest!

If we ruffle the pages of the history of some men and women who have been successful in business in recent times, we can put our finger on the winning veins responsible. Those people may have fought many odds to become successful.  One of the many odds they must have fought right in the initial stages is facing family concerns and seeking permissions to either start a new business or take a completely different career path. In India family businesses are held very tightly and so management of the business is always by a few elders of the family without letting any controls go down the line. The elders take key decisions and others in the family often have the responsibility to implement decisions alone.  Conservative mindsets and going the beaten path have been commonplace in family businesses for long. Though it is good to be focused on the core family business and trying to grow it, it pays to intently look at new opportunities but many family organizations have not done so resulting perhaps from unwilling attitudes and conservatism.

Some of the successful people have made their mark by taking a different course to achieve their goals and driving their strategic thoughts into implementation to become successful. These people may have been born in a nuclear business family in India but may have taken steps to steer their efforts into undiscovered and unexplored territories of business and become successful. Some of these successful people in business may have been in a family, which may have never done any business too! The spark in them has made them leave the comfort zones of their own homes and family business and strive to pursue their dreams to become successful. In India it is not too easy for a member of a family that runs a family managed business to fork separately into starting something on one’s own or reinvent the business to take it in a different direction even if capital is not drawn from the family business for the individual’s initiative. It needs the family permission and the convincing of so many elders in the family for letting the individual go his way. After all, according to the family elders it is the reputation of the family and its business will be at stake when someone from the family goes separately and more so if his business would fail!

I often ask myself questions about a few companies that did well being market leaders in their category and are now not to be seen prominently in the category at all - Why did the great instant relief pain balm company based in Chennai not diversify or expand into a large business though the company has existed for long? Why has the Haryana based cycle manufacturing and marketing company taken too long to come up with its product range diversification understanding current needs of its target customers whereas a competing cycle manufacturing company diversified into motorcycles at the right time spotting market opportunities? We can cite many such examples of what I call, organizational lethargy on the one hand and organizational velocity on the other. Only some leaders in a few organizations have taken the lead in the next generations to take the business to new highs! In many organizations perhaps even leaders with the spark have remained quiet for some reason or the other and have sailed along conservative tides. I am reminded of the eagle among the chicken fable where the eagle grew up in the chicken coop among the many chicken. It did what chicken did and believed it was a chicken too. It took a naturalist who came across the eagle among the chicken to cause its relief into the wisdom of its own realization.  The eagle left the nest. And the rest is history. In situations of this kind, in the corporate scenario, we need such naturalists in elders in family managed businesses to encourage the younger generations to realize themselves and soar high. In many instances we find the next generations themselves playing a significantly responsible role in catapulting the organization to a new high. They need encouragement and not an intrusive help that may hinder their own decision-making capabilities. The popular story of a young boy helping the butterfly break out of its cocoon where the boy’s good intentions land the butterfly in trouble impressed me. As the butterfly is trying to break out of its cocoon, the young boy pities the hardship the butterfly is undergoing and breaks the cocoon open to help the butterfly come out. The butterfly does come out but with a swollen body and shriveled wings! The butterfly needs to break out of the cocoon on its own as the struggle enables the fluids flow evenly into the body and wings to strengthen the butterfly for the rest of its life! Listening to their heart and mind and led more by an innate leading than by virtue of their experience, these successful people have dared to move into their new territories with confidence. We see in the Holy Bible in Genesis, Abram pays total heed to the Lord who said to him, "Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing“. It’s all a new beginning when God’s blessings too accompany one’s efforts.

In retailing in India a few such leaders have left their nests to play an important role leaving legacies behind to take their family organizations into the next orbit, of course, with the consent and the blessings of the elders in the family, though. They have won laurels for their companies and for themselves and the winning streaks in them have shown results time and again. There are lessons to be learnt from such leaders who have weathered storms within families and in the environment to become successful. A few elements of their character and qualities have set themselves apart. They have not only sold themselves to their family members and elders but also won over in the marketplace as well.

In a Western context, this phenomenon of family businesses managed by the members of the family in succession as CEOs is unheard of. I have a friend in Lincoln, Nebraska who has a very successful pet food business and his children are not involved in his business at all. With a typical mindset of mine, when I still keep asking him about the interest of any of his children taking his business over, he quizzically looks at me trying to understand the logic of handing a business down to his posterity! He can do anything with his business and the children work in various other organizations without even thinking about having any stake in their dad’s business. But in India, the story is different. There is a lot more emotional attachment to business as it is more often inherited and passed down generations as well. Many businesses have come to naught because of family divisions often messed up badly without seeing the light of day as a result of divided market valuations (more families use the same brand name after the division of business with their own brand extensions!). In such a situation it is often better to let the next generation take their own course to excel in what they can do and achieve. An MBA classmate of mine whose father has a successful coffee growing and trading business down South has unaccomplished dreams in his career as the business is still managed by his father. My friend who is approaching his fifty is almost at his wit’s end as he is not able to start off on his own as such an effort will create ripples in a peaceful family business environment and he rightly or unjustly compromises business growth opportunities for maintaining peace in a joint nuclear family.

More often it may be worthwhile to just fly the nest!

Dr. Gibson G. Vedamani