It is a statement
attributed to Harry Truman: 'If you can't stand the heat,
get out of the kitchen.' This is the underlying credo with
which India's youthful inheritors of business houses are
forcing the pace. While some have branched off on their
own, many have inherited legacies and junked the old style
of doing business. Yet others have fit in seamlessly into
daddies' plans and are advancing them at a steady clip.
Check
out 33-year-old Abhishek Dalmia who has been wearing a
ponytail for the last 10 years and is a qualified chartered
accountant. He will mark the month of July by paying
Rs 46 crore for acquiring engineering firm Revathi Equipment
Ltd.
He
sits in a modest office in New Delhi's Connaught Place,
under a poster that proclaims: 'Don't let your fears
stand in the way of your dreams... Living is the only
thing worth dying for.' The teetotaler and strictly vegetarian
Dalmia struck out from his family-owned cement business
on January 1, 1999, and plunged headlong into the investment
advisory sector. By the end of the year, he was managing
funds of over Rs 100 crore.
Admirers
call Dalmia a financial genius with a nose for companies
doing well but run by weak promoters. Others see shades of
the legendary American financial wiz Warren Buffet in the
Sriram College of Commerce graduate. Along with his 27-year-old
brother Chaitanya, the head of the Renaissance group
has maintained a low profile till now. But, his modesty
gives way when he says, "We are
the Warren Buffet type."
Dalmia's real
calling card to fame was the upstart bid for acquiring
Mumbai-based realty major Gesco Corporation in 2000. And
though he lost the battle six months later by just a whisker,
he still managed to make a killing. From there he went
on to acquire Revathi, a smart business move that is part
of his plans to grow in size. "The basic idea is to
unlock shareholder value while following a low risk strategy," he
says.
While the ponytail reflects his religious beliefs
and is a mark of respect for his Guru, his business vision
is sophisticated. "I am only concerned about the
free cash and the CEO in a company that I acquire," he
says.
From entrepreneur
Dalmia to inheritor Suneeta Reddy, daughter of Prathap
C. Reddy of Apollo Hospitals fame. The lady from Chennai
takes care of the finances of India's biggest hospital
chain, and also successfully organised one of the largest
corporate events in Sri Lanka in June this year. The event,
which was graced by the country's President, Prime Minister,
Health Minister and a host of other dignitaries, was held
to unveil the 350-bed Colombo Apollo. The facility is the
first-ever hospital built by an Indian corporate on foreign
shores. This is just the beginning. Under their father's
leadership, Suneeta and her sisters, Shobana, Sangita and
Preetha, are striving to take the Apollo brandname overseas
by setting up healthcare facilities in the Middle East.
And they will reach out to the rest of the world by allowing
access through tele-medicine.
"I was 19 when my father lost a patient who could
not afford a surgery in the US. That convinced me that
Indians deserved better standards of healthcare," says
Suneeta, who played a key part in selecting the Apollo
brandname. Together with her sisters, she worked on the
project report, fund raising and advertising. "All
of us started at the foundation and worked our way up," she
says.
An interesting
anecdote centres around her choice of books - mainly management
tomes by Philip Kotler and C.K. Prahlad - for her father. "He
found it boring. One day he told me to read the 'Sundara
Kandam' from the Ramayana - the chapter where Hanuman crosses
the ocean to Lanka. For a monkey to grow 100 times in size
and cross the ocean - the change was radical," says
Suneeta. "The key to the chapter is this: all of us
have great potential; it is very rarely that we do anything
to recognise it or challenge ourselves," she says.
Ever
since I was five, I recall my father calling me the Jew
in the family. I suppose he had a game plan for all of
us and thought that I could grow up to handle the finances
well. The fact is that I thoroughly enjoy the work," says
Suneeta, who has completed the 'owner president' management
programme of the Harvard Business School.
Drawing immense
satisfaction from their work that has helped seven million
people, Suneeta says that Indian business families will
have to involve daughters if the country and business has
to grow. "Thirty eight per cent of business internationally
is controlled by women. We would be losing a large, valuable
and capable workforce if we do not acknowledge the contribution
a woman can make to business," she says.
So what makes these tyros tick? The new-generation of
inheritors are blazing their own paths. And mind you,
at a very scorching pace as they keep up with the Joneses.
The Joneses in this case could be the first generation
- their parents or their peers. It is truly life in the
fast lane as the youth brigade aspire to prove a point.
Take 41-year-old St. Xavier's, Kolkata, alumnus Harshvardhan
Neotia who was awarded the Padamshree in 1999. The managing
director of the over Rs 400 crore Ambuja Eastern Cements
Ltd, won the award for his mass housing project - a 25
acre mini-township on the fringes of the West Bengal
capital.
And though
Neotia is on board many Ambuja Group companies now (he
is Vinod Kumar Neotia's son), when he was growing up, it
was a small-size family business. The Marwari family's
income was moderate and they had just one car. What he
did get in abundance was business ethics. At 21, he forayed
into the construction business on his own. The result is
hopes of becoming a larger business entity. "We need
to create wealth. But if a large part of the wealth is
used for conspicuous consumption, that's not good. Create
a lot of wealth but see to it that it is re-deployed in
great proportions. That is what is important for our economy," he
says.
Cousin Pulkit Sekhsaria specialises in managing the
Ambuja Group's shipping, export and bulk transportation.
In 1998, the company annual report had a small story
on how its 60,000 tons a month bulk terminal in Mumbai
achieved a throughput of more than one lakh tons. The
credit goes to him.
Meanwhile,
at the Rs 17,000 crore Essar Group, 33-year-old Prashant
Ruia - the eldest of Shashi Ruia's two sons - has been
steering the steel, shipping and power divisions along
with younger brother, Anshuman who oversees the telecom
and construction business of the group, including the 10.5
metric tonne Vadinar petroleum refinery.
Both brothers were thrust into the hurly-burly of business
at a very early age, barely after finishing college.
While Prashant has been toiling away for nearly a dozen
years now, Anshuman has been handling work for a sizeable
eight years.
Meeting them
both is a study in contrasts. Both sit on the 19th floor
of the landmark 'Essar House' in Mumbai. From these commanding
heights Prashant expresses steely determination to turn
around the Group. Rattling off figures, he is confident
of the future but hasn't forgotten 1999, when Essar defaulted
on meeting financial commitments to overseas investors.
Prashant
became the spokesperson, rushing from one meeting to another
in an attempt to convince banks and financial institutions
to throw a lifeline to the company. Since then, he is slowly,
yet surely, taking over the mantle from his father. Says
an insider: "Both brothers
mirror the way their father and uncle Ravi work." Anshuman
acknowledges this: "I prefer doing the backroom
implementation."
Dapper-looking
Satish Reddy, the 33-year-old son of Dr Reddy's Labs founder
Padmashri Anji Reddy could well have made it to the celluloid
world. Instead, he chose to follow in his father's footsteps
by joining the firm in 1991. He is now the MD and COO of
the fast-growing Hyderabad headquartered firm. The Masters
in Medicinal Chemistry from Purdue University and B.Tech
from Osmania University started off with managing the company's
manufacturing operations, R&D activities and new product
development. Today, he is credited with steering the company's
transformation from a bulk drugs manufacturer to a Rs 1,500
crore formulations major.
At yet another level, Delhi-based
32-year-old Samir Modi could have stayed on in the US where
he worked for Phillip Morris. But he joined father K.K.
Modi's Godfrey Phillips, makers of Red & White and
the Four Square brand of cigarettes.
In March 1996
Modicare Private Ltd was launched as a direct sales company.
Today it is the only firm in an industry dominated by MNC
giants like Amway, Oriflame, Avon and Tupperware. "My
aim is to put large amounts of money in the common man's
hands. If they benefit, I will benefit too," he says.
As
Tom Hanks said in Forest Gump: "Life is like
a box of chocolates... It may still rain in the desert
after all." For these scions of business houses,
life has not always been easy. While some have taken
to steering the family ship, others are sailing in unconventional
directions. All said and done, they have a common guiding
star called success!
CORPORATE