Gender bends

Family-run businesses are losing their bias too

Swati Piramal’s appointment as the first woman president of an industry chamber marks a giant leap for women in India Inc. in more ways than one. Although Assocham ranks No. 3 in the chamber hierarchy (CII and Ficci preceding it in size and influence), it deserves praise because Ms Piramal’s appointment was not the result of affirmative gender action — a practice much in vogue — or her family connections (she is the wife of industrialist Ajay Piramal), but because she is a business person in her own right. As Nicholas Piramal’s chief scientific officer and director of strategic alliances and communication, she sets the company’s R&D agenda, a critical role in any pharma company. Second, her appointment marks a healthy break from the embarrassingly regressive institutions of “ladies’ organisations” in industry chambers for which only the wives of leading industrialists qualify for membership and the activities vary from kitty party-type meets to charity work of a “lady bountiful” nature.

That the Harvard-educated Ms Piramal was a natural choice for Assocham president-ship suggests that gender is becoming less of an issue or, in women’s case, a disadvantage, in the Indian business world. As proof, most observers would point to the fact that Chanda Kochchar heads India’s largest private bank, ICICI, and that she competed against two other women for the job. A former colleague, Shikha Sharma, now heads Axis Bank, India’s third largest private bank. One of India’s most successful biotech companies is promoted and run by Kiran Mazumdar Shaw. But more enduring evidence of altering gender perceptions comes from family-owned businesses, which still dominate the business landscape and in which governance tends to be far more tradition-bound. A quarter century ago, industrialist K K Birla’s decision to buck Marwari inheritance traditions and divide his media-to-sugar empire among his three daughters was not only front page news but the subject of exhaustive analysis. Even today, the number of women who have inherited leadership roles in family companies is small enough to warrant attention — Mallika Srinivasan, who took charge of her father’s tractor-manufacturing company TAFE, Rajshree Pathy, who inherited a sugar company, hotelier Priya Paul and media baroness Shobhana Bhartia are among the chosen few. True, in the absence of male heirs, some of these women inherited their positions by default, but it is not that Priya Paul did not have a brother. The fact that she and the others were considered worthy successors suggests a clear change in thinking.

It is, therefore, worth applauding the fact that, today, gender has become much less of a succession barrier in a growing number of family-owned businesses. The last year alone has seen Sangita Reddy of the Apollo Hospitals chain being annointed successor to her father, Lakshmi Venu, daughter of Venu and Mallika Srinivasan, join Sundaram Clayton, and Roshni Nadar sign on in HCL, the company her father Shiv Nadar founded. They join several recent appointments such as Schauna Chauhan, daughter of Prakash Chauhan, Meher Pudumjee of Thermax (chosen by a jury recently as Business Standard’s CEO of the Year) and Vinita Gupta of Lupin Laboratories. The great thing about their appointments is that they are being made at a time when globalisation is pitting Indian industry against tougher competition than ever before. This means their achievements will count for much more than their family connections. For women in business, competing on such a level playing field is far more constructive than relying on affirmative action for progress.