Letters: Citi asleep

“Citigroup pays for a rush to risk ...” (November 24), shows just how poor the management systems are in even top-notch global banks. The story points out that the Citi chief executive Charles Prince III was completely in the dark about the bank’s exposure to mortgage backed assets, and kept going by the assurances given by Thomas G Maheras who was in charge of the bank’s trading. In which case, what is the difference between these top MNCs and India’s family-based firms? In the latter case too, you have well-paid “professionals” whose sole job is to justify what the family owners say, even to add management gloss to pure gut decisions of the owners. Family enterprises have another advantage that the fully professional setups don’t have — the owner’s future is tied to the growth of the company. Professionals, on the other hand, feel free to move on after making a mess in the firms they are in. There are a host of examples of professionals who have not got hurt by their failure in their previous jobs. Long live professionals!

Sudhir Agarwal, Mumbai