Don't Get Into Right, Wrong: BCG India's Janmejaya Sinha On Navigating Hurt In Family Businesses

Janmejaya Sinha, chairperson of BCG India, shared valuable insights into how to keep the legacy business wheels turning from generation to generation, most importantly how to navigate hurt caused by personal issues, saying that soft issues of rights and wrongs make people get hurt.

He advised to not look at the right and wrong of these personal issues. "Don't get into right and wrong, get into helpful unhelpful", Sinha in a conversation with NDTV Profit on Friday.

Along with this, he also delved deep into the importance of the "next generation" who join family business and the array of issues faced by them.

"It is important to explore what do the next generation feel about their responsibilities, how do they prepare, how do they actually take this legacy of their father, grandfather and take it further."

The BCG chairperson also pointed out that in his opinion it is much harder for a next generation family member to enter the family business than a normal successor to the CEO, adding that the question of receiving autonomy from their predecessors and making big decisions, while at the same time earning respect and being aware of what is right and wrong dangles as an "interesting conundrum" for the family successor.

According to Sinha, things become more complex when there is no single head in the family business. Referring to this head as "the patriarch" he said, "As long as the patriarch is there, decision spaces are less".

He added that since the patriarch started the business against all odds, he will not need anyone's approval. Whereas, if there are multiple verticals of authority, things become more complex.