Growth Very Important Factor In Legacy Business: RPG Enterprises' Anant Goenka

Anant Goenka, vice chairperson of RPG Enterprises Ltd., has classified growth to be the most important factor in a legacy business.

"I think growth is absolutely very important. You not only want to preserve but you want to grow, grow faster than the industry, we spend a lot of time looking at future S-curves within core businesses," Goenka told NDTV Profit on Friday when asked about what people in legacy companies who come from the family business focus on as compared to one from outside.

At the Building Legacy show, he gave the example of KEC International Ltd., diversifying in multiple new areas of project management, such as renewable energy. Another example was investing in home delivery of tyres since customers are keener on ordering online.

Goenka also shared the two major lessons in management he learned from his education while pursuing a Master of Business Administration degree. "My professor Harry Kramer advised me to take everyone's points, and in the end, do what's right and to use common sense," Goenka said.

He said that this advice helped him navigate situations where he had to consult and work with professional managers and earn their respect, being an executive from a generational family business.

He also said that he was invited by other executives to senior-level meetings and had conversations with managing directors and learned from their experiences.

On navigating family dynamics while being part of a family-run business, Goenka shared an anecdote: "I met with a patriarch of a large business group, he asked me, 'Do you do pipe cleaning?'"

"He said that there are many relationships in his family who have various pipes of conversations between the two, those pipes get dirty over time, due to unsaid issues, challenges that arise. So they clean their pipes every six months," Goenka said.

He elaborated that a trained person facilitates a discussion across all relationships.

"That's very advanced, we don't do that. But, a lot of challenges arise due to personal issues, unsaid things, low communications," Goenka added.