What’s The Secret Sauce Of India’s Century-Old Business Families?

Circa 1976: I grew up in Kurla, an eastern suburb of Mumbai that was highly industrialised. Within a radius of 3–4 km from my house and school were the factories and offices of some of India’s well-known companies. Among them were: Premier Automobiles, Kamani Tubes, Mukand (Bajaj Group), Geoffrey Manners (Forhans toothpaste & Anacin), Caprihans, Abbott Laboratories, Star Glass Works, IBM, Coorla Mill, Nathani Steel, Naval Depot and Ashok Leyland’s subsidiary, Automotive Manufacturers Pvt Ltd.

While in school, I distinctly remember that half our school trooped down to the Kamani Tube factory located on LBS Marg, just across the road, to see Dharmendra shooting for a movie. It was equally fascinating to see hundreds of Premier Automobiles’ Padmini cars (earlier Fiat) lined up on both sides of the road in their housing colony located next to the plant, ready to be dispatched to dealers across India. They were producing around 30–40 cars a day and, if I recall correctly, there was a waiting period of 5–7 years.

Circa 2026: Fifty years later, the entire topography of Kurla has changed. Premier Automobiles, set up by the great Walchand Hirachand, has gone bankrupt. Kohinoor Developers have transformed the huge factory land into a sprawling residential complex. Kamani Tubes, part of the Kamani Group’s seven companies founded by Ramjibhai Kamani, has changed hands but survived. One of its companies, KEC, was acquired by the Harsh Goenka Group. In place of Kamani now stands a huge mall — Phoenix Marketcity — belonging to Atul Ruia.

Now, to connect the dots. Both Kamani and Premier Automobiles, once prestigious family businesses, have been relegated to history. They survived perhaps two generations before collapsing. The reasons: over-leveraging and family feuds.

It is against this backdrop that it is quite commendable to note that the Bajaj Group — the faction dominated by Rahul Bajaj — is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, with the fifth generation already having entered the scene.

Founded in 1926 by Jamnalal Bajaj, the group today runs over 40 companies and 100 entities spanning two-wheelers, finance, electric mobility, housing, insurance, electricals and global operations. The group’s top companies include Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv, Bajaj Auto, Bajaj Housing Finance and Bajaj Electricals. The combined market capitalisation of these entities is around $148 billion.

They are the epitome of how a business group can survive 100 years — and that too successfully. This made me wonder: what is their secret sauce? How have they survived across four generations while several other well-known family businesses imploded by the time the second generation stepped in?

One distinct feature that stands out is that almost all family businesses in India have split — either amicably or acrimoniously.

However, there are business families that have largely avoided splits, like the Tata Group, where ownership largely rests with trusts and operations are dominated by professional managers. The Godrej Group remained cohesive till 2026, when it opted for an amicable split.

The Murugappa Group, known for its governance discipline, has also remained relatively cohesive. The group hit headlines when Valli Arunachalam, eldest daughter of the former executive chairman, the late M V Murugappan, battled allegations of gender bias to claim a board seat in the group’s holding company. The TVS Group has survived because it developed a culture of decentralised entrepreneurship. The Ruias of Essar, though not yet 100 years old, also display strong family bonding.

There is an old axiom: “The first generation creates wealth, the second preserves it, and the third destroys it.”

In India, business splits are often viewed as a stigma. But if one looks at some of these splits dispassionately — whether acrimonious or amicable — one notices that they have often created more value, more opportunities and greater sanity within families.

As management experts say, splits have frequently unlocked value, reduced friction and improved longevity. Take the case of the Ambani brothers. A well-known journalist once wrote: “Two Ambanis are better than one.” The argument was that both brothers’ companies would command better valuations, benefiting stakeholders. That did happen. But today, Anil Ambani is in the doghouse.

Avoiding a split or pushing it under the carpet is not a solution. The longer it is delayed, the more bitter and public it becomes. Dirty linen gets washed in public and the brand suffers.

We saw this happen in the Mafatlal Group. Generational transition triggered severe splintering, legal battles, family fallouts, police cases and long-standing disputes that tarnished the once blue-chip conglomerate’s legacy.

This is why an amicable split is often the best way out. India’s most enduring business houses — Bajaj Group, Godrej Group, TVS Group, Murugappa Group and Birla Group — survived and thrived because they managed their splits effectively. Clearly, adversity can also create opportunity.

What, then, is the “secret sauce” of business families like the Bajaj Group that have survived 100 years? If one looks at the Bajaj Group after the split between Rahul Bajaj and his brother Shishir Bajaj, it becomes clear how the Rahul Bajaj faction managed the transition by regrouping businesses according to individual strengths — Rajiv (Bajaj Auto), Sanjiv (Bajaj Finance), Shekhar (Bajaj Electricals) and Niraj (Mukand). Essentially, the Bajaj cart was being pulled in the same direction. Everybody has a distinct identity, played defined roles, run companies independently and yet collectively added to the group kitty — if market capitalisation is any indication.

The lesson is simple: most 100-year-old groups reinvented themselves multiple times. Bajaj moved from scooters to motorcycles, EVs and finance. Tata moved from steel and trucks into software, retail, aviation and digital businesses.

Even groups that split acrimoniously continue to thrive. Take the Birla Group, which over the decades fragmented into the Aditya Birla, CK Birla, BK Birla, MP Birla and Yash Birla factions. Yet, business fragmentation did not make any faction extinct. Each carved out a distinct identity, asset base and position in the marketplace.

Some other business groups that witnessed bitter splits but survived beyond 100 years include the Modi Group, Kirloskar Group, JK Organisation and Thapar Group.

However, amicable splits appear to work better, if one goes by the examples of the RPG Group, TVS Group, Murugappa Group and Godrej Group. Here, there is no bitterness, no ugly fights and no negative media coverage — making it a win-win situation for both sides.

What intrigued me most was why splits happen in the first place. The general feedback is that it is more about control, respect and legacy than money. By the third generation, most members are already wealthy. The real battle then becomes: Who leads? Whose vision dominates? Who carries the founder’s legacy? Who controls capital allocation?

Globally, the trend is increasingly towards families retaining ownership influence while professionals run operations. In India too, a few groups are gradually moving in that direction.

Finally, when one looks at century-old family businesses, the message that comes out loud and clear is that they were practical. They were able to separate family emotion from business logic. They understood that entrepreneurial autonomy must be respected.

The real achievement of India’s century-old business families is not that they stayed together forever. It is that they ensured the business outlived the family disagreements.