The Inheritors

Meet these heiresses of India Inc., who are pouring their youthful energy into the family-owned businesses they have inherited.   

Meet these heiresses of India Inc., who are pouring their youthful energy into the family-owned businesses they have inherited.   

Across corporate India, daughters are set to take charge of their family enterprises. These are young women who are being entrusted with businesses that are not of their creation but need the restless passion, perspective and decisive edge that can best be imparted by a generation that came of age in the post-liberalisation era. If their education is global, so is their mindset. What is common to these new inheritors is a willingness to go beyond the traditional limits of business, and with an energy born of confidence in what India can become as a market. Expectations of them are high but they won’t let that daunt them.

She is young and driven. And she is in the business of wine. Grover Vineyards are already famous among Indian wine swillers, but her demands of them are set to intensify. “I have done my degree in viticulture. This allowed me to really understand the business of growing vines from the ground up, rather than just concentrate on branding. I wanted to make sure I understood the farm part, the backend, the actual growth of vines that to me is the key to appreciating the business. I am passionate because the per capita consumption in India is just two teaspoons per year. That is minuscule if anything is minuscule. If India maintains 7 per cent growth, the wine business will double every five years.”

Wasn’t it a bit drab, pottering around vineyards trying to understand grapes, while her friends were at Ivy League business schools? “No! I loved every moment of it. Being close to the soil, the smells and the textures was the real joy of wine. We forget when we do posh wine dinners that this, at the end of the day, is about growing and then processing great grape.”

Is her management philosophy very different from her dad Kapil Grover’s? The answer is surprising. “I am, if anything, more conservative. I believe that getting the product right in India will take time and the biggest breakthrough will come when more retail outlets are allowed to stock wine,” she beams, seated comfortably at her sea-front apartment done up in Persian rugs and polished teak on Nepean Sea road, Mumbai.

And her goals for the coming year? “I am convinced that wine is going global, and yet flavours are retaining a local touch. To that end, my priority is to build on the global partnerships of Grover Wines, such as our joint collaboration with Veuve Clicquot, the French Champagne house that’s part of the LVMH Group.”

Grover’s five wine labels—La Reserve, Cabernet Shiraz, Shiraz Rose, Blanc de Blanc and Sauvignon Blanc—are brands to reckon with in India, favourites at parties (and superb as take-along presents). “Currently,” she says, “we at Grover produce about 500,000 bottles a year and export 30 per cent of this produce.”

But sustaining an all-round market dominance is about the grapes. And that’s the expertise Karishma wants leadership in.

For beginners, this young lady writes. She is a columnist for The Wall Street Journal, no less. Inheritor of the Rs 350 crore Zenith Computers business, Devita Saraf has taken the business beyond computer hardware, a market in which the family-run brand has survived price competition of the very fiercest kind and even the coming of famous big names from the US . But Devita has something else on her mind—her recent launch of a fancy new TV brand called Vu. “I have always believed that if you can offer better technology at an intersection where value meets experience, you have a big enough market in the new India. At Zenith, we have thus created Vu, a television that is super premium in technology and luxurious as an accessory to any premium home or hotel. I am currently in the process of having my owned stores reflect the values and make-up of homes that will eventually keep that TV.”

Er, wasn’t there a recession to worry about? “For us, recession allowed growth,” she replies, “ We could get the real estate that was out of reach for us. We could get the people that were suddenly available for us, given that even those with talent were finding the going tough. Best of all, we were able to advertise at much lower rates. All in all, the recession was great for us, it let us launch Vu aggressively. This will now allow us to leverage the business’ current growth.”

Does the new TV brand have a special strategy of some sort? In a word, “Exclusivity,” she says. And then adds, “We sell televisions at the premium end, and for that we need to have you walk into a store where you can feel the difference. We have seven flagship stores now, each with an ambience which is globally contemporary, yet a feel that’s cosy and lived in.” She is aiming Vu at the sophisticated customer, for whom a TV set is not just another box with a screen, but something that must satisfy more than just functional needs.

Meanwhile, the clock is ticking away, and Devita is on a stiff Wall Street Journal deadline, which hastens the goodbyes. It’s a scene which vaguely seems to have occurred before, but did it?

Sam Balsara is not just an adman. He is an institution in Indian advertising. So, how is it for his daughter to emerge from his shadow and run Madison, the agency he created? Lara replies in her almost inaudible voice, “Truth be told, he has played a very big role in shaping my career and I have learnt a lot from him. But I also believe that I am very different from him, if not exactly his opposite. Like, I tend to play it safe and be over cautious, but he is always willing to take risks. I guess I need to change this habit of mine. I mean to be Madison is to go out and venture!”

The ad industry has been in crisis, with fee-based deals squeezing the buck. So, how will Lara cope with this? “Yes, margins are dropping in this business. That is part of life and one just has to deal with it. We try to keep expenses to the minimum and do not allow wasteful expenditure. We are very frugal in our approach. When it comes to management, we are not here to waste money, and if you do a few simple things like assuring that you do not overspend on non-essentials, it all adds up for the better of both business sustainability and client servicing. Times when the ad business was one big party are clearly over.”

Then, there is also a talent crunch, with fewer clever youngsters joining the ad industry. How does Madison retain talent? “We would like to believe that we are an entrepreneurial organisation, and we are developing models that allow our people to have the freedom and responsibility to act as ‘entrepreneurs’ for the businesses they handle. So there is a complete sense of ownership and responsibility that each employee feels. Human resource management is as critical as client servicing, in my view, for the sustainable growth of the ad business in India.”

And how is it working in this city, what with all the crowding and parochial politics on the streets? “Yes, Bombay does have its flaws, but for a servicing business like ours, we can’t afford not to be here. It is India’s commercial hub and a lot of advertisers have their headquarters here. So hate Bombay or love Bombay, there’s no escaping it.” It’s not Madison Avenue, NY, but it works.

Devita SarafinheritorsKarishma GroverLara Balsara