The comparison with Indian family businesses is to put forward the view point from an Asian point of view

as to how family businesses are run. The Asian countries are set up as a societal norm based group rather than an individualistic norm based group. Thus it is imperative to understand a world view as we try to analyze the values and traditions which play a role in the decision making. The example of Tatas is one of the many family businesses in India. India is a country which had the oldest civilization in Harappa and Mohenjadaro. And the religious texts like the Vedas have been followed for centuries in India which has seen the society being segregated into castes which have to follow different professions in the society. Thus for centuries in India, businesses have been held within families. It has only been with the advent of the liberalization and globalization, that businesses have been less family oriented and more professional with the advent of global companies into India. In the case we saw how family members were inducted into the business of Sunflower without proper training, experience or guidance. This has been a problem with most family run businesses which seem to perish over the generations due to lack of competency amongst the younger generations of the family. This can be set right by having certain guidelines in the form of values and traditions in the business which can be codified and passed down and helps in the decision making. The point to be noted is that since the advent of management education there has been a tremendous pressure to acquire new skills which are management oriented and thus the relevance of work experience gets reduced while bringing pure management graduates. India too has been facing the same problem with an older generation of less educated people giving way to a more educated with mostly Western thoughts of management principles which are not always applicable to the Indian context when it comes to dealing with employees and work ethics and schedule. Presently the opening up of the Indian economy and the emergence of India as the dealer in software and IT services has meant that there has been a lot of startups in India which has opened up a lot of employment for professionals. There has been a radicalization of the way families now operate because of the considerable expansion in the scope of businesses they can do in India, which was previously restricted in the License Raj era of years before 1991. Nowadays the expanded scope has meant that families can no longer be directly in command of the varied businesses they have. This is led to the major trend of having a parallel family board which takes care of long term strategic planning. The parallel family board and also the professional board is a new pheni=omenon in India. For example, Tatas are controlled by Tata Sons, which is held by the family members shareholding. Also such member boards have sprung up amongst groups like Birlas, Godrej, Mahindra & Mahindra. Coming to the case of the Tatas specifically, we can see that the family has been close knit but at the same time it has not been the sons or daughters, but the person in the family who has been the most competent who has won the top post in the organization. In the presentation slide on the Tata family, we can see that the Tata Inheritance has seldom passed to a son, but has

been passed on to the nephews in most cases. Now the Tata comparison has been brought out because there has been a recetnt succession in the company. Mr. Ratan Tata, who had been heading the company for the past 20 years had decided to step down and had been looking for succesors shortlisted Mr. Cyrus Mistry and Mr. Noel Tata. Mr. Cyrus Mistry is the brother-in-law of Mr. Noel Tata(husband of Mrs. Aloo Mistry, Cyruss sister), who is the half brother of Mr. Ratan Tata. Mr. Cyrus Mistry was chosen as he had the most experience in international business and was said to be a shrewd finance professional. While at Sunflower by contrast, the sons of the three partners were chosen even though they were fresh out of college or had relatively less relevant work experience. For example only one family member had relevant work experience in a retailer, that too a discount retailer. By not understanding the family values and value it proposes to the customers, the younger generation went forward with converting Sunflower into a discount retailer. And also the rapid change initiatives to bring the organization on par with the giants in retailing by following the the strategies of cost cutting and production efficiency antagonizing the workers and the key suppliers of Sunflower. Now we will look at how succession as in the case of predecessors of Mr. Cyrus Mistry has taken place and how they have run the company. The Tatas have always been known for the corporate social responsibility and the ethical values they attach to their business practices. They are considered to be one of the cleaner companies in India, when it comes to corruption in the Government level interactions. The tag line of Tata Group companies is Values Stronger than Steel, which shows the level of commitment from the company has as to the values it holds. The Tata family in its mission and vision statement have the following values mentioned

Integrity: We must conduct our business fairly, with honesty and transparency. Everything we do must stand the test of public scrutiny. Understanding: We must be caring, show respect, compassion and humanity for our colleagues and customers around the world, and always work for the benefit of the communities we serve. Excellence: We must constantly strive to achieve the highest possible standards in our day-to-day work and in the quality of the goods and services we provide. Unity: We must work cohesively with our colleagues across the group and with our customers and partners around the world, building strong relationships based on tolerance, understanding and mutual cooperation. Responsibility: We must continue to be responsible, sensitive to the countries, communities and environments in which we work, always ensuring that what comes from the people goes back to the people many times over.

The selection procedure for the Tata Groups Chairman post which was held last year had the following process. The Tata Group on Wednesday said it had begun the process to select a successor for its chairman, Ratan N Tata, who is due to retire by the end of 2012.

The groups holding company, Tata Sons, said it had formed a five-member selection committee, to scout within the group as well as oustide and overseas. One of the members will come from outside the group.

Though names of the committee members have not been officially disclosed, people familiar with the development said the committee is likely to have R Gopalakrishnan and R K Krishna Kumar, both executive directors of Tata Sons; N A Soonawala, who retired last month and will represent Sir Dorabji Tata Trust; and A N Singh, managing trustee of Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and J R D Tata Trust. The external candidate is likely to be Nusli Wadia, an independent board member of Tata Steel and Tata Motors, and a long-time friend of Ratan Tata, although the name of former Hindustan Unilever chairman Keki Dadiseth is also doing the rounds in some circles. Ratan Tata will play only an advisory role and will not be part of the selection panel. The group said it expects to complete the final selection in adequate time to effect a smooth transition. The committee has commenced its work, Tata Sons said, adding it is in the process of formulating criteria for identifying the most suitable candidate, taking into account the global nature and complexity of the groups business at the present time. The candidates were Anshu Jain, the poster boy of investment banking from Deutche Bank, Vodafone's former boss-turned- PE investor Arun Sarin and American John Thaine, the last chairman and chief executive officer of Merill Lynch. Clearly as we can see the process by itself took around one and a half years and various captains of the industry in India and abroad were interviewed before penciling on to Mr. Mistry. The training period of Mr. Mistry is one year as he is right now the Deputy Chairman and will mentored by the Chairman of the Tata Group befor handing over the reins of one of Indias largest groups. In contrast the methods of Sunflower were at best amateurish, leading to the virtual dismantling of the company. Some of the mistakes were no proper selection or ground work training, lack of proper mentoring, separating management and ownership