Indian Family Businesses: A lecture by ‘The Consolidators’ Author Prince Thomas on July 5, 2021

Prince Mathews Thomas, Business Editor at The Morning Context, shared his profound knowledge of Indian family businesses with the financial journalism class at the Asian College of Journalism. He explained the importance of learning about them, highlighting how 17 out of the 30 companies listed on the Sensex are family-run businesses.

Most family groups in India have failed to stay at the top for too long due to the lack of a proper succession plan, the veteran journalist pointed out, underscoring how many of these businesses lost their vision or struggled to find a way ahead after their first-generation owners retired or died.

“Less than one-third of family businesses survive from first to second generation”, the author of The Consolidators said in a Zoom lecture on July 5.

The trend is changing and some companies have started to recognise the need for a comprehensive succession plan, he added.

Thomas used various case studies to showcase the problems which arise as family businesses are transferred from the founders to the next generation. He guided the students on how to build sources to get information on these businesses which are of great importance to the Indian economy.