A grand celebration to mark the 20 years of SPJIMR’s Centre for Family Managed Business (FMB) brought together alumni from across the country for a day of networking, learning and fun, capped by a gala awards ceremony to honour leaders in the FMB space. SPJIMR’s FMB has a history of 20 years, has seen over 25 batches and boasts of over 3,500 alumni spread across 259 cities with networks in many corners of the globe. The power of this vast network and a sense of bonding with the programme and with SPJIMR were on display through the day-long celebrations.
The series of events through the day on Feb. 25 (Saturday) were put together under the title ‘Genesis’, the name indicating how the celebrations tapped into the very roots of an innovative programme that has grown to become a premier offering for FMBs.
The day also brought FMBs together to reconnect with a sense of pride, tap into new opportunities and offer their thanks as alumni of SPJIMR, a top ranked school of management noted for its innovative programmes.
The event had a high level of ownership and participation from FMB alumni, notably the FMB Alumni Board comprising a team of 42 alumni representing all the batches that have passed out of the FMB programme over the years.
The large focus of the day was on going professional, retaining and attracting talent and leading not only successful but also sustainable growth-oriented businesses to contribute to and also benefit from India’s growth story.
Said Mr. Harsh C. Mariwala, the founder of Marico, India’s leading consumer company in the global beauty and wellness space, “People want to work in organisations that have a good culture, those who work in a clean manner and offer a lot of empowerment and growth opportunities to people. Your employees are great ambassadors of your company. Companies need to create value propositions, highlight what is unique about them and leverage that to attract top talent.” Mr. Mariwala later gave away the FMB Awards, a climax to the day filled with workshops, discussions and talks.
Said SPJIMR Dean Dr. Ranjan Banerjee, who was at the event throughout the day and led a post lunch workshop for the alumni on Design Thinking: “Our role is to help FMBs succeed…The kind of energy and engagement that we see in the group suggests that by coming together in an even bigger way, we can create positive outcomes for FMBs, for the economy and for the country. I think the potential of this is large. There is an emotional connect that needs to be built on.”
Added Prof. Atul Sethi, Head of SPJIMR’s Centre for FMB, “The FMB awards and the FMB day is an attempt to harness the collective power of FMBs in India. The opportunity this decade presents is something that the family businesses in India are well poised to seize. We want to leverage the collective strength of over 3500 family businesses who have been part of SPJIMR’s Centre for Family Managed Business to enable FMBs grow faster.”
The day began at the Sahara Star hotel with three parallel workshops: Mr. Amit Rathi, the Managing Director of Anand Rathi Financial Services, led a workshop on “Inheritance and Will”; Dr. Kamal Sharma, Vice Chairman of Lupin Ltd. and Executive-in-Residence, SPJIMR, led a workshop on “Innovations in Family Managed Businesses” and Mr. Dinesh Tewari, Managing Partner, Broad Peak Capital Advisors LLP, led a workshop on “PE and Fund Raising in FMBs”.
FMB alumni later heard Exploring Opportunities in Europe by Mr. Girish Bhagat, Vice Chairman, India Nivesh Financial Advisors Pvt. Ltd.
A high level panel discussion on ‘Making FMBs Future Ready’ saw active participation from alumni. In the panel were Mr. P.M. Kumar, Business Chairman and Board Member, GMR Group; Mr. R. Gopalakrishnan, Executive-In-Residence, SPJIMR and former Director of Tata Sons Ltd; Mr. Shantanu Bhadkamkar, President, Maharashtra Chamber of Commerce and Dr. Kamal Sharma, Executive-In-Residence, SPJIMR, and Vice Chairman, Lupin Ltd.
Mr. Bhadkamkar spoke of the need for succession planning but said induction was a lot harder than succession.Dr. Sharma asked FMBs to retain and sharpen their bias for action, the spirit of entrepreneurship, a high bar for capital expenditure, people loyalty and low debt and add to it a definition of purpose, transparency and autonomy. Mr. Gopalakrishnan spoke about SPJIMR creating FMB catalysts that could help families navigate the changing business environment. Mr. Kumar spoke of the need for humility, the need for an 'ethical will' and an appreciation of relationships. "Relationships and network is equal to net worth," he said.
P M Kumar, Business Chairman and Board Member of the GMR Group, said: “This is a great institutional event that brought the entire FMB community of SPJIMR – past, present and perhaps future – together. I think such a consolidating, renewing, regenerating event was very necessary and fundamental.”
The Winners at the FMB Awards 2017 were as follows:
1. Outstanding FMB that Managed Professionalisation - Bharat Wire Ropes Ltd. - Mayank Mittal, Jt Managing Director
2. Outstanding FMB that Managed Globalisation - Safex Fire Services Limited, Tejas Shah, CEO
3. Outstanding Company in Innovation - Tecknotrove Systems Pvt. Ltd -Shantanu Gupta – Managing Director.
4. Outstanding FMB with Significant Social Contribution - Saroj Screens Pvt Ltd, Akshaye Rathi.
5. Outstanding FMB with Successful Woman Entrepreneurs - 'Care4Wear', a retail brand of Manju Cleaners, Monika Alok Maheshwari.
6. Outstanding Marketing Approach by FMB - Jain Group, Rishi Jain.
7. Outstanding Operations Approach used by FMB - Equinox Labs, Priyanka Bhadri
8. Outstanding People Management Approach by FMB - PM Relocations Pvt. Ltd., Aakanksha Bhargava, CEO
9. Outstanding New Venture - Hartek Group, Simarpreet H Singh.
10.Outstanding FMB that Managed Multiple Generations - Kandoi Bhogilal Mulchand, Harsh Kandoi
11. Special Recognition by Jury - Cheer Sagar, Arnav Poddar, Director
