‘70% of global GDP is from family-owned businesses’

CHENNAI: Two-thirds of ventures are family-owned globally, which generate 60 per cent of employment and 70 per cent of the world’s gross domestic product (GDP), opined Kanishka Arumugam, chairman, Nxt Gen, Family Business India chapter and co-CEO, Ekki Water Technologies.

Kanishka, a second generation entrepreneur based out of Coimbatore, shared insights on the efficacy of global family businesses.

Speaking virtually about the upcoming two-day CII–FBN India Family Business Summit on ‘Future Ready Family Businesses in the New Age’ from September 16 in Chennai, he said the event would also see the participation of academicians from renowned institutions like Oxford, besides showcasing several case studies.

R Dinesh, president-designate, CII, chairman, CII-FBN India Chapter Council and executive VC, TVS Supply Chain Solutions Limited, gave an overview of the summit.

Noting that over 91 per cent of the listed entities in the country were family-owned, he said the summit seeks to highlight the relevant trends besides understanding how growth, transition from current generation to next generation were more effectively possible.

PricewaterhouseCoopers would be releasing a report that would identify five key factors impacting family businesses globally. “It will be a learning on how family businesses have evolved. It will also offer insights into building a sustainable family business,” he said, adding one such family business from Asia has seen continuity across five generations.

This would also enable an inter-generational dialogue and encourage entrepreneurship and innovation. “Business risks, events overtaking us and families changed the way business is run,” are among some of the key discussion points in the summit. While such a business from Singapore is mulling on starting a fund, there was another instance of a family business in Italy which had used digitisation as a growth tool. “How this generational change was absorbed in the company,” would figure as learnings in the summit, that is expected to see about 200 participants, including speakers such as Sanjiv Bajaj, CMD, Bajaj Finserv, Shashwat Goenka of the RPSG Group and Farhad Forbes, co-chairman at Forbes Marshall who is also the global chairman of FBN International.

To a query, Dinesh said private equities typically tend to back family businesses in the Indian context, unlike global cases where they opt for buyouts.

The summit aims to provide a strategic platform for exchange of thoughts, best practices, knowledge sharing and networking for Indian family businesses, which are demonstrating resilience, in the current challenging times and aspiring for growth in the future, he added.