Mahan, a Company Secretary was working with Tirmurthy Ltd, a textile manufacturing company, for last 10 years. The Company was owned by promoters and their family members. Due to personal reasons, he wanted to relocate t

The most glaring characteristic of a family owned business is that all the key managerial of positions in such businesses are held by family members. Non-family members may of course be employees of the company, but the decision-making power usually vests with the members of the family. Professionalisation of a family business is of supreme importance for its long-term sustainability. In absence of professionalism, a family business may get frequently weighed down with conflicts due to lack of clarity and systematic work processes, role confusion and informal organisation structure. Poor accountability and improper operations control severely interrupts efficiency of business. The business also fails to attract and retain good external talent. Family businesses are generally operated with the ethos of 'Family First'. Business decisions are taken while keeping the family's wellbeing in focus. With changing preferences of the next-generation successors, it is possible to balance the family's philosophy, culture and personal needs with business performance, profit and transparency. However, a visible change can be observed in the family businesses in India. Old family business houses are changing to 'professionally managed' companies. The younger successors have a broad vision and global aspirations. They prefer working with modern management techniques, build competent teams, and create transparent systems and processes. Instead of getting stalled in family conflicts, disputes, and non-productive practices, the younger generation prefers to create a professional work culture. Further, family values also get ingrained in organisation values. In an organisation, the values are decided by a group of people running a firm over a period of time but in a family business, the family value also gets transferred to the organisation. Further the way a family business is managed is very relevant from a country perspective and is based on that respective country's culture and values. Hence, Mahan can smoothly move to professionally managed company from family managed company, without any apprehensions.