All in the family

Succession planning in India Inc remains a clannish exercise

With the promotion of Mukesh Ambani’s first-born son to the chairmanship of Reliance Jio, the group’s telecom business, and his daughter expected to assume a similar position in Reliance Retail, commentators have been praising the group for early succession planning. This exercise is expected to preclude the embarrassing and public clash between Mukesh Ambani and his younger brother, Anil, after the death of their father, Dhirubhai Ambani. This pattern had been the norm in older business groups with the Modis, Shrirams, and Singhanias all suffering messy and acrimonious disputes over control of business assets in the 1980s and 1990s. Bajaj