CHENNAI: The painting of a woman wearing a sari, holding a lamp in one hand and covering it with another, painted by SL Haldankar in 1945 greeted everyone in the conference room at Novotel Chennai Chamiers Road on Thursday. A huge shadow cast by the woman was the focus of discussion. “I want everyone to notice this shadow. You can lead the way and also cast an impact or leave a shadow that is bigger than anybody else,” said V Ramakrishnan, MD, performance consulting, Coimbatore, Organisation Development PTE Ltd, Singapore, while taking about ‘Women On Family Boards’ organised by FLO, the women’s wing of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).
Fostering learning
As the Chennai chapter of FICCI-FLO is celebrating their 30 years, the members and the president, Sudha Shivkumar, thought it was imperative to curate sessions on governance and discuss the issues that were affecting women in the business, especially in family businesses. Raji Raju, chairperson, FLO Chennai, said, “This was a programme curated by the national initiative. Our organisation is built to empower women and that is done through skill development, financial and digital literacy, and creating legal awareness. The head, Suguna Ravichander, got subject matter experts on board to foster our learning.”
Ramakrishnan who has been working in governance since 1999 shed light on how it is different in family businesses. He said, “Governance simply means connectedness and it is derived from the Greek word ‘Kunernetes’ which means the steersman. It is a system for directing and controlling an enterprise. The basic governance issues concern effectiveness and accountability of the board of directors.”
In terms of the family business, there will be alterations in governance because the familial bond will come into play and your employees include your relatives. K Balaji, trustee, Palkhivala Foundation, said, “One thing that changes everything in the business is the introduction of emotion into it. Emotional attachment can bring a large change.”
The speakers jointly affirmed that irrespective of gender the person on the board must be competent enough to deliver and be effective. “The measure of effectiveness is the performance one delivers and the financial returns one achieves for shareholders. Here, there is no question of gender or entitlement. You have to be effective and be able to manage things.”
Discussing on how to effectively lead, the speakers pointed out that a leader shouldn’t consider themselves as a single entity instead they are just tools of governance or management. It is important to look at family businesses as their contribution to all economies is huge, commented Balaji. He added, “Composition of families is also changing. There are many older people in families as the life expectancy is increasing. This has an impact on the family businesses. People on board should protect all shareholders and especially be fair to minority shareholders.”