Growth Through Sustained Alignment
“Do you want some more rice dear ?” asked Swati Gehlot. Raju Gehlot didn’t respond. Sitting at the dinner table, he was completely lost in his thoughts. His legendary 100 year old family owned and led company was in a major crisis.
Based in Surat, Diamond city of India, Everest Group has been one of India’s leading companies specializing in diamond mining and industrial diamond manufacturing. The promoters of this group are the Gehlot family, a third generation family business. The business is currently led by Raju Gehlot. The Gehlot family is historically close-knit and all the members have received a lot of compassion and support from each other. Raju’s wife, Swati Gehlot is a loving and doting mother to her only son. She is an active member of the prominent religious & cultural womens’ groups of her community and spearheads a lot of their initiatives.
I. Growth Years
A hardworking, dedicated individual who happens to be a pioneer in his industry, Raju has led the multifold-growth of the group over the years. Annual revenue of the group in 2002-03 was reported as INR 2000 cr with profit before tax (PBT) of 200 CR. This gave a lot of courage and confidence to Mr Gehlot and he engaged in aggressive expansion and growth strategy over the next few years.
To take the family legacy ahead, Raju’s son Tarang, after completing his Engineering from one of the top colleges in US and 3 years work experience with De Beers Group, joined the family business in 2005. An extremely sharp and diligent professional, Tarang was a quick learner. Within 2 years he was put in charge of finance and operations of the Everest Group.
II. Saturation in Business/ Business Plunge
The father and son’s views on business growth strategy were divergent. Tarang was against the aggressive expansion plans of Raju but Raju pursued them nevertheless. As a result, Everest Group’s annual revenue in 2008-09 was INR 4000 CR at the cost of a loss of INR 250 CR with severe liquidity crisis.
The dip in the business was followed by consecutive poor and desperate decisions –
1. Raju was in rescue mode. He started leveraging the family assets to fulfill business needs
2. This enraged Tarang to another level. He was already holding Raju responsible for pursuing a failed age-old business strategy and with this decision, he couldn’t hold it in.
3. Raju retorted in anger that in such a stressful situation, Tarang instead of offering support and dealing with the situation upfront was only complaining.
4. Tarang’s belief that his father has a big Ego got strengthened as according to him Raju was just not accepting his mistakes.
5. Raju kept recalling a similar struggle the business was undergoing during his formative years where he had unconditionally helped his father. He felt betrayed.
6. The matters worsened when Tarang withdrew from the family business in 2018 and decided to explore other options to engage himself professionally.
III. BAF Intervention
Sad and disempowered, Tarang shared his feelings with a close family friend who suggested that they engage with BAF Consultants to resolve these issues. The first and foremost job for BAF Team was to help the father and son communicate powerfully with each other.
1. The team had several one-on-one and facilitated conversations with Raju and Tarang.
2. They employed their Master Tool which helped both father and son in sharpening their awareness of self so that they could segregate their thoughts into facts, feelings and needs and express what really matters to them, and also hear what really mattered to the other.
3. The endeavor behind facilitating multiple sessions was to enable them to listen to their own and other people’s real needs and express them in a way that generates connection, goodwill and compassion. These facilitated conversations helped Tarang and Raju to be compassionate towards each other.
IV. Key Outcomes
Within the first 6-8 months of kick-starting their transformational journey, both Raju and Tarang started experiencing positive shifts in one another for aligning on business and family decisions. Raju understood Tarang’s need for financial security and began the process of allocating the sources of income for their family fund. Tarang understood that complaining about the decisions taken by Raju when Tarang had not joined the business was futile. He also realized that he can give his strategic insights to his father but the decision making power lies with his father by virtue of his position in the company. He decided to give his inputs in business board meetings and Raju has since started taking them into thoughtful consideration for crucial decisions. This has led to business growth, enhanced family togetherness and both being much happier.
Following are the results family saw over a period of 18-24 months:
1. Tarang joined back the business.
2. The PBT for 2011-12 was INR 250 CR with steady growth in turnover.
3. Alignment between father and son on creation of family fund, family assets separate from business was achieved.
4. Creation of Family Business Board to oversee and monitor business and investments & Family Council for well-being of the family.
V. Epilogue
Swati looked at the setting sun on the banks of Brahmaputra. Raju and Tarang were returning from their walk in the woods, the peace and tranquility between them complementing the environment around.
Swati exclaimed, “I wonder what really worked between you two?”
Tarang remarked gleefully, “I just made sure Dad really listened to me !”
Raju laughed and wondered…
Listening openly, with the unflinching intent to create value for all involved had truly made the difference.