Making family businesses last

Few family-owned firms anywhere in the world last beyond three generations.

The late Andrew Carnegie, who built up US Steel and became the richest man in the world for some time, had coined a phrase for it: It takes three generations to go from shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves. Other countries have similar proverbs. The assumption is that the first generation starts the business, the second builds it up, while the third generation of the family squanders away the legacy.

What goes wrong and how can a family-owned enterprise thrive beyond three generations? Like several books had attempted earlier, Beyond Three Generations seeks to answer those questions and give tips on how to ensure longevity, especially for family-owned and-run small and medium-sized businesses in India. It also looks at how they can scale up from a medium-sized enterprise to a big business.

It is not a big book- a mere 215 pages ― but is unusual in that it gives equal billing to four co-authors. Two are brothers Navas Meeran and Firoz Meeran the chairman and vice-chairman of Kerala-headquartered Group Meeran, respectively. They represent the second generation-their father, the late ME Meeran founded the enterprise called The Eastern Condiments Group, which has evolved into Group Meeran now.

The third co-author is MSA Kumar, a family business adviser and CEO coach, who has helped many familyrun businesses to scale up beyond ₹100150 crore revenues, where these often get stuck.