The Baton Carriers

This is as good a time as any for gen-nexters to prove themselves true leaders in their family businesses.

- Salil Panchal

The dark storm clouds, which formed some of the toughest years for India Inc between 2009 and 2014— with a heady mix of funding and capital raising concerns, weakening consumer demand and subdued earnings—appear to be thinning. Though challenges still persist for some of India’s largest lenders, several businesses in the consumer goods, automobile, financial services and commodity-led cyclicals have shown profit growth in the March-ended quarter of FY2017. Their businesses are continuing to grow, innovate and it is in this space that Forbes India found some of the brightest and most inspiring next-generation leaders.

For this second edition of the Forbes India GenNext special, we asked, like last year, the following questions in order to arrive at the selection (which, needless to say, is just a sampling of the entrepreneurial stars in India’s family business firmament).

Have the GenNext leaders working in a family-owned business given their business a fresh impetus, in terms of strategy or innovation?

Has the GenNexter introduced processes or expanded into new areas of opportunity that have helped boost growth?

Or has he or she made a mark outside of the family run business, keeping the entrepreneurial legacy alive?

The 11 names profiled in the following pages threw up the right answers to at least one of the three questions.