'FMCG startups are not a threat to bigger players'

Innovator and now thought leader and catalyst, Harsh Mariwala, founder and chairman of consumer goods company Marico, looks back at his decisions in an interview with FE, and also at the future-be it challenges in the FMCG space, rural sentiment or the work hour debate. Edited excerpts: 

- IVINDER GILL

The debate about professional management versus family ownership always seems to suggest that family should distance itself from the management of a company? Why is this so? Family members can also be as professionals as outsiders.

It depends on the family and the capability of the family members. For family members to operate in a professionally managed company, they have to behave like professionals. They can't say we are family so we are entitled to certain rights of decision making or preferred treatment. Otherwise, professionals think that meritocracy is in doubt. In a professionally managed company, even if the family is involved, meritocracy the only way to move forward.

You say you have created a company for perpetuity by putting it in the hands of professionals. But does this not reduce the passion and risk taking that is also so essential for a business to flourish?

It's not that I don't play a role in implied risk taking in the organisation. I am not only operating at the board level, but I also have discussions with the management team every month. I spend 15-20% of my time on the business; I know exactly what is happening there. And whenever I see the need to do some risk taking, I can play that role in my current capacity as chairman. So my role has shifted from actively managing a company, to influencing output in a strategic investor-driven company. And, it's not that the company is left alone. Within a certain boundary once in a while they are alone, but I am involved in creating those boundaries.

For an FMCG company, how important has been the rural market for you, and how do you see the rural consumer sentiment today?