Beyond Family Matters

Many heirs and heiresses have moved away from their family businesses to find their own ground and create unique legacies

- Salil Panchal

 In 2015, when Ananya Birla, then a student of economics and management at Oxford University, rang her mother Neerja in India, she had more to share than the usual mother-daughter banter. She told her mother about the need to start a venture in India, which could provide awareness of, and solutions for, mental health disorders. At the time, Ananya—the eldest daughter of industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla—was also working at a student helpline in the UK and had first-hand knowledge of anxiety and depression. This was the genesis of Mpower founded in 2016—the third venture under Ananya’s belt (after Svatantra Microfinance and CuroCarte), none of which has anything to do with the Birla business empire.

At 23, Ananya is following her own passions, rather than discussing manufacturing and accounting—common topics in the close-knit world of family-run businesses to which she belongs. Her father is India’s eighth richest man, according to the 2017 Forbes India Rich List and the fourth generation leader to helm the $10.7-billion (by revenues) cement-to-telecom empire.

Ananya—who, besides her three ventures, is well entrenched into a catharsis-inducing singing career—is not the only business scion venturing beyond the family business. She and her younger brother, cricketer Aryaman Birla, are part of a growing tribe of GenNext heirs and heiresses who have found their own calling.

Others, such as Mridula Ramesh, executive director of Sundaram Textiles, part of the TVS Group, and Rajvi Mariwala, daughter of Marico founder Harsh Mariwala, have also started ventures close to their heart.