The Hindu Business Line : Face-off

FEUDS among relations and siblings involved in running family businesses are always a matter for sadness and puzzlement. Sad, because they drain away energies and resources from worthwhile pursuits furthering the organisation's interest. Also, they divert the attention of the employees from their duties, resulting in an atmosphere of divisiveness and creating conditions that can lead the business to self-destruct.

Gossip feeds on gossip, rumour mills go into high gear, groups for and against feuding family members have a field day. Of course, the setting becomes ideal for inimically disposed interests to cause further havoc and hasten the downward spiral.

Puzzling, particularly in the Indian context, because of the family values which are presumed to distinguish the Indian civilisation from the crass materialism and rank individualism prevalent in money-minded cultures elsewhere.

How can fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters — who partake of such a noble heritage — bring themselves to tear into each other with bitter, and sometimes, venomous accusations, spend enormous amounts in long drawn-out litigation and even resort to violent crimes?

Is one being too idealistic in being unable to picture oneself in that position? Are finer sentiments, ordinary decencies and the spark of divinity in each one of us to be so easily and so readily thrown away for genuflecting before mammon and going on an ego-trip? It becomes all the more puzzling when all this happens when the family patriarch is still alive.

That the virus has now spread to Reliance, which hitherto was taken to be a compact, monolithic company is nothing short of a tragedy whose ramifications can be far-reaching, not merely for Reliance itself, but generally for the business environment.

The central issue, insofar as can be gleaned from media reports, hinges on who will call the shots in the running of the company.

Is it impossible for two brothers, who have seen their father toil so innovatively and imaginatively to build up from scratch a resplendent enterprise, to recapture that vision and join hands to take the company on the path to even higher achievements?

The aim of the regulators and investor community should be to bring the two brothers together, and not take sides or a legalistic stand.

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