Emami’s Mission to the Next Orbit

Ramachandran, K and Bhatnagar, N Emami’s Mission to the Next Orbit. [Teaching Resource]

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Abstract

This case is about the challenges of professionalisation and succession faced by an Indian, family controlled, personal-care products company, Emami Limited. Emami was setup in 1974 at Kolkata by two childhood friends, Radhe Shyam Agarwal (RSA) and Radhe Shyam Goenka (RSG). They started with a small capital of INR 20,000 and had grown the business to INR 1.8 bn in sales by financial year 2013-14. Emami had earned a reputation for being innovative in development of products based on keen consumer insights. Ever since Emami tasted initial success in business (i.e. within 3-4 years of its inception), the company adopted an inorganic strategy for growth and made several strategic business acquisitions. As the business grew, it implemented organizational changes, brought in functional experts from outside and professionalised its operations. During the first four decades since it was founded, Emami grew its product portfolio to include ayurvedic formulations and nutraceuticals. Besides, the group diversified in other businesses such as paper, real estate and construction. However, Emami Limited, the personal care company continued to be the group’s flagship that generated most of its wealth. Business growth increased the complexities of Emami’s operations. In order to manage those complexities Emami made efforts to professionalise their systems and processes. However, as the founders grew older, they had realized the need for succession planning to pass on the leadership to the next generation. They were also cognizant of the need to establish family governance mechanisms and structures to ensure Emami’s sustainability across generations. Another key challenge they faced was how and whom to select as their successor because their children had been brought up together, had similar educational qualifications, business experience and performance record. It was quite hard for them to pick one member over the other.

Affiliation:

Indian School of Business

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