Preparing the Ground for Next Generation Leadership

Successful leadership transition across generations is critical for continuity of family legacy and control over the family business. One major reason attributed for the failure of family firms is their weak next generation leadership (Miller, 2015). Therefore, developing effective next generation leadership is paramount to ensure long-term sustenance of family business, and that involves a process spread over time and acts. Though leadership development is not a single event, but a process, it has not been studied particularly in an emerging economy like India. Following case methodology that is strongly recommended for exploratory studies, in this paper, we examine case studies of next generation leadership development process of 15 Indian family firms and identify the pathways adopted by the senior and next generation leaders. We conclude that there are two broad phases of leadership development that involve acquisition of multiple capabilities. Phase I involves intrapersonal and Phase II interpersonal capabilities in the family business context. Some of the stages in between were found to be essential for successful leadership development. We present a conceptual framework for next generation leadership development. We conclude that there are two broad phases of leadership development that involve multiple capability development. Leaders who adhere to the building up of core capabilities tend to be more successful. For family businesses that failed to achieve such leadership transition, we observed absence of certain keys stages. We conclude the paper with implications and suggestions for future research.