There’s a huge difference in the way that family-run businesses are run when compared to what we call ‘professional’ companies. Family-run companies are more sensitive, and demonstrate more warmth and sensitivity. That’s what leads to their amazing ability to retain talent. Senior executives are able to see their value beyond their salary slips; when they know that they are wanted and they know that their views are respected, and they know that the company they work for is sensitive to their needs and concerns, they are less inclined to jump jobs. It’s no surprise then that even these days, we see many family-run companies enjoying the advantage of continuity in leadership and an extraordinarily high level of loyalty. There is, of course, an extraordinary amount of control—at least the perception of control. That brings me to the most important point: which company, family-run or otherwise, does not exercise control?
Which company isn’t a ‘lala’ company? Which ‘professional’ listed company isn’t a ‘lala’ company? Isn’t WPP a ‘lala’ company with Sir Martin Sorrell as the ‘lala’, even if it is a listed, traded company? Isn’t he our ‘lala’ sitting at the WPP HQ in London? Why don’t we equate Martin Sorrell with Nita Ambani? Or, Maurice Levy with Kumaramangalam Birla?
Old mindsets believe that professional companies are better than the so-called family companies. It’s when you know that Pidilite Industries Ltd, the family-run company, had a market valuation of Rs 27,837 crore as on 31 March 2014 that you realize the fallacy of the statement.
I could go on and on listing the various family-run businesses that we have had the privilege of working with. Siddhee Cement and Haathi Cement of Jay Mehta, Onida with Gulu Mirchandani. TBZ is another example.
Look at the continuity in Ogilvy’s relationships with family-run businesses. Some of these are forty years old, some thirty years, and so on. That’s the biggest advantage of doing good work for family-owned businesses. As they do with their employees, so they do with their business partners: they reward hard work and loyalty.
We see the family-run businesses as great clients. What makes them more interesting is that they continue to stay entrepreneurial as they grow, resetting their own challenges and, consequently, the challenges that we are tasked with addressing.
This brings me to a personal failure. In all these years, we haven’t worked with one of the finest family-run businesses in India; we’ve never worked with Anand Mahindra.
That’s not a family-run business anyone will walk away from; most ad agencies would give an arm and a leg to handle a piece of the Mahindra Group’s business.
Excerpted with permission from the publisher from: Pandeymonium, Piyush Pandey on Advertising, Penguin Books India (Portfolio), Hardback.
Pages 244
Price Rs 799
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 "'Pandeymonium' By Piyush Pandey")
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