Second Roundtable Conference with IMC on Corporate Governance

The second round table conference on 'Corporate Governance' was organized by Center for Family Managed Business. Owners' interest must be subjugated to business interest said Adi Godrej, Chairman of the Godrej Group of companies in the keynote address. Introducing the theme, Prof. Parimal Merchant said that studies had shown that in general FMBs considered Corporate Governance as a mere legal formality to comply with and not as an objective by itself. Godrej said that 95% of the registered companies in India, Latin America and West Asia were all familymanaged. He attributed the FMBs' success to the culture, loyalty and personal commitment of the owning families. Mr. M. K. Chouhan, Chairman, Mahendra & Young Knowledge Foundation said that governance was not the monopoly of only MNCs and there were numerous FMBs, which have become famous for good governance such as Cargill, Ford, Bata, Ranbaxy and Godrej among many others. He cited the case of Ford Motors, which at one time, brought in professionals to manage the company, until a scion of the Ford family became ready to take over reins several years later. Mr. Ashwin Shroff, Chairman of Excel Industries said that his company believed in grooming the family's younger generation to imbibe its culture, Gandhian ethics and values, whichwere a legacy of the promoter, Late Mr. C C Shroff. Surendra Hiranandani said that FMBs treated all its loyal employees as part of the family and rewarded them sumptuously.