Succession - the incoming wave of GenNext or NextGen!!

India’s corporate landscape is in the midst of a transformation, with Generative AI and digital enhancements of course, but more fundamentally in leadership itself. Mukesh Ambani, the Chairman of Reliance Industries Limited, has announced succession by appointing his three heirs - Anant, Akash, and Isha - as Executive Directors and has outlined an elaborate five-year succession plan for them. Concurrently, Uday Kotak, the promoter of Kotak Mahindra Bank, has also announced his resignation from his position, paving the way for new?leadership in India's third-largest bank.

Alongside, so is there a slow but sure transition in leadership teams with a significant portion of current top teams across Corporate India approaching retirement age. Succession is therefore a key agenda on the table today. The process of succession however, is intricate, discerning, and often arduous, demanding active participation from incumbents, boards of directors, human resources teams, external consultants, and advisors. Succession at the executive level, whether the CEO or the whole senior management team, highlights the need for building a broad talent pool within the company. Many forward-thinking companies have put in place detailed leadership development programmes within their organisations to enable this . In other cases, to install new externally sourced leaders to drive next level impact.

Bringing in new leaders to helm large businesses built over decades by a set team , means many things ; least of all being that the transition has to be smooth. Bottom-line is that the new leader should align with the values of the business house, but also bring in the much needed ‘outside in’ perspective, disruption and growth mind-set to take charge of the new phase of growth.

Critical to this is the intent of the business house itself as they plan succession. The clarity of intent in the founding family ?in bringing in new leaders, their role, decision making independence and governance structure is key to the success of the exercise. The process is slow and hand-holding is required at both ends. Over time, a well planned succession plan enables companies the opportunity to break from the linear path into a newer orbit of growth.

Finally, a democratized and institutionalized Corporate Succession Planning ensures both positive impact both on business and investor confidence.