What can bridge the thought-gap between older and new generations and get them to work together? Especially if it involves traditional family-owned transport businesses in India! Going back to school to learn openness and professionalism can. Mahindra Truck and Bus Division has pioneered one such program to empower both heirs and sires under MPower and MPower Mentors Summits, respectively – to get these leaders of the transport industry to accept each other’s views and grow professionally. We find out more about the Mahindra MPower Mentors Summit program with the Indian Institute of Management – Ahmedabad (IIM-A) as the knowledge partners in July 2015, at their campus.
“After this session, I hope my father will be more open to change.”
– Nitin Bagai, CEO, Nagpur Golden Transport
“My son came back from here to tell me how it has changed his perspective towards the business.”
– Ramola Sharma, Director – Finance, Bulktainer Shipping Ltd.
“My cousin brother can close deals now, unlike earlier.”
– D. Prabhu Sankar, Sri Velan Transports
“We hire educated employees now after my son’s suggestion.”
– Bharat Rathor, Shri Maharaj Logistics
“My son is probably the only one in his peer group who sees transport business as a career option now.”
– Byram R. Dhalla, B D Dhalla Transport Pvt. Ltd.
“My nephew has shown tremendous results in our business after his session last year.”
– Naveen Gupta, Executive Director, Express Roadways Pvt. Ltd.
The revealing reactions indicated herein are from the leaders, aged between 50 and 60 years, of the Indian transport industry referring to their younger generation’s viewpoints. Customer feedback regarding the younger generation’s disclination to join the average family transport business triggered the birth of Mahindra MPower Summit to engage them and impart modern thought process, tools and professional attitude.
In turn, the younger generation pointed out during these sessions that the dynamic processes learnt at the summit would be wasted if their parents did not approve them. Promptly, Mahindra Truck and Bus Division (MTBD) went back to board with its knowledge partners – the faculty of IIM-A – to address the older generation. In July 2015, the second 3-day Mahindra MPower Mentors Summit was organized to help the older generation see a different perspective on how their businesses can benefit if run professionally.
MTBD has become the first mover of sorts to organize such summits in partnership with the faculty of the Indian Institute of Management – Ahmedabad (IIM-A) at its campus.
Prof. G. Raghuram, Dean (Faculty), IIM-A, explains: “We run the Small and Medium Enterprises program which talks about family businesses and the challenges they face. MTBD came along and wished to do these summits. Our objectives matched. We wished to infuse professional inputs, and I appreciate that it is different from the standard discounts on offer by any company.”
Till date seven MPower Summits and two MPower Mentors Summits have been conducted for more than 200 participants.
Back to school
Going back to school for this middle-aged group proved a revelation of sorts. They were exposed to topics ranging from decision areas and challenges in the trucking sector, attracting investment, leadership challenges, managing family-owned business, brand management, from data to insights, and a practical session on fleet simulation at the prestigious IIM-A. Some of those who felt ‘nothing can happen to my business’, quoting Prof. Debjit Roy, Faculty – IIM-A and Course Coordinator, realized that their businesses probably were soon bound to hit the proverbial glass ceiling.
Prof. Sunil Sharma from IIM-A, who delivered an interesting lecture on Managing Family-owned Business professionally, says: “Professionally-run organizations have higher probability of growth even in an uncertain market environment. In fact most of the small and medium enterprises get stuck at turnovers of Rs. 100 crores or Rs. 150 crores, and they find it difficult to grow beyond that. It is not about teaching them or giving them a formula that they can use and overnight their organizations will become professional.”
Offering discounts and rewards has always been the traditional way of attracting more business. But rarely do corporates hold programs on self-development for their buyers instead of marketing their products. Adopting a leave-them-with-a-progressive-idea approach has helped MTBD to connect with the market emotionally too.
Mr. Rajeev Malik, Senior General Manager – Marketing, MTBD, elaborates: “Everyone does customer meets to get more business. But here we are offering a learning platform. If we have to engage customers, we have to endear our brand to them in a non-sales, non-threatening atmosphere.”
A great strategy considering that the businessmen, with years of practical experience and logic, tend to remember the benefits to their businesses more if their methodologies are modified for better.
The biz game
The tussle between the father and son or, in other words, the older and younger generation is more about whether to take ambitious risks or not, and whether older wisdom is better than the younger modern thought process.
Mr. Nitin Bagai, CEO, Nagpur Golden Transport, echoes: “IIM-A says that you should be an open person, a professional, and you should hire consultants. Basically my father’s generation never liked to bring anyone outside the family, and tell them everything about the company.”
Mr. Bagai was one of the few from MPower Summits to hold powerful presentation, comprising learnings and implementations from their sessions, to the mentors during the summit in what is called Face-Off session.
Take, for instance, 58-year-old Mr. Bharat Rathor, a transporter hailing from Betul, Madhya Pradesh. His Shri Maharaj Logistics Ltd., in the field for 36 years, is undergoing small but specific changes under his 23-year-old son Amit’s directions. Amit has recently returned after finishing his MBA program from Greenwich University, UK. The very first change he made after going back from the summit was hiring educated employees and offering their customers online tracking services.
Senior Rathor says: “It has been only one year that my son has come back. I tell him to develop his experience beyond books and learn how parcels are booked, loaded and delivered, how to talk to the customers in our business. So he is learning practical knowledge now and alongside he is developing software programs and all.”
Force of knowledge
The fact that the veterans are given space and time to imbibe, learn, accept and implement ways shared in these sessions makes them open up to the ideas. Mr. Malik shares: “It is impossible to tell a 60-year-old man that what you have been doing till date is wrong, or start doing this from tomorrow. If you just present the idea to him and if he carries the idea at the back of his mind and he changes his course by even five degrees, I think we have done our job.”
Mr. Nalin Mehta, CEO and Managing Director – Mahindra Trucks and Buses Ltd., touches on the pertinent point inherent to these summits: “It is a known fact that Mr. Anand Mahindra did not really want to be in the automotive industry at one time, and he admits it too. So maybe there is a connection here. But what we really are trying to do is to give a little recognition to these feelings of the youngsters and the older generation. There are some terrific stories in each of these transporters. Many of them in our summits actually began as drivers, or had one truck, but today they have a few hundreds.”
Prof Roy offers an insight: “All these participants have over 50 years of experience but are not exploiting the new technology. They say that they believe the next generation is the one who can make the change happen but at the same time, they want the experience to carry over.”
Growing open
The whole idea is to bring the older and the younger generation on the same page. Prof. Sharma explains: “Professionally run organizations are all about principles of meritocracy and not about who is the owner or whether next generation should be an outsider or an insider. They are process-driven rather than people-driven. As long as family-owned businesses embrace those principles they can become professional.” This holds true for some of the participants’ family businesses while some others have already implemented these modifications.
Mr. Byram Dhalla, Director, B D Dhalla Transport, is one example. He shares his son, 23-year-old Jehan’s perspective before and after attending the summit: “One of the takeaways he had was that do we delegate and trust our employees enough. He had a perception that I did not. In the last one year, he has been active with me in the business and he has seen that I take consensus from my team. Apart from this, it is refreshing to hear others’ point of views so you do pick up the odd indicator or direction that you could take.”
It is true that change can come only from within – be it an individual or an organization.
A risky affair
Connecting with businessmen on a precarious footing such as trying to bridge gaps in thought-processes is definitely risky. Initial apprehension as to how the summits will be received was very much present. Mr. Malik says: “Our management was willing to experiment. We did not know if this program would be effective or if the transporters will come or send their heirs. MPower is a classical case of trying to implement an innovation.” Mr. Mehta agrees: “It was fraught with risks, we did not get people to come to the first program easily. We had to pull them initially but not a single person left.”
If the senior batches were suggested to include professional attitude and methods in their business, the youngsters were advised to develop a healthy discrimination. Prof. Sharma suggests: “My message to youngsters is to have respect for the legacy. They need to claim ownership of the company with responsibility minus the mindset of entitlement. Only when they prove to themselves that they can be professional managers, they should claim ownership.”
The MPower and Mentor Summits are intrinsically related to Mahindra Transport Excellence Awards. With total nine summits under their belt, MTBD is ready with two more to organize in the near future. Empowering generations is surely the clear direction that MTBD is taking.