FLO, the women’s wing of the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), on Thursday organised an interactive session on “Women on Family Boards”.
V. Ramakrishnan, founder and Managing Director, Organisation Development Pte Ltd, Singapore, told the women, a majority of them who are into business, “at board levels one needs to focus on outcomes. And also in family business, one needs to lay down rules when the earlier generation is alive.” He highlighted that the survival rate in Asian family businesses was dwindling.
K. Balaji, trustee of Palkhivala Foundation, said the entitlement mindset was a key element in family business failures. He said: “In family businesses, one should detail the rights and responsibilities of ownership, detail family’s social and fiscal responsibility and establish policies for dividends and remuneration for the board.”
Raji Raju, Chairperson, FLO Chennai, said women who attended the event are either running family business and some of them were part of company boards. She said women representation on family boards had slowly grown over the years. However, it was important to women to acquire skills which would help them grow further, she said and added that one of FLO’s mandate is to help such women.
