Anil Agarwal, Vedanta Group's owner, chooses professional managers over kin for top posts

In traditional Indian method, sons and daughters of a company’s owner take up top posts and the succession goes on. However, Vendanta Group’s owner Anil Agarwal wants to do away with the system and has planned something else.

The founder of the $12.9 billion Vedanta group wants to appoint professional managers rather than kin to top posts.

"As far as succession goes, I am still in command and I am getting all professional chief executives as I do not want a family member to be chief executive of the company," Agarwal, 61, said in an exclusive interview to Economic Times.

"I believe this company should be run by the people. At the same time, family members also bring in some value,” he said.

The financial daily reported that Agarwal, who rose from being a metal scrap dealer to build India's largest natural resources company in the past five decades, has two children-Agnivesh and Priya. His brothers Navin and Pravin, closely associated with Vedanta, also have two children each.

Agnivesh is chairman of Hindustan Zinc, while Priya has been on the Cairn India board as non-executive director since 2012.

Based in Dubai, Agnivesh runs his own business recovering metal from scrap and also manages group unit Fujairah Gold. The United Arab Emirates is also home to the group's precious metals refinery that can process 50 million tonne of gold and 110 million tonne of silver annually.

Agnivesh also acquired a 60% stake in Chennai-based medical diagnostic chain Primex Healthcare in 2012 in his personal capacity.

Priya has been a public relations professional with Ogilvy & Mather and spearheaded the media campaign that sought to give a more friendly aspect to the controversial resources and mining major.

Navin is non-executive director of Vedanta Ltd, a subsidiary of the London-listed Vedanta Resources, of which Anil Agarwal is chairman emeritus. Navin has two sons--Naivedya and Ananya. Pravin Agarwal is a whole-time director of Sterlite Technologies, one of India's largest optic fibre cable makers and based in Pune. His sons Ankit and Pratik run the group's ports and power transmission businesses.

"I don't see world over natural resources companies run by families. Our oil and gas business can be run by shareholders as it has become so big that it need not be run by family members,” said Agarwal.

His mandate is to run the company as chief executive and hire the best managers besides formalising and executing a growth strategy. Such professionals know technology and can look at the bigger picture from the perspective of having run large projects for global natural resources companies.

"They are focused on sustainability, an environment policy and our team learns to run companies professionally," he told ET. "I would like to see Vedanta as a transparent and professionally run company... by the people and for the people."

Agarwal sees this as a natural progression. "I think I am going to work for another five years to make sure it is run professionally. I have lots of other opportunities. A Vedanta veteran said the brothers have worked in harmony to build the business,” he added.
"Once companies reach a large size, it needs professional leaders. Children are not always competent or interested in taking forward the father's business," Mita Dixit, co-founder and head, family business advisory, Equations Management Consulting told ET. "Shareholders are active and want the company to be run in a transparent manner to deliver results... It is prudent to have someone with relevant experience and expertise to run the show."

(Image: Indiatimes)