Volume 14, Number 4 Article by V C Burman December, 2002
V C Burman: Family Concerns :
In an email chat with IIMB Management Review, V C Burman talked about the responsibilities of the family in family businesses, the need to professionalise and how Dabur has successfully gone about it. The vital move in tackling all the challenges that professionalisation brought in its wake, he explained, was the establishment of the Family Council. He also touched on the opportunities in the pharmaceutical and ayurvedic sectors, the initiatives Dabur has taken to help improve the quality of ayurvedic products; and its contributions towards conservation and sustainable development.
Vivek C Burman, Chairman, Dabur India, is the great grandson of the famous S K Burman, founder of the Dabur Group. He has been responsible for the phenomenal market penetration of the company, with Dabur under his leadership metamorphosing from a North Indian company to an all India marketing force. These successes have been matched with the opening up of operations in London. Answering questions on email, V C Burman shared with IIMB Management Review his views on the responsibilities of the family in family businesses, the need to professionalise and how Dabur has successfully gone about it. The vital move in tackling all the challenges that professionalisation brought in its wake was the establishment of the Family Council. This helped the Burman family hand over the reins gracefully, keep the interests of the growing fifth generation family members separate from the business interest, while giving them room to grow the way they wanted to, and to have ‘one voice’ representing the interest of the promoters, who are also the largest shareholders in Dabur, without interfering in the day-to-day operations. He also discussed the opportunities and challenges faced by Indian industry, in particular the pharmaceutical and ayurvedic sectors.
With the avowed mission of promoting the health and well being of every household through products based on the bounty of nature, Dabur has a very special interest in the ayurvedic sector. Working closely with the Department of Indian System of Medicines, Dabur has helped initiate several measures to improve the quality and prevent spurious products. Dabur Research Foundation, an independent company, is a resource pool for the industry. Burman also talked about Dabur’s initiatives in contributing to sustainable development, investing huge amounts on a state-of-art greenhouse at Nepal, in R&D on agronomy research, generating agricultural technology for cultivation of medicinal plants, reafforestation and conservation of endangered plants and trees, and other such efforts towards the goal of saving the environment and preserving India’s traditional knowledge.
Reprint No 02403
