Succession planning needs to be looked at seriously

Succession planning needs to be looked at seriously

Succession and planning-these two words have sadly not got ingrained into
the channel community. They always prefer to live for the day and not bother
about the tomorrow. In today's fast changing world this kind of thinking is
dangerous. They need to look more at the tomorrow as compared to the present
day.

The Indian channel business is relatively new, even as compared to the Indian
IT industry, which started almost 30 years back. In comparison, the first set of
channel partners started business not more than twenty years back, with a
majority of them coming in only in the early nineties.

Those who came early were not exactly young and after being in business for
close to twenty years, they are well into there fifties. However, these people
are still to look at the future in terms of grooming the next generation, which
is absolutely imperative now. For ant business, succession planning is extremely
important so that there is continuity in business operations.

Yes, there are quite a few forward looking gentlemen amongst the channel
community who have got their sons to join in, but they are very few and can be
counted on your finger tips. Prime examples are Bharat Bhushan of Delhi's RR
Systems and JP Modi of Modi Peripherals. Both have involved their sons in the
business quite well.

More importantly, they have done it at the right time when they themselves
have quiet a number of years to go before they hang up their boots. This way,
the have been able to give proper guidance to their successors while shedding
responsibilities gradually. This ensures that there are no hic-cups and business
continuity is maintained. Otherwise, what would have happened is if the children
had come in at the fag end of their father's career, they would have found it
doubly difficult to find their feet in this cutthroat business.

Here I can't help mentioning the example of Delhi's Trifin Information
Technology, which was started by Ashok Aggarwal. He introduced his two sons
Nitin and Ashish into the business quiet early. And both of them learnt the
craft and finer points of business from their father so well, that the elder
Aggarwal started living a life of semi-retirement. However, as things turned
out, Ashish tragically passed away last month when he was still on the right
side of thirty.

The fact of the matter is that channel community in India has reached a stage
of maturity and is doing quiet well in terms of business. To ensure that this
status is maintained and continued, it is imperative that they seriously looked
at succession planning at the earliest. This is important for their future well
being.