Year 2024: What lies ahead for India's leading family-owned conglomerates

Heightened competition, new business forays, and a new generation of scions, are set to transform the country's big family business groups next year

- Varun Sood & Nehal Chaliawala

For better or for worse, Indian business is dictated by family-owned conglomerates. A distinct advantage of such conglomerates is that they help get around the most pressing issue businesses face: Focus on short-term results.

It is unthinkable to imagine any public company taking a bet on renewable energy in the manner Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) or Adani Group have undertaken.

At the same time, succession planning is the worst nightmare for shareholders in family-owned conglomerates. Whether GenNext is equal to the challenge and shares the same visionary zeal and leadership as their elders will be keenly watched as the years unfold.

Winds of change are sweeping at the top of some conglomerates such as Reliance and Birlas. More conglomerates could see succession planning.

A few trends are playing out across Reliance, Tata, and JSW Group. Each of these groups carved out new businesses (read Jio Financials, Tata Technologies and JSW Infrastructure) and allowed these businesses to run as independent entities. This development should pick up pace in the future with more businesses from Adani, Reliance, and Tata going public.

Finally, for management theorists, many of who proclaim conglomerates as duds and run the risk of being disrupted by technology and startups, homegrown conglomerates are proving to be one of a kind. Be it Tata or Reliance, the heartening thing is that these groups recognize the importance of technology.

Mint puts the spotlight on eight conglomerates that continue to retain significant influence over large parts of the economy. Outside these eight, a few more (Vedanta, for example) could hog the limelight next year.