MUMBAI: The glass ceiling is cracking — even if the pace is still glacial — in traditional Indian business families. Radhika Piramal, the younger daughter of Dilip and Gita Piramal is taking charge at VIP Industries, the world’s second-biggest luggage maker after Samsonite. The 31-year-old Harvard graduate will become managing director from April 10, 2010, replacing the incumbent Sudhir Jatia who recently quit.
The board of VIP Industries has approved her appointment, according to two senior executives close to VIP Industries. She will report to her father and the company’s chairman, Dilip Piramal. Her mother, Gita, is a well-known business historian, the author of Business Maharajas, a chronicle of the derring-do of the legends of Indian industry such as the late Dhirubhai Ambani.
While ET wasn’t able to reach Dilip Piramal, his daughter confirmed her elevation saying she wanted to impart a more youthful character to the 39-year-old brand. “We want to transform VIP into a vibrant and youthful brand. We will have a multi-brand and multi-location strategy,” said Ms Piramal.
The younger Piramal is part of a group of successors, a surprising number of them female, moving through the ranks of India’s still tradition-bound business owners. Roshni Nadar, the daughter of HCL founder Shiv Nadar, was elevated to the post of executive director and CEO of HCL Corporation, the software group’s holding company, last year. Liquor baron Vijay Mallya has recently announced that his son Siddhartha will take up a bigger role in the UB Group while Kishore Biyani, the king of Indian retail, has tasked his daughter Ashni Biyani with looking after the Big Bazaar family store operations.
Both the daughters of Adi Godrej, Tanya and Nisaba, have leadership roles in the FMCG-to-property Godrej Group while the daughters of Prakash Chauhan, the owner of Parle, are in prominent positions in the biscuit manufacturer.
“These Generation Next from business families work mostly in MNC consulting firms before joining the business,” said Shailesh Haribhakti, chairman of consulting firm Haribhakti & Co.
The Dilip Piramal group mainly comprises two listed companies — VIP Industries and Blow Plast — a maker of products such as plastic furniture. Radhika began her career in VIP Industries in 2001 as brand manager, but left the company to pursue higher studies after three years. She returned to the company in July 2009 after working with New York-based consulting majors such as Bain & Co and Future Brands, according to details of her profile on the professional community website Linkedin.
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