IFBA 2023: How young scions of business families nurture inbuilt problem-solving mindset

Wonderla's Arun Chittilappilly and Safeducate's Divya Jain highlight how their families inculcated a problem-solving mindset in their business-focused households.

Arun K Chittilappilly and Divya Jain were born into the privileged world of family businesses, but their paths to success were paved not by their affluent upbringings, but by an "innate" entrepreneurial spirit to solve problems.

Speaking at the Indian Family Business Awards, organised by Moneycontrol PRO and Waterfield Advisors in New Delhi on December 3, both Chittilappilly and Jain highlighted how their families inculcated a problem-solving mindset in their business-focused households.

For Chittilappilly, the shift from his family’s electrical component manufacturing business, the V-Guard Group, to the amusement park industry with Wonderla Holidays was driven by his innate curiosity as an engineer. Wonderla Holidays operates India’s largest chain of amusement parks, with locations in Kochi, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad.

“My dad is an engineer at heart, and he always wanted to build stuff, and I kind of have the same kind of inclination. Just felt that this is a very exciting business to kind of join,” Chittilappilly said.

He added that the idea of running a company was always ingrained in him while growing up in a business family. "It's almost like it's in my DNA."

Jain, on the other hand, found her calling in the logistics sector, one dominated traditionally by men. “It's kind of built into your DNA. Growing up in that culture you know the fact that business is dinner conversation. So it's sort of in your blood,” Jain added.

The University of Cambridge alumnus founded Safeducate in 2007, as a subsidiary of the supply chain and logistics entity Safexpress.

Jain said for everyone who thinks that it's easy for second-generation entrepreneurs, the second generation is always looking behind and always thinking if they are ever going to match up. “Are you going to be good enough? So I think there's always that challenge of not just proving yourself, but being (good) enough.”

Also Read | Indian Family Business Awards 2023: Highlights, complete winners list and more

Addressing Challenges

This ability to identify and address problems has served them well, when faced of unexpected obstacles.

After the COVID-19 pandemic, Chittilappilly and the team pivoted quickly and moved from traditional advertising to a digital one. This is because the bulk of the customers were either young or children, who mostly consume content digitally.

“We completely revamped our marketing and a lot of other functions as well such as sales during this time. So things which we could not have done otherwise,” Chittilappilly explained.

Similarly, Divya's focus on empowering women in the male-dominated logistics industry has yielded impressive results. Her research showed that female-led warehouse teams had lower attrition rates and higher productivity compared to their male counterparts.

"It's not just about running a business," Divya said, "It's about creating value, not just for our companies, but for our communities as well."

The Indian Family Business Awards 2024 is held to recognise the remarkable contributions of family-owned businesses to India’s economic growth.