The Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) along with Family Business Network (FBN International) seeks to gather Indian family businesses to spearhead sustainable development.
CII, along with FBN International, has a CII-FBN India chapter. FBN, headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland, is the world’s leading organisation of business owning families.
Inclusive growth
As a first of its kind partnership, UNCTAD and FBN recently developed a global initiative — Family Business for Sustainable Development (FBSD). The overall objective of the partnership is to provide family businesses worldwide with ways and means to integrate sustainability into their conventional business models, therefore contributing to global sustainable development and inclusive growth, as well as the prosperity of the family business, according to a statement.
“With the focus on sustainable growth and evolving digital solutions, significant opportunities arise for family businesses to develop their approach for the future. Family businesses in India have all the necessary ingredients to successfully grow and have a strong platform for future generations to benefit from,” said R Dinesh, Chairman of CII FBN India Chapter.
Family business contributes more than 70 per cent of GDP of most developed and developing countries. In case of India, this could be even more as almost every small enterprise is family-run.
Transforming community
“Family businesses dominate key sectors of the economy. They have a better opportunity to lead on the ESG goals. There’s $12 trillion to be made annually by businesses whose work advances the United Nation’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It is one of the biggest business opportunities for family businesses. Key to a successful evolution is the development and fulfilment of the next gen members,” said Kanishka Arumugam, Chairman of Next Gen Committee, CII FBN India.
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“Our goal is to transform the community into a dynamic learning platform, inspire each other and help our next gen members become responsible family business leaders of the future,” he added.
CII-FBN will host several events throughout the year. The Annual CII-FBN Summit in India will be an online event in February. This year the theme is “Family Business: Living our Values in the New Age”, and topics will include family businesses potential to lead sustainable transformations, next gen role in professionalising of family business, sustainability and digitisation opportunities for family businesses. The sessions will also attempt to find out how to balance existing operations while actively scouting and capitalising on emerging opportunities, it said.