Cyrus Poonawalla on handing over business reins to the next generation

The Chairman of Poonawalla Group is a straight talker and is known to come up with conversational gems. So it was fitting that this question came to him during a lunch thrown by a wealth report company.

When asked about his family which possibly has a "large number of people" and the concerns in handing over business reins to the next generation, Cyrus Poonawalla cut his interrogator mid-sentence. First he proceeded to clarify the size of his family. "I’ve got just one son (Adar). Reluctantly he’s produced two boys, that his wife didn’t want to do. We have a very, very small family." Clan dimensions explained, he went directly to the heart of the poser, revealing with disarming candour, "I have only one son, so I had no problems in terms of the ascension (entrusting the top job) — which he may face in dividing (the roles) in future."