Why business tycoon Kishore Biyani encouraged daughters to pursue non-management fields

When your family name is Biyani, business comes naturally to you. So for Kishore Biyani's daughters, Ashni and Avni, higher education was an opportunity to go in a different direction. While Ashni, Biyani's elder daughter, studied textile designing and attended courses on scenario planning at New York's Parsons School of Design, Avni studied sociology at New York University.

"They chose their fields on their own. But not studying business was something that came out of various dining table discussions," says Biyani. The Future Group CEO was speaking at a Mumbai University event. He was clear about one thing: stay away from business studies. "Business is easy to learn," he says. Biyani championed design. "Design teaches us to use human behaviour to find solutions to problems. As for my younger one, she was interested in politics and sociology."



Avni Biyani (Image: BCCL)


Biyani is of the view that today's education system needs to keep up with the changing world. "When I look at the business learning models today, they are based on the case study model. I don't understand why," he says, "The world is changing so fast now."

Biyani argues that multi-disciplinary learning is important. "You can't be stuck in one discipline. Everybody should learn everything," he says.


Ashni Biyani (Image: BCCL)