Keep your advisers close, family closer

One of the prime rules of successful succession is swiftly imposing one's authority in one's new court, of business or politics. This, in turn, means choosing your team, even (especially?) if it means ruffling some starchy ruffs and showing some from the ancien regime the door. Noel Tata's investiture to the Tata throne after the departure of King Ratan has been gracefully monarchic, unlike the anarchic trail that has followed many a house. (Ask Shah Jahan's heir-apparent Dara Shikoh about the downsides of hesitating.) The latest act of stamping one's authority without stubbing a toe has been the appointment of Noel's daughters Maya and Leah to the board of trustees of the Sir Ratan Tata Industrial Institute.

Children have seamlessly joined their father's team from the time Miranda was Prospero's right-hand 'man' in Shakespeare's The Tempest to Indira joining Panditji's. But what is a filial tale without a Shakespearean shake? It turns out that one of the two SRTII trustees who have been replaced by the Tata filles wasn't happy. Arnaz Kotwal expressed her displeasure at departing in a letter to fellow trustees. Considering the reasoning we have laid out above about the tribal requirement for a new bossman to surround himself with his chosen ones, we have to agree with Queen Gertrude in Hamlet - the lady doth protest too much, wethinks.