In India, family businesses are not merely commercial entities. They are living legacies built on trust, sacrifice, and tradition. They represent generations of hard-earned wisdom, passed down not through manuals, but through experience.
Today, these businesses contribute nearly 79% of India’s GDP and employ a large share of the workforce, making them the true backbone of the country’s economy. Yet behind this strength, a quiet transformation is taking place a shift led by generation-Z. A shift not driven by rejection, but by reinvention. Not by duty, but by desire.
My own journey mirrors this evolution
My grandfather sold fruits, walking from house to house. He had no brand, no store only a basket, a strong voice, and an unrelenting drive to survive. His goal was simple and urgent: to make ends meet, driven by sheer necessity and desperation.
My father witnessed that struggle and responded not by continuing it, but by transforming it. He opened a small fruit store, creating stability where there had once been uncertainty. His work was grounded in loyalty to his father’s vision and a desire to improve life for the next generation. His goal was one of responsibility.
Then came my turn of my generation, generation-Z
I did not pack fruits or handle bills. But I absorbed everything about how customers were treated, decisions were made, and challenges were met with calm. These lessons, deeper than any textbook, embody what Harvard Business Review calls active learning through lived experience.
I pursued higher education in the United Kingdom and Ireland, immersing myself in global classrooms and diverse business cultures far removed from our fruit shop’s narrow lanes. I did not leave India to escape tradition but to understand it better and explore new possibilities. Studying business in London and Dublin broadened not just my career but my entire perspective, exposed me to new systems, strategies. More importantly, it gave me the confidence to follow a desire I had not realized was possible to create something truly my own.
After travelling, meeting entrepreneurs, and seeing how ideas arise from inspiration rather than inheritance, I returned home to my father’s quiet wisdom: “Do what you love, Do not do this out of obligation.” That sentence did not close a chapter it opened a new one.
According to Joseph Nguyen, author of Don’t Believe Everything You Think, motivations fall into two categories: goals from desperation and those born from inspiration. Desperation-driven goals stem from fear and obligation- they are heavy, urgent, and reactive. In contrast, Inspiration-driven goals arise from abundance and passion; they energize rather than drain us. These goals are not about escaping the past but moving toward what truly calls us. This is how I felt when starting my own venture — not fleeing my family business, but honoring it by building something that reflected who I had become.
A national shift
This is not just my story. It is a trend sweeping across the country.
According to HSBC’s 2024 Global Family Business Report, only 7% of Indian heirs feel obligated to take over their family businesses. Meanwhile, 67% express a clear desire to forge their own paths. PwC’s 2023 India Family Business Survey echoes this shift: while 73% of next-gen leaders are involved in family business, only 21% of firms have a structures succession plan. This is not coincidence — it highlights a growing disconnect between inherited models and personal purpose, Family business are not necessarily ending because they have failed; they are evolving. Many are concluding their chapter not out of loss, but because they have fulfilled their purpose. They planted the seed, now something new is taking root.
From legacy to brand
Our family business fruit store may no longer exist, but its spirit lives in every decision I make. I did not inherit a business — I inherited the mind-set that built it: resilience, adaptability, empathy, and an unwavering commitment to doing what is right. The brand I have created today is not separate from my family business it is born from it. The knowledge I gained through years of observation has been reimagined in a new form. The goals I pursue now are not handed down. They are chosen freely, fully, and with joy.
A new definition of success
This shift from legacy to desire, from inherited trade to inspired creation is happening across many multi-generational families in India. A recent IBS Intelligence report found that 83% of next-generational respondents felt encouraged to explore different business interests when they first joined their family enterprises.
In India, legacy no longer means repetition; It means evolution. Often, the greatest tribute to a family business is not continue it as is, but to transform its spirit into something new. Generation-Z is not turning away from its roots, they are reaching deeper into them, not to replicate, but to reimagine.
We are not here to meet old expectations; we are here to find our calling. From that desire, new are born — honest, rooted, and inspired. Because sometimes, when a family business ends, it does not disappear; it becomes the soil from which something even more meaningful can grow.
Sources:
- Joseph Nguyen, Don’t Believe Everything You Think
- HSBC Global Family Business Report 2024 — Business Today
- PwC India Family Business Survey 2023 — PwC India
- McKinsey & Company, India Family Business Outlook
- IBS Intelligence, “India’s Family Businesses Trust Next-Gen Leadership but See Shifting Succession Trends,” May 21, 2025
- Business Today, “Only 7% of Indian Heirs Feel Obligated to Join Family Business,” May 20, 2025
(The author is a Junior Faculty at the Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai)