An Energised Dabur

For most Indian companies, succession planning is a difficult and at times a painful process. In the last few years, the topic has often grabbed headlines, be it the bitter battle for supremacy between the founders and the then CEO at Infosys, or the protracted fight between Cyrus Mistry (former Tata Group chairman) and group patriarch Ratan Tata that is now playing out in courts. There are a few exceptions to this, none bigger than Dabur, the 134 year old company that is the country's leading Ayurveda based health care firm.

"Dabur has always been ahead of the curve, be it in planning CEO succession or restructuring family shareholding. Our survey of NSE listed companies last year found over half had not identified successors for their CEOs. So, Dabur is an outlier in this aspect," says Monica Agarwal, Head, Financial Services and Co head of Board Services at Korn Ferry India, a management consulting firm. "CEO succession should be the number 1 priority for any professional board. Dabur is a good example of how to go about it."

The retirement