A Legacy Builder Insights from a Powerhouse Leader

[Music] morning everyone yes indeed my name is Edwin Smith I'm the editorinchief of Spears magazine and what a privilege and a pleasure it is to be here at Abu daby Finance week lovely to see you all um I'm delighted to say that I'm joined today by a woman at the helm of a family business success story it began in Bain in 1973 as a retailer for children's and baby wear today fresh from its 50th Anniversary celebrations the group is in rude Health with 22 Brands 53,000 employees 2,200 stores across 17 countries and annual revenues of7 billion please welcome everyone ranuka Jani chairwoman of lrock group good morning everybody and thank you for coming in to listen now Ruka today you're running this multi-billion dollar International family business but your career trajectory has been quite unique um I think you were once a German teacher can you give us a sense of your extraordinary Journey so I I really went into business at the age of 38 So Married with three kids and I'm not from a business family I had my father was in the Army the only work I had done was before marriage where I had taught for 5 years so this was completely new to me and I think if I had known that I would go in so deep I would never have started so sometimes actually just trusting your instinct to just start is is what really works and it made a difference for me you know so I enjoyed what I did and so it continued and then one thing followed another but at 38 I opened uh the fashion business in the group splash I had never been in fashion I'd never been in retail but I was married to a man who was a retailer and you realized that you embe a lot along the way you emip what it really means to to understand product and build a business and I think it was also the culture we had of doing everything from scratch and getting involved in anything which taught me my business so I did that I only really slept you know stepped into a central role about 12 years back and about 10 years back into what would be a CO and chair role for the the group so it's been considering the 50 years I started later but it's been quite an eventful and very kind of intense journey to that and now I'm in the next phase of transition of saying so I moved out of a COO role completely into a chair role still very much an executive chair role but then transitioning out hopefully in the next few years more completely out of the day-to-day business very good and we'll come to that a little bit later in the conversation but can you just give us a sense of those earlier steps into the business you say it started gradually and then before you knew it it developed a long way but can you tell us how it began and how you got a got a taste for this I think it began really with understanding and saying you know it it really started with Mickey saying I think you should do young fashion and I said but I don't know young fashion he said well learn it and and and Mickey's your late husband who's my H yes so his way of my learning it was at that time he was he used to travel a lot and he was involved in the baby shop so I've traveled with him but he never really walked anything with me I I was left saying I'll meet you in the the evening for dinner you're on your own you know but being on your own you learn you walk every Market you walked and I did everything from Asia to Europe to the US I walked every Market to really understand what fashion is about so I had to learn myself a lot and I think I think doing that it really taught me what I wanted I think I was also very lucky that we started at a time where life was kind what I you know so it allowed you your mistakes but it allowed you to grow so it's a combination and have you reflected perhaps as your own children have been coming into the business the degree to which the suitability for such a role is is innate or learned or dependent on personality when when you're thinking about yourself was it something that was in you that was uncovered or did you develop it as you went along I don't think it was in me I think I didn't I didn't know what was in me and maybe thank God for it because if I had views of what will work for me what won't I don't think I would have done what I did you know it was because I didn't know what I wanted to do that I said okay whatever there is I will do and that determination to do it and then if I'm to do it to do it well I think persevered and it made me persevere in in moving on and doing more and more you know and I mean completely different to the Middle East was India and I was the one responsible to for India from the start for the family and just because you're Indian it doesn't mean that you understand India you don't really you know it's a very different B game but that same kind of way of saying I will learn and I will succeed and I need to succeed is what drives you okay and in terms of operating the business are there things that were are there different things now at it this stage of its development when it's a vast company over uh was it 17 different countries um are there different things that make it successful now to the ones that made it successful at the start what's what's most important now I think it's depends on the life cycle of each business because we run many businesses so if you have businesses which are much older they would have different needs in a different part of the life cycle so what you would look there it would be very different to a fairly new business you set up so a new business today may not be so different to a new business 30 years back but a mature business today is very different to a startup of today you know and I think so you've got to find units to business you can't and to the leader who runs the business because within a business every leader is a different person and I've learned one thing that I have to adapt to that rather than expecting the leader to say I'm working for landmark and therefore I will just be this kind of leader it doesn't work he has his personality and he has to do what works for him you know so learning to work with different people sometimes is the biggest challenge but it's also the biggest reward fantastic and yes different personalities play of course but at the same time there is quite a clear through line in the history of the business uh in lammar grp and and that's the company culture and in a many ways that seems to be a torch that's still carried one that was first lit by your late husband and you have lots of ways in which you think about culture and there's an interesting acronym I'd like to talk about if we can uh I lead can you talk us through that so Mickey's way of starting the business was starting it each so he called it a key man he took for each business and he gave him his vision but then got him to really run with it the person had a small share in it but that person developed it and so he always had somebody who was this entrepreneur who had a strong sense of ownership but he was also very clear that it was never about one man alone so the first thing which Mickey told me when I entered the business and this was when I opened my first store in charger was very simply never hold the keys in your hand and for him that really meant that you have to know how to work with people and to let them run the business they run you know and I think I think that makes a huge difference so that I think was the foundation and if we are to continue the next 50 years I think that is actually fundamental to our business and that entrepreneurship will will help us grow with that we look to say what is it really about and when you look at I lead so lead stands for listen and this for us was listening to the customer to really understanding the opportunity what the customer wants how he react to it and empowering people and empowering the team to take that forward and then adapting so adapting wasn't just adapting that particular concept or the range or something to it but also being adaptable enough that if something doesn't work you just come out of it so you have to know and this he did very well I'm not good at it you to to really say that let it go you know and he knew how fast you let go so that you deliver which is the D the I is integrity and that was a fundamental part of it to say that fundamental to be the business has to be how we work you know so that I think we have you know we've tried in every way to see that we keep it but I think that has been that fundamental belief especially when you build your own brands has really what has helped us get where we are today fantastic and twoth thirds of the managers within the business are promoted from within as I understand so you have this pipeline of talent you have internal promotions you have people being empowered to take responsibility for their own part of the business but at the same time a really important factor here is that it's a family business can you talk a little bit how you involve the next generation of your family in the company so the business has been always a family business but has had professionals and professionals who worked with us built businesses so it's a family business which has always had both sides of it when you have kids you don't really get up one day and strategize saying today I will strategize how my children will join the business I wish one could do that as a mother you can't do it and you have I mean every person is individual so my three children are very individual and each one would be in the business for a very different reason but I think amazingly with the same passion for it and I think it's their passion which has kept them there their passion which I think a lot they get from both their parents because we're both retailers and I think you grow up with that you don't realize how much it becomes a part of you but I think that is really what has made them join it wasn't something which was by Design I definitely nurtured it worked on it and but it's actually first thanks to them to if you really look at it what would take the children forward would really be the ability to work with others and their ability to work with each other you know and I think that is that is really what would be absolutely I mean we heard Al Sani of toac sit on the stage earlier and say the biggest threat to family businesses is when there is that lack of alignment and so getting the Next Generation to work with one another are you lucky enough that that just happens naturally organically or are there ways in which you encourage it no you have to encourage it and they have to actually actively work on it and they have to I mean it doesn't happen by itself because we all get very busy we may have the intent but you have to actually make time for it work on it and consciously spend time to to build that alignment with each other and with each business because it's also very important when you run a family business to to know your leaders and to have that uh collaboration and Association and communication with your leaders it it's not just with each other you know so it's much wider very good and to Mark the 50th anniversary of the group there was a a video that I've seen in which uh some of your children interview and they speak extremely well about uh about what they're doing the thing I was really struck by is their ambition they're very clear that they have huge ambition for growth which I'm sure all of the 53,000 members of of the group do and and you share as well um can you talk a little bit to round things off about what's next for lmar group I think what's next for us what we would so clearly we have a strategy to grow in retail we are growing our retail growing I mean one of our recent chains is grocery we are growing that we are growing in the other parts of it and I think what's very important for us is to grow our online business but I think we are at the stage where we are also saying that it is about growth bring growth about for people it doesn't always have to be in retail I think we're comfortable with retail we are comfortable with consumer facing and we'd always land up doing a lot there but I think the advantage of having possibly three should finally be that each one can find an opportunity to bring different things to the table and to encourage growth and to grow the people within the business who I think would join us for that you know the challenge of learning of growing is really what excites them absolutely I'm sure it would um we're just about out of time so ladies and Gentlemen please join me in thanking Ruka joani chairwoman of Lambo group thank you thank you oh [Music]