Sporting family business generations

Abstract

Purpose

The case aims to deal with multigenerational entrepreneurship. The family business of sports goods was initiated by Yashpal Aggarwal and his friends in the 1950s. Yashpal acquired the art of doing business and started initially with trading of sporting goods in Mumbai. Yashpal had three sons, Ashok, Ashwini and Rajesh, who ventured into sports trading business as well. After the demise of Yashpal, Ashok shifted to Jalandhar and started a manufacturing unit, producing roller skates. Ashwini, being entrepreneurial and innovative, had always desired to professionalise the business and hence started with Okini Sports. Okini Sports emerged as the first organised professional sports mall in India.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on case research, individual interviews at different levels, testing the case several times and filling the case gaps during the process to authenticate information, multiple sources of information have been used.

Findings

Businesses largely compete on the basis of available talent, competency and capability. Family businesses must be open to induct competent people within the family with the required skills to lead the company. If a family nurtures a member with requisite skills, values, to keep shareholders, key customers, and suppliers loyal to the business, then family leadership is the best option. As the business grows in dimension, differential capabilities are required to run the business competitively, hence, inducting talented individuals as professionals is a better option. A family must be realistic about the talents available internally.

Research limitations/implications

This case is restricted to sports family business entrepreneurship in the context of India, but has a great learning towards multigenerational entrepreneurship.

Originality/value

The case is original with the family in its fourth generation, the youngest looking to diversify and professionalize the business, set his family dreams of setting up the biggest sports mall in India.

Citation

Joshi, M., Srivastava, A. and Ashwini Aggarwal, V. (2013), "Sporting family business generations", Journal of Chinese Entrepreneurship, Vol. 5 No. 2, pp. 173-192. https://doi.org/10.1108/JCE-03-2013-0006