What must Aron do to gain the trust of the family and to lead the family into the 4th generation?

To start with I would like to emphasise that Aron seems to be in the good position with gaining the trust of the family. However, he understands well that nowadays the business structure and way of doing business are changing very fast and dramatically. As a result, Harilela family have to correspond to this trends to continue its success in the modern world. Personally I would not say that I agree with all the changes Aron would like to implement, but it seems that he is on the right track of it in general. As far as I am concerned, the main problem appear when relatively young person, like Aron, comes to the board in a role of a chairman and starts performing “reforms” which are not in the parallel with others- more older and mature members. This could ruin Harilela family harmony, which was created and well treated during a number of years. From the other hand, in case Aron just join a board as a chairman and starts follow its old way of doing business, it could have a negative affect on the last one as will not be efficient in the nowadays environment. Obviously there is not sense to follow that path as it does not bring a success to anybody. The challenge is to become a leader for the old Harilela generation and create a synergy by proving that Aron can bring success to the entire family and the business. In my view, he already proved that he can add value to the group by successful accusation of some real estate in the past. This was done with no control from Hari and proves Aron’s capabilities for defining a global strategy of the group. This also could be used as a good reference when appointing Aron to the chairman role. Second essential thing is to ensure support of his mother Padma. According to informal rules of Harilela family, women’s opinion is seriously considered in business. Owning that fact that Padma can help to smoother Aron’s integration to the board, Aron should explain his position and intensions to mother and make sure that she supports him on it. Probably Padma, with her influence, can persuade other members in favour of Aron, who is not fully agree with his approach. What is more, Aron could take a management position in the mother company before joining a board to prove his potential for the success. This could also provide him an opportunity to try implement some non-global changes inside the organisation and show others that his strategies are brining values to the business. He is definitely not a “spoiled kid”, he has a good education and showed his hard working capabilities from the early age. To my mind he is able to illustrate his potential in a relatively short term period. Lastly, Harilela family honour its traditions, it can be proven by many facts from their business and life styles. I would like to note that it is sometimes not effective at all to follow family traditions, rituals or informal rules. However, this is the main driver of an over 90 family members’ synergy, which is essential for entire family and has a great positive impact on their business. As a consequence, Aron (especially in a chairman position) must honour informal family rules and tradition to keep and even strengthen this synergy.