top of page

By:

Minal Sancheti

2 May 2026 at 12:26:53 pm

Funeral for animals

Mumbai: On the occasion of National Animal Rights Day, a funeral was held for all the voiceless creatures that humans have killed for selfish reasons. The act was a campaign and was a brainchild of Animal Climate and Health in collaboration with Our Planet Theirs Too. The purpose was to spread awareness about animal cruelty. The campaign took place at Carter Road Amphitheatre and so a crowd of both young and old supported the cause. Speaking about animal cruelty, recently the internet was...

Funeral for animals

Mumbai: On the occasion of National Animal Rights Day, a funeral was held for all the voiceless creatures that humans have killed for selfish reasons. The act was a campaign and was a brainchild of Animal Climate and Health in collaboration with Our Planet Theirs Too. The purpose was to spread awareness about animal cruelty. The campaign took place at Carter Road Amphitheatre and so a crowd of both young and old supported the cause. Speaking about animal cruelty, recently the internet was flooded with a viral video of a group of men at Mira Road taking a piglet to a locality where goats were brought for religious sacrifice. Aparjita Ashish, the founder and director of Animal Climate and Health said, “It is an act of cruelty to kill animals for religious sacrifice but to protest against this they were harassing a baby pig. The poor pig was screaming for his life. So how’s that right? If you want to protest, protest peacefully.” Ashish also comments on the Apex Judiciary’s decision of euthanising terminally ill dogs, “If the dog has a serious illness like rabies and is in a lot of pain, with a doctor’s permission and in a peaceful manner, they should be euthanised. The apex court also spoke about the ABC or animal birth control which if done with correct procedures, can help bring down issues related to the stray dogs. Many times the process is wrong so the animals become subject to cruelty.” She even added that the strays should not be displaced as that will leave them confused. This is also an act of ill treatment. The occasion saw a large number of gatherers. According to the campaigners, being vegan is not just for protecting animals but also for the climate. Ashish explained, “If you see the name of our NGO, it is Animal Climate and Health. So we also talk about the impact of consuming animal products on the environment.” She gives an example of how methane gas is produced because of the dairy animals and how the food and resources to breed animals are so much that it affects the environment. The supporters who participated in the campaign said they also noticed many health benefits of going vegan. Anil Nagpal, a senior citizen and volunteer with the organisation said, “For many years I was going through ill health. I tried every treatment but nothing really helped much. But then someone convinced me to go vegan and since that time my health has improved drastically. After this many people in my circles who used to eat animal products have given up.” When asked what his protein sources are, he said, “I eat lentils and legumes. Vegetables also contain protein.” Ashish claimed that humans have an ego that makes them think they are above animals.

Governance Is Modernization

By now, if you’ve followed this series, you’ve done something rare.

You didn’t walk in and start “fixing” blindly.

You understood the equilibrium.

You reduced the fear of loss.

You made the new way easier than the old way.

You created rhythm.

You built reputation and credibility.

You learned to negotiate, build coalitions, digitize in small steps.

And the previous article, Rahul spoke about the hidden requirement: psychological safety because without truth, every dashboard becomes theatre.

Now we close the season with the most grounded definition of “professionalization” I know.

It’s not ERP.

It’s not fancy roles.

It’s not a new org chart.

Because when power is unclear, everything else becomes unstable.

Which seat are you stepping into?

• Inherited seat: you may have formal authority, but decision rights are often still “family-managed”.

• Hired seat: you may have responsibility without authority. That is the fastest path to frustration.

• Promoted seat: you may have influence, but your boundaries are fuzzy, and that creates daily conflict.


Different seats. Same reality: the business runs on invisible boundaries.

The property boundary line

Think about a property boundary line between two neighbors.

When the line is clear, people may still argue but disputes are limited.

When the line is unclear, every small thing becomes a fight:

• “This is my parking space”.

• “That tree is mine”.

• “This wall belongs to who?”


In a company, decision rights are the boundary line.

If the boundary is not clear:

• approvals become political

• escalation becomes emotional

• responsibility becomes a trap

• people start bypassing

• and “urgent” becomes the excuse for everything


This is why modernization fails even after you digitize.

Because digitization creates visibility, and visibility creates conflict if authority is still fuzzy.

Governance sounds heavy, but it’s actually simple

When people hear “governance”, they imagine board meetings and legal language.

In MSMEs, governance is much simpler:

Who can decide what, within which limits, and what happens when there is a conflict.

That’s it.

If you can answer those three questions, you’re already professionalizing.

Why governance matters more in family-influenced firms

In many Indian MSMEs, decisions are not purely operational. They are emotional and relational.

A pricing exception may be linked to a relationship.

A hiring decision may be linked to loyalty.

A capex purchase may be linked to ego and legacy.

This is not “wrong”. It’s just real.

But when the company starts growing, this style doesn’t scale. It creates confusion:

• managers don’t know what they can commit to

• teams don’t know whose instruction to follow

• the owner gets dragged into everything

• and the new leader becomes the “bad cop” without any real authority


There’s a light-touch academic way to describe this too: Jensen and Meckling wrote about “agency” issues … when decision-makers and owners have different incentives.

The fix is not more control. The fix is clearer decision rights.

The three decision rights that change everything

If you do only three things in governance, do these:


1. Pricing authority

Who can approve discounts? Under what limits?

What is the exception path?


2. Capex thresholds

Who can approve spending? Up to what amount?

What needs owner approval? What can be delegated?


3. Hiring approvals

Who can hire? Who can approve headcount?

What roles require founder/family sign-off?

These three create a surprising amount of stability. Why? Because they cover money, investment, and people … the three biggest emotional zones in MSMEs.

What happens when these rights are not clear?


You’ll recognize these symptoms:

• people take decisions and later say “I thought it was okay”

• approvals happen through WhatsApp messages that nobody can trace

• the owner says “Why did you do this?” after the fact

• managers get blamed for decisions they didn’t have the authority to make

• teams bypass the system because “it’s urgent”

• and your new “process” becomes optional again


It’s not because people are undisciplined.

It’s because the boundary line is not drawn.

Field Test: Negotiate and document three decision rights

This week’s field test is not a workshop. It’s a negotiation.

If you try to enforce governance without safety, people will hide.

If you try to digitize without governance, conflict will explode.

This 12-articles season wasn’t about “fixing operations”.


It was about how an incoming leader enters a legacy MSME without triggering immune response and then builds rhythm, credibility, coalition, safe digitization, and finally governance.


Now that you can enter the system and steady it, the next macro-arc becomes obvious:

How do you build the middle layer that sustains it … so the company doesn’t fall back into founder-dependence?


That’s where real scale begins.


(The writer is a co-founder at PPS Consulting. He is a business transformation consultant. He could be reached at rahul@ppsconsulting.biz.)

1 Comment

Teddi Fleming
Teddi Fleming
May 18

Clear decision rights are crucial for smooth operations in family businesses; it’s often overlooked but makes all the difference in avoiding conflict. vibe transcription legit

Like
bottom of page