From Founder to Framework: The Architecture of Succession, Governance, and Promoter Control
I am pleased to share that my first professional book, From Founder to Framework, is now published.
Promoter families frequently possess exceptional entrepreneurial ability. Yet the continuity of their enterprises across generations remains fragile. The reasons for this fragility are not primarily financial or operational. They are structural.
This book examines those structures. It presents a framework for understanding succession, governance, and control within promoter-led enterprises, not as a purely emotional or familial subject, nor as a purely legal or tax-driven exercise, but as a matter of institutional design: the deliberate construction of systems that allow an enterprise to outlive the individuals who built it.
The book is addressed to promoters, next-generation leaders, family offices, boards of directors, and advisers engaged in the long-term stewardship of family-controlled enterprises. Its purpose is to offer a structured framework for continuity, grounded in the social, commercial, regulatory, and tax realities of Indian promoter enterprise.
I am deeply grateful to Mr. Shapoorji Pallonji Mistry and Mr. Pallon Shapoorji Mistry, and Mr. Firoz Cyrus Mistry and Mr. Zahan Cyrus Mistry for their forewords, which carry perspectives spanning the full arc of Indian family enterprise, from building to sustaining to inheriting with vision.
I am equally grateful to Mr. Ronnie Screwvala (Chairperson and Co-Founder, upGrad), Mr. Sunil Singhania (Founder, Abakkus Asset Manager), Mr. Gautham Pai (Chairman, The Manipal Group), Mr. Kamal Sarda (Chairman, Sarda Group), Mr. Berjis Desai (Lawyer, and Author), and Mr. Jehan Daruvala (Promoter, Sterling & Wilson, and Former Formula E Racer) for their testimonials, each bringing a distinct vantage to the questions this book addresses.
This book has been shaped by our practice at Katalyst Advisors, my professional home since its founding in 2017. The years of working alongside Ketan Dalal on questions of structure, continuity, and the discipline of the craft have left their mark on these pages as much as any other single influence.
I owe a particular debt to Arun Anandagiri, founder of Taxsutra, whose conviction that this book deserved to be published gave it the platform to reach the readers it was written for.
Lastly, I thank my wife, Himani Shah, and my father, Sandip Parikh, both of whom have been my earliest readers and have lived with this book as long as I have. Their support, their judgment, and their willingness to engage with every draft have shaped it in ways that no acknowledgment can fully capture.
Link for Ordering a Copy: https://www.taxsutrareservoir.com/products/from-founder-to-framework