When Vummidi Bangaru Chetty first went into the retail jewelry business in South India in 1900, he was a typical self-made founder pulling himself to the top by sheer grit. But after his death in 1944, it turned out that he had bequeathed his heirs more than just a store. His descendants also inherited a rare ability to apportion their respective responsibilities—a strategy that has kept the giant Vummidi Group flourishing through five generations. (Vummidi is the family name; “Chetty” is a title bestowed on India’s merchant class.)
Anantnam Chetty, the eldest of the founder’s three sons, assumed the role of patriarch and visionary planner. Younger brother Shree Ramulu Chetty, known for his business acumen, boasted a formal university education—rare in those days—so he handled the finances. The third brother, Anjaneyulu Chetty, compensated for his lack of education with a dynamic personality suited for personnel management, sales and customer service.
It’s been that way ever since for the Vummidi Group, a multimillion-dollar jewelry firm with 16 outlets spread through southern India. One of the founder’s grandsons, Vummidi Ragunath, found his niche in the early 1980s by opening Vummidi Bangaru Jewelers, a branch in Chennai, the capital city of Tamil Nadu in South India.
Now that he’s been succeeded by his two sons—Jithendra, 33, and Amarendran, 30—they’ve undertaken a similar sorting-out process.
“When my younger brother Amarendran Vummidi joined the family business in ‘97,” says Jithendra Vummidi, the branch’s managing partner, “I knew he had a stronger background in diamond grading.”
Both brothers received their bachelor of commerce degrees from Loyola College in Chennai. Later, they took a diploma course to become graduate gemologists at the Diamond High Council in Antwerp, Belgium. Amarendran also completed his MBA in international finance at the European University in Antwerp.
Amarendran’s combined experience in gemology and international finance, Jithendra felt, placed him in an ideal position to approach suppliers, dealers and diamond cutters. That was how Amarendran came to handle the sourcing and purchasing for the store. “I believed that the extra experience would make Amarendran more alert to the nuances of the business,” Jithendra says. “So while he handles the sourcing and purchase of diamonds and other gems, I am involved in supervision of design, finalizing transactions with clients and settling accounts.”
“We each do what we enjoy the most,” adds Amarendran.
Though they’ve staked out separate responsibilities, Jithendra and Amarendran still make major financial and corporate decisions as a team, identifying any loopholes in each other’s strategies before proceeding. This kind of consultation, says Jithendra, “ensures that each partner is involved at every step and has a sense of satisfaction at having contributed.”
And the next generation of Vummidis? “I would never pressurize my children to actively participate in the business,” says Jithendra. “They should be driven by their own passion to discover or create their niche.”
Kamala Thiagarajan is a free-lance journalist based in Madurai, South India.