Comment by asanwal | Hacker News Reader

Comment by asanwal | Hacker News Reader

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Hi - author here.

This is a big question tbh and the lack of a succession plan is a function of many things:

1. This was my dad's baby. He loved the engineering and the science of it and so the idea of retiring from it was difficult for him to conceive. Doing that also requires thinking about one's mortality which I also believe was difficult for him.

2. This was a small market business in a tier 2 city in India. Attracting talent that could take it over was challenging. And myself and my siblings having been born and brought up in the States and being utterly clueless about the engineering/science of the company made us a non-starter.

3. As others have pointed out, he was thinking about succession/exit because he knew it was required for the biz to live on and grow. But life unfortunately had other plans and he was taken away from us unexpectedly.

There are definitely lots of could haves, should haves, would haves, etc I've thought about afterwards, but this was clearly one of those "play the cards you're dealt" kind of situations.

Thanks for reading.

Thanks for writing a great article.

I was honestly impressed with how much you cared for your employees.

The American way would be to just sell it to the highest bidder without any concern for anything else.

Does India have a different social contract? I'd never expect a company to actually look out for my best interest.

It seems like you really cared for your team. Are lifers common in India?

Back in my grandpa's time, you worked at the same place for 20 years, they gave you a gold watch, and then you retired.

Now your expected to jump ship often or your leaving money on the table.

Thank you.

I don't think there is an Indian social contract but having been born and brought up here in the USA, I'd be talking out of my a$$ on that topic :)

This was maybe more of an implied or expected contract I had with my dad and mom who built the business and by extension the Atlas team.

Job hopping is quite common in India, but that's probably more common in larger cities. In a tier 2 city like where my dad's business was, there are limited options for a plant engineer for example, and as far as I can tell, the skills they have in a fine chemicals plant may not be immediately transferable to a plastics manufacturer.

And finally, many were with my dad for 10+ years so probably some amount of comfort in knowing the domain, the job, the boss, etc.

Thanks for the story and for putting the employees first. M&A of your sort should always select suitors based on chemistry fit - so when I read your list of candidates, it was already clear to me you would sell to the one listed last, and I'm glad it worked.

Selling to Private Equity is almost never what any founder would have wanted, as their job is to slice and dice, "cut the fat" and sell the pieces to different highest bidders.

>Selling to Private Equity is almost never what any founder would have wanted, as their job is to slice and dice, "cut the fat" and sell the pieces to different highest bidders.

Depends on the founder, I'm happy that the OP decided to look after his workers, but there's no loyalty in business.

Many founders would just look at the largest payday and be done with it.

I guess you can have a George Lucas moment and criticize the new owners for destroying what you made, but you're sitting nice with your profits.

OP comes off as someone who was already really comfortable, and the business appears to of been profitable.

But it would have been a completely different story if they were losing money, at a point you might just have to sell the company for parts and cut your losses.

Maybe offer some of the lifers generous severance packages.

Does it count as business, though, if you're just busting it out, light a match? Is that not more, vandalism? Seems not as difficult.

He means “just business” in the mob sense.

Lifers are common in manufacturing/industrials in India. Jumping ships is the norm in tech as it is in the US.

There are lots of family owned businesses in the US that look after their employees. I think it’s more that there are significantly fewer tech companies in general that are family owned businesses.

I think maybe it's because the tech industry is so young, and because it was mostly populated by the young when it exploded in the 80s and 90s.

In IT I've never has a boss a generation older than me. Folk were/are basically my generation. In the early days there wasn't an "adult in the room" so we made it up as we went along.

We (as people) tended to be more about "people" than "money" (although I'm sure not all ex employees would agree.) There's a fine line between caring for people and staying profitable. But one can do both.

I'm not one for job-hopping (and I've likely left cash on the table for that) but that seems to permiate down. (Half the staff are 10 years+ now). We're also only adding a few posts a year. We don't hire fast. We don't fire fast.

But the industry in general was build by narcissistic folk in their 20s, who had ideas like "young is better", grow-fast, high risk, break things etc. IT culture is still like that (despite us being in our 50s now.)

But I don't think this reflects the world in general, or indeed industries in general. I feel like most people want a stable job, a stable life, and dont feel the need to move all the time.

As an employer, the OPs criteria of caring what happens to our staff has been front and center when succession planning. Just cause we retire shouldn't mean they're out of a job.

Thanks for sharing. Curious how things are now 6 years later: do you still keep in touch with some of the employees? Has the outcome been good for them?

I'm curious if you can share: how were you raised in the US while your father was in India? You were raised by a relative, or your mother lived away from your father?

> Attracting talent that could take it over was challenging.

Was promoting upwards from within not an option?

This was a great ride, a very gripping read and a very touching story. Congratulations on your adventure and I'm sure your father and his second family is proud of you.

This was a great read. You could sell this story to Netflix.

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