New Delhi, Sept. 24 -- Every Indian business family would have been put on alert by the latest developments at the Tata Group. It isn't every day that an owner with an effective 65.9% holding is rebuffed by an unlikely coalition of appointed directors and a professional chairman.

What happened at the fateful Tata Sons board meeting-where non-executive director Venu Srinivasan and independent directors Harish Manwani and Anita George, along with CFO Saurabh Agrawal, voted against the owner and in favour of a professional chairman-may serve as a warning to other families against the perils of ceding control while inducting outsiders as part of professionalising management.

The last time this happened, although under entirely different cir...