In the boardroom, Priya Gowda greeted four men in suits—the creditors of her husband, Partha, who had died suddenly of a heart attack 10 days earlier. She felt numb and exhausted—but also strangely reassured by the setting. The past week1 had been spent dealing with the funeral home, lawyers, the media, and grieving family members. She had barely slept or eaten. But here, in the headquarters of Splendid Ice Cream, the business she’d watched Partha build from a small dairy farm into a major Indian conglomerate, she felt his energy animating her.
A version of this article appeared in the September–October 2023 issue of Harvard Business Review.