Venu Srinivasan has focussed on quality eversince he came to the helm at TVS Group and the essence of his philosophy is reflected in the functioning of the coglomerate. There is no compromise whatsoever. From being a very conservative company, Mr Srinivasan who recently was conferred the Padma Bhushan turned it arouond to set a global footprint, invest in start-ups and has some good takeovers to his credit
Venu Srinivasan, Chairman of Sundaram-Clayton Group which owns the TVS Group and subsidiary TVS Motor Company, an Indian multinational company, was recently awarded the Padma Bhushan, India’s third-highest civilian award, by President Ram Nath Kovind, for his significant contribution in the field of industry and trade domain.
The TVS Motor Company is the third-largest manufacturer of two-wheelers and automotive components in India. TVS exports two-wheelers to over 60 countries and is the second-largest exporter of automobiles in India.
Venu Srinivasan turned around the company from just building 50 cc mopeds in the 1980s to BMW bikes and along its path producing 300cc race motorcycles, 125cc gearless scooters, and battery operated electric scooters, making it a leading versatile manufacturer.
TVS did what it was not known for last year – takeover of Britons 123-year-old iconic sporting motorcycle brand, Norton.
Sundaram-Clayton Ltd is a major supplier of aluminium and magnesium die-castings for the automotive industry.
Venu Srinivasan was born on December 11, 1952 and is the grandson of T V Sundaram Iyengar, the founder of the TVS Group. Mr Srinivasan completed his primary education at Don Bosco School, Chennai.
After graduating from the College of Engineering Guindy, he went on to complete a Master of Science (MSc) degree in Management from Purdue University in Indiana, USA. He is married to Mallika Srinivasan, who is the Chairman & Managing Director of Tractors and Farm Equipment Limited (TAFE), a tractor major incorporated in 1960 at Chennai. The couple has two children Lakshmi Venu and Sudarshan Venu.
By the time Venu Srinivasan was ready to join the family business, it seemed that everything was laid on a platter for him. Mr Srinivasan believed in gaining first-hand experience of the nicks and nooks of the field which he would eventually enter.
Instead of just biding his time to assume office in his family business, Mr Srinivasan decided to set up a small garage while he was still studying. This became his testing lab during vacations when he put in gruelling hours as a mechanic to explore and experiment with automobiles and auto parts.
Mr Srinivasan first held the post of Managing Director of Sundaram Clayton Ltd. from May 1979. His exceptional performance at Sundaram Clayton promoted him to the post of Chairman of TVS Motor Company soon after.
With Venu Srinivasan as their Managing Director, Sundaram Clayton's brakes division won the Deming Prize in 1998 for having “achieved distinctive performance improvements through the application of company-wide quality control”.
Mr Srinivasan took charge of TVS Motor Company and helped transform the way TVS was manufacturing automobiles.
In 2002, TVS Motor Company also won the Deming Prize, becoming the first two-wheeler company in the world to do so. Deming prize was first instituted in 1951 and sponsored by Japanese Union of Scientists and Engineers (JUSE) and is the longest-running and highest award for Total Quality Management (TQM) in the world. It recognizes both individuals for their contributions to the field of TQM and businesses that have successfully implemented TQM.
Breaking away from a tradition that was often branded as conservative and risk-averse, Mr Srinivasan created ripples in the automotive industry by putting faith in start-ups, a few of which are largely unrelated to the company’s core operations.
In the late 1980s, Mr Srinivasan changed the very course of the company, strictly dealing with labour troubles and raised his company from sinking into the red line. Srinivasan shut the factory down for three months, forcing labour unions to compromise their stance.
With his education and the experience he gained, Mr Srinivasan realized that even if the company was running smoothly by using the same business model for over seven decades, it needed some restricting if not a complete overhaul in its processes to remain amongst the top automobile companies of India.
He looked over various MNCs around the world and the technologies that they were adopting to achieve quality as well as sustainable performance. He brought in Professor Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya of the University of Warwick as a consultant to provide guidance and started upgrading plant machinery, investing in new technologies and implementing Total Quality Management practices which were prevalent in many top Japanese Companies.
In his words, “It is imperative for Indian companies to have high-end technology to build brands to compete with global firms in the field of performance biking.” In 2001, TVS Motor Company split from its partner Suzuki and started manufacturing automobiles on its own.
TVS Motor Company re-entered the market by successfully launching TVS Victor – India's first indigenously built four-stroke motorcycle and from there TVS never stopped growing upwards.
Chennai-based TVS has the third-largest share in India's 15-million-units sold per year two wheeler market. The company is the second-largest producer of scooters with market leadership in 150cc and 200cc motorcycles.
With two-wheeler segment booming in India, TVS launched brands such as Victor, Jupiter, Apache, Star City and Ntorq and the company has a monopoly in mopeds.
One always thought that TVS was conservative. But Mr Srinivasan broke away from that path and started investing in start-ups, though some of them are unrelated to TVS’s core sector. The company has invested in supply-chain internet of things (IoT) and machine learning start-ups such as Bengaluru-based TagBox and US-based Altizon Inc. part from investing in electric motorcycle maker Ultraviolette.
Mr Srinivasan has earned respect from peers and competitors despite competing with them. He is associated closely with the Tata Group. Apart from a healthy relationship with Bajaj Auto, he is on the board of Tata Coffee and Oriental Hotels. He is also a director on the board of Tata Sons since 2016 and later made a trustee of Sir Darabji Tata Trust, a major shareholder and chief promoter of Tata Sons.
Mr Srinivasan has always been one of the very few who work for the betterment of society along with their own and in their distinct way. As part of his social responsibility and the social outreach of TVS Motors and Sundaram-Clayton, he is the head of Srinivasan Services Trust (SST), which works towards the upliftment of 5,000 villages in India.
SST mainly aims for self-development of the village and rural communities in India with educational, healthcare, economic and community development. Mr Srinivasan and his Trust have been awarded numerous accolades for their significant role in social development.
Recently, Mr Srinivasan announced that he will step down in 2023 as Chairman after a 21-year stint at the helm. He will be succeeded by former Jaguar Land Rover CEO Ralf Speth.
Obviously, the company has set its eyes on the global market. Way to go, and a matter of pride for India.