Venu Srinivasan had great role models

An engineering graduate and MBA from Purdue University, United States, Venu Srinivasan is known for his obsession with excellence. Being the grandson of the legendary founder of the TVS group, TV Sundaram Iyengar and son of T S Srinivasan is no sinecure. As a child, it can be daunting, as a manager, terrifying to know that every day you will be measured against their achievements. To groom the youngster, Venu Srinivasan's induction was as a car mechanic. Here is his life story.

Being the grandson of the legendary founder of the TVS group, TV Sundaram Iyengar and son of T S Srinivasan is no sinecure. As a child, it can be daunting, as a manager, terrifying to know that every day you will be measured against their achievements. To groom the youngster, Venu Srinivasan's induction was as a car mechanic.

Annual vacations meant eight hours a day of sweat and grime in a TVS group garage, with no special treatment. "There was no question of me not reporting for work in time during those grueling but enriching days," Venu recollects. The only privilege was that he could sneak into his cousin's air-conditioned office when the garage got really hot, and have a cup of coffee and biscuits. But he loved working under the cars, overhauling engines and getting his uniform dirty.

Venu studied engineering in India and followed that with a Masters in Business Administration from USA's Purdue University where he learnt the power of persistence. Although he comes from a rich Brahmin South Indian family, his summer job was selling bibles in North Carolina. Slogging 80 hours a week and facing rejection, he kept going. "That's what it takes to be a top Bible salesman," he told BusinessWeek while accepting the Star of Asia Award for 2003.

When he returned in 1977 he took over from his father as CEO. The SWOT analysis he conducted, applying his business school learning, revealed to the company's horror, that a 90% market share was no insulation against top-class competition. Venu drew up a quality management plan, and began implementing it. The young Venu is inspired by a set of extraordinary uncles who headed TVS before him.

"When you have worked in a family like the one that runs the TVS Group, when you have worked with, when you have grown up with stories of excellence, you just try and match those standards. If it is not excellence, it is not TVS. I have been brought up with so much of this that there is just one way of doing things. In TVS, the system is even more sacred than the owners. The organization is sacred, and its values are sacred."

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