TVS GeNext has the freedom to start fresh enterprises

LAKSHMI Venu and her brother Sudarshan Venu, children of TVS MD, Venu Srinivasan, (55), and his wife, Mallika Srinivasan, 51, director, Tafe, will play an ‘effective role’ in the companies of both parents, and will also be free to start their own businesses if they so desire.

In an exclusive chat with ET, Venu Srinivasan, talked about the role that GeNext will play in his company and whether they will be allowed to start up businesses on their own.

“Right now, Lakshmi is working on strategy for TVS Motor but I am completely open to her doing something on her own as well. She has the freedom to decide,” he said.

He hoped that his kids will experiment and try out something on their own, just as he experimented with retail early in his career.

“In the future, I definitely hope Lakshmi will do something on her own. Just being an inheritor doesn’t get you very far. But that decision is up to her. I always liked to experiment -there are so many new things to do and a new generation of Indians demanding new types of services... So there’s a lot of opportunity out there. But it’s up to the kids to find it,” he said.

Twenty-seven-year old Lakshmi Venu is an economics graduate from Yale and recently completed her doctorate in business management from the University of Warwick. She worked as a management trainee at TVS Motor for three years as part of her doctorate studies before joining Sundaram Clayton, TVS Motor’s holding company as additional director in March this year.

Her engagement to Rohan Murthy, son of Infosys co-founder and chairman NR Narayana Murthy, has just been announced.

Mr Srinivasan also said his children will have the chance to play a role in the management of TVS Motor and Tafe.

“That option is always there. Both kids I hope will play an effective role in both businesses. It’s their inheritance... so they have every right to make effective contribution to both sides,” he added.

Sudarshan Venu, in his early twenties, is currently studying at Wharton and is expected to ‘be back and join the business in a year’s time,” Mr Srinivasan added.

The GeNext entry into TVS will come at an interesting time for the company as it readies to increase market share at home and abroad and consolidate its share of the two-wheeler and three-wheeler markets. TVS, which will hit over 2 million units of two-wheelers this year, is planning to increase capacity.
Mr Srinivasan heads TVS Motor, Sundaram Clayton and other group firms with a turnover of over $4 billion. Mallika Srinivasan spearheads India’s second largest tractor company Tafe ($750 million turnover), flagship of the Amalgamations group.

The children of other TVS family members have already begun playing a role in their respective companies. In the last few years, Arathi Krishna and Arundhati Krishna, daughters of Suresh Krishna, chairman and managing director of Sundram Fasteners, have joined the company.

Shobana Ramachandran, daughter of the late R Ramachandran, former chairman of TV Sundaram Iyengar & Sons, the parent company of the TVS group, has been functioning as managing director of the Madurai-based TVS Srichakra. The third largest two-wheeler company in India, TVS has managed to hold its own after parting ways with Japanese partner Suzuki nearly a decade ago.

This year, TVS is looking to invest around Rs 200 crore to expand capacity to 2.8 million units by April 2011, said Mr Srinivasan. All of the added capacity will be in India. This year, TVS is looking to sell 1.85 million motorcycles, scooters and mopeds in India and another 250,000 units in exports, up nearly 30% over the year ago. In three wheelers, too, TVS is looking to triple sales to 50,000 units from 15,000 last year.

Apart from stepping up sales at home, TVS is also looking to expand its export markets including new destinations like Brazil and parts of Africa and revive Columbia and Indonesia.

“Indonesia should hit 30,000 this year and we want South East Asia to do much better along with Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and we are looking to clock half a million units in exports eventually,” said Mr Srinivasan.