Venu’s son to join Sundaram Clayton board

After Wipro and HCL Technologies, where the promoters have inducted their wards into the company management, it’s the turn of TVS Motor. Chairman Venu Srinivasan plans to induct his only son, 22-year-old Sudarshan Venu on the board of Sundaram Clayton, which is the holding company of TVS Motor.

Effectively, this means putting in place a succession plan once Srinivasan retires. Six months back Srinivasan had inducted his daughter Lakshmi Venu on board of Sundaram Clayton.

Sudarshan has studied mechanical engineering from Wharton School in the University of Pennsylvania and is currently pursuing his masters in business administration from the University of Warwick. Though Srinivasan did not give a time period as to when Sudarshan would join the board, he said that various methods were being adopted by him to familiarise his children to the various aspects of doing business in India.

Srinivasan told FE that the company would maintain a hybrid federal structure under which family members on board of the company would make critical decisions supported by a team of professionals from outside. “Essentially, there are broadly three ways in which family businesses are managed — a unified structure where there is unitary in operations, a hybrid family structure and separation,” he said. He ruled out any inherent contradiction in the evolving succession debate in family owned businesses of whether to bring a qualified professional from outside or groom an able individual from within the family.

“If a family member is able then the debate does not arise hence I don't see any contradiction in the two arguments,” Srinivasan said.

“They (Lakshmi and Sudarshan) are interacting with business leaders, academics, friends and colleagues who have been associated with the business for years,” he said. In fact, it was under Srinivasan's presidentship at CII that the industry chamber had mooted the idea of setting up family forums in home grown companies.

Unlike the Munjals promoted Hero Group, which has a well defined family structure expanding into various businesses from motorcycles to real estate, Chennai-based TVS Group has a loose federation of companies from automobiles to information technology. The group was started by TV Sundaram Iyengar way back in 1911 and had its origins in the rural transport service. Today, the $5 billion group has over 30 companies