‘The TVS Group follows a federated structure’

Suresh Krishna greets you warmly as you step into his room on the sixth floor of an office complex on a busy stretch of road in the heart of the city. His large desk does not have a single sheet of paper. A biggish desktop computer is placed on a side table. A patch of greenery is visible through the glass panes.

At 78, this senior most member of the third generation of the TVS family, is actively involved in the company he heads – Sundram Fasteners Ltd – and has just taken over the mantle of Chairman of TV Sundram Iyengar & Sons, the holding company of the TVS group. That post was lying vacant for a little over 10 years, since the passing away of Krishna’s cousin and the then Chairman R Ramachandran in 2004.

There is no particular reason for the post being vacant, Krishna says. “It was just lying vacant. I was not pushing for it. We (the TVS family) finally decided we should have a proper chairman. I was chairing all the meetings for the last 10 years,” he says.

The group, according to Krishna, is a federated structure. It is not as if TVS & Sons decides what the various companies should do. There are about 50 companies in the group and each one decides its own function.

If that were the case, what role does the holding company play? “TVS & Sons comes into the picture mainly as a distribution company. All the directors sit together and we make sure there is no competition between companies. We have a general idea of what is going on, which direction the TVS group is taking, what are the new products going to be made and where it is going to be made. It is more an overseeing company rather than a policy company. We have always functioned like that,” says Krishna.

Such an arrangement works well. Otherwise, it will be impossible to monitor all the companies. Give the companies freedom to do what they want to do as long as the TVS board is fully aware of what is going on. Moreover, those on the board of TVS & Sons are running individual companies, points out Krishna.

The group has identified three main operations – manufacturing, distribution and logistics. The group wants to emphasise a lot on exports and putting up plants abroad “wherever there is a call from the customer of where we feel it is advantageous for us to tap the market.”

Sundram Fasteners put up a plant in China almost 10 years back. Now, says Krishna, China is going through the route of indigenising. They want to cut down on exports. “It’s a very good time for us. Chinese buyers want to buy from Sundram Fasteners.”

Along with appointing Krishna as Chairman of TVS & Sons, its board decided to convert it into a private limited company. This means that TVS & Sons need not have to comply with the new rules governing how companies are run. These include having an independent director, a woman member on the board and rotating the statutory auditors. Krishna says the change to a private limited company reflects the true nature of TVS & Sons since it is a family company.

How is it that there are no women members of the family on the board of TVS & Sons? “Right now, we don’t have any women members. At some point of time, maybe yes,” he says. But he points out that women members are running companies in the group. For instance, Shobhana Ramachandran is Managing Director of TVS Tyres; his daughters Arathi and Arundathi (Joint Managing Director and Deputy Managing Director) are involved in running Sundram Fasteners on a day-to-day basis.

On the outlook for the group, Krishna is optimistic. He believes the group’s forte, the automotive industry, is still a sunrise industry in India and that it has got a high growth potential over a long period of time. The passenger car, commercial vehicles and two-wheeler segments should all grow as the economy grows and matures. He sees another 20-25 years of growth for the automobile industry, which the TVS group with its vehicles and parts manufacturing and distribution, and logistics is well placed to tap into.

How much longer would he give himself? “As long as I keep fit. Do I look young enough? I haven’t thought about it. Let’s see how it goes,” replies Krishna.

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