Fourth Gen
7/29/13
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Tue, Aug 28 2012. 08 18 AM IST
Fourth-generation ambitions
The fourth generation of the TVS Group believes it has what it takes to take the conglomerate to the next level
By S. Bridget Leena Chennai: Chennai’s business landscape is dotted with blueblooded business houses, some of which can trace back their history at least a hundred years, but even among them, the TVS Group stands apart. The group came into being in 1911, when the then 32-year-old T.V. Sundram Iyengar gave up his timber business and started running a bus service in Madurai, Tamil Nadu. Legend has it that commuters would set their watches by the arrival of the buses. There are other legends associated with the group as well: about the sheer quality of the auto components many of the groups companies would make (many went on to win awards, including the prized Deming medal for quality, manufacturing’s Oscar); about the prudence of its financial services firms; and about the conservatism of the managers. The last is a generic quality associated with many south Indian business groups of TVS’s vintage, and it is telling that even a young member of the current generation of the family (the fourth) subscribes to this theory.
The came into being in 1911, when then 32-year-old T.V. Sundram Iyengar gave up his timber business and started running a bus service in Madurai, Tamil Nadu. Photo: Hemant Mishra/Mint
“I believe that the third generation of TVS were excellent managers, but they lost that entrepreneurial, risk-taking spark that characterized the earlier generations,” says Krishna Mahesh, 38, chief operating officer of Sundaram Brake Linings Ltd, established in 1976 by his father, Mahesh Krishna. Indeed, under the third generation, TVS was an early entrant in several businesses, including organized, or modern, retail (supermarkets branded Stop & Shop, if you must know), consumer durables (washing machines in
Fourth-generation ambitions - Print View - Livemint
Print Close
Tue, Aug 28 2012. 08 18 AM IST
Fourth-generation ambitions
The fourth generation of the TVS Group believes it has what it takes to take the conglomerate to the next level
By S. Bridget Leena Chennai: Chennai’s business landscape is dotted with blueblooded business houses, some of which can trace back their history at least a hundred years, but even among them, the TVS Group stands apart. The group came into being in 1911, when the then 32-year-old T.V. Sundram Iyengar gave up his timber business and started running a bus service in Madurai, Tamil Nadu. Legend has it that commuters would set their watches by the arrival of the buses. There are other legends associated with the group as well: about the sheer quality of the auto components many of the groups companies would make (many went on to win awards, including the prized Deming medal for quality, manufacturing’s Oscar); about the prudence of its financial services firms; and about the conservatism of the managers. The last is a generic quality associated with many south Indian business groups of TVS’s vintage, and it is telling that even a young member of the current generation of the family (the fourth) subscribes to this theory.
The came into being in 1911, when then 32-year-old T.V. Sundram Iyengar gave up his timber business and started running a bus service in Madurai, Tamil Nadu. Photo: Hemant Mishra/Mint
“I believe that the third generation of TVS were excellent managers, but they lost that entrepreneurial, risk-taking spark that characterized the earlier generations,” says Krishna Mahesh, 38, chief operating officer of Sundaram Brake Linings Ltd, established in 1976 by his father, Mahesh Krishna. Indeed, under the third generation, TVS was an early entrant in several businesses, including organized, or modern, retail (supermarkets branded Stop & Shop, if you must know), consumer durables (washing machines in