Venu Srinivasan

Venu Srinivasan is an Indian industrialist, who is the Chairman of TVS Group which include Sundaram-Clayton Group and its subsidiary TVS Motor Company, India's third largest maker of two-wheelers. He also serves on the board of Tata Sons Ltd., the holding company of the conglomerate the Tata Group, TVS & Sons and Cummins India. He is also vice chairman of Tata Trusts. Tata Trusts holds 66% of the equity capital of Tata Sons. He was given the Padma Bhushan Award, the third Highest civilian award in India, in January 2020.

As part of the social outreach of TVS Motors and Sundaram-Clayton, he oversees Srinivasan Services Trust (SST), which works in 5000 villages in India. SST's model is one of self development for village communities in India covering education, healthcare, infrastructure, economic development, environment and community development.

Srinivasan is also the Chairman, Board of Trustees, of the Srirangam Sri Ranganathaswany Temple and has supported restoration work at the complex and several other ancient temples in India.

Venu Srinivasan is the grandson of the TVS Group's founder, T. V. Sundaram Iyengar. He did his schooling in Madras Christian College Higher Secondary School. After graduating from the College of Engineering, Guindy, he completed a Master of Science degree in Management from Purdue University in the USA.

He has received a Doctor of Management by Purdue University and a Doctor of Science by University of Warwick, UK & IIT Kharagpur, India.

He became the managing director of Sundaram-Clayton in May 1979. He went on to become the chairman of TVS Motor Company. In the late 1980s, Srinivasan scripted a turnaround for the two-wheeler maker, which was mired in labour troubles with striking workers, leading to mounting losses. Srinivasan shut the factory down for three months, forcing the unions to relent. He then upgraded plant machinery, invested in new technologies and implemented Total Quality Management (TQM), a Japanese method of process-driven manufacturing.

He also brought in Professor Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya of the University of Warwick as a consultant to provide guidance. In 2001, ending years of partnership with Suzuki, TVS Motor Company split from the Japanese automaker and started manufacturing on its own.

TVS Motor Company re-entered the market by launching TVS Victor – India's first indigenously built four-stroke motorcycle. The launches that followed, set TVS Motor on the path to becoming India's third-largest two-wheeler manufacturer.

Srinivasan later brought in Professor Yasutoshi Washio of Japan, a Deming Application Prize Winner and Japanese quality management guru Professor Yoshikazu Tsuda as mentors to strengthen the TQM processes within the company. Today, its facilities also make bikes for BMW Motorrad through a strategic partnership with the German firm.

Under Srinivasan's leadership as the Managing Director, Sundaram-Clayton's brakes division won the Deming Prize in 1998 for having "achieved distinctive performance improvements through application of company-wide quality control". In 2002, TVS Motor Company also won the Deming Prize, becoming the first two-wheeler company in the world to do so. In 2019, Srinivasan himself received the Deming Distinguished Service Award, granted to individuals who have made outstanding contributions in the dissemination and promotion of Total Quality Management.

Srinivasan was conferred the coveted Padma Shri Award by the President of India in 2010 for his contributions in the field of trade and industry. His tireless work to promote trade and cultural relations between South Korea and India have earned him many awards and much recognition. He is the 'Goodwill Envoy for Culture and Diplomacy of the Republic of Korea'. He was earlier the Honorary Consul General, Republic of Korea, Chennai. In 2010, he was honoured by South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, with the civilian honour, 'Order of Diplomatic Service Merit,’ in recognition of his contribution to promoting bilateral relations between South Korea and India.

Asian Network for Quality (ANQ) chose Srinivasan as one of the winners for its Ishikawa-Kano Award for the year 2012, for his contribution to the theory and practice of quality management within TVS Motor Company.

Srinivasan was appointed as the Honorary Commander of Korean Naval vessel, ROKS Choi Young(DDH-981) for his dedication to enhance the friendship and co-operation between the Republic of Korea and the Republic of India. In December 2014, Srinivasan was conferred an honorary citizenship by the Mayor of Busan Metropolitan City, the 2nd largest city in Korea.