Easing into the hot seat

Quiet, focused, and deeply reserved, Venu prefers to let his work—and the company's products—do the talking

- NARAYANAN V

At age 36, Sudarshan Venu is set to become one of the youngest industrialists in India to be appointed as the chairman of a large and diversified industrial house. "Entrepreneurship runs in his veins, and he was always in a hurry to get into business," said a long-time observer of the TVS Group.

That's stating the obvious. For, he had the best teacher in town—his father Venu Srinivasan, the grand old statesman of Indian industry. In an interview to a television channel this week, Sudarshan acknowledged his father's deep influence on him. "While it's (TVS group's success) is a collective achievement, it's really the vision and values that my father had started TVS Motors with: a huge focus on quality, customer satisfaction, products and technology."

"The love for bikes started early," recalled an old-time observer. As a youngster, Sudarshan would ride around the house on a custom-built mini bike powered by a TVS Scooty engine—crafted especially for him by who else but his father.