Circumstances forced Venu Srinivasan to take over the reins of Sundaram-Clayton at the young age of 27, in 1979. Sundaram-Clayton is the holding company of two-wheeler maker TVS Motor.

Now, it is the TVS Motor Company’s board’s choice that Venu Srinivasan's son Sudarshan, 25, takes over as Joint Managing Director of the two-wheeler maker, in a clear indication of the succession plan.

Tough task ahead The well-qualified Sudarshan, who has been with the company since 2011, has his task cut out. He has a tough task master in his father to learn from, as the company gears up for its next phase of growth. Its recent launches have been well received and it will roll out sub-500 cc motorcycles in technical collaboration with BMW of Germany next year. The range will be branded and marketed by both the partners.

The automobile market is seeing signs of sales perking up, with two-wheeler companies doing better than car manufacturers. As the young face of TVS Motor, it will be Sudarshan’s task to take on the competition, all of which are aggressively planning new launches.

The 62-year-old Srinivasan has nurtured the company from scratch and over the last three-and-a-half decades seen it grow as one of the top three players in motorcycles and scooters. He was responsible for introducing a new segment in mopeds, bringing in Japanese technology into the domestic market in motorcycles and driving the growth of home-grown two-wheeler technology.

TVS Motor is the largest company in the diversified TVS Group whose business includes logistics, automobile components, IT hardware and financial services. He represents the fourth generation in the family since the founding of the group in 1911.

Sudarshan Venu follows in his father’s footsteps as the parallels in their career paths are noticeable.

Many firsts Venu Srinivasan joined as the CEO in Sundaram Clayton in 1979, the year TVS Motor Company was launched. The next year, it introduced the iconic TVS 50, a 50-cc moped, a first of its kind two-seater, and five years later was responsible for one of the earliest collaborations with Japanese two-wheeler manufacturer Suzuki to launch a 100 CC two-stroke motorcycle. Subsequently, TVS Motor struck out on its own to emerge among the toptwo wheelers makers in India.

Sudarshan’s career too, started in Sundaram Clayton where he joined as a Vice-President in 2011 as a 23-year-old and trained in die casting. He was subsequently inducted on the board.

Aggressive launches planned TVS Motor sold nearly two million two-wheelers in 2013-14 with a turnover close to ₹8,000 crore. But the numbers have been stagnating around this range in recent years and the company has embarked on a phase of aggressive launches in the year including the Sport, Phoenix and the Apache motorcycles and the Jupiter scooter. Pushing the success of these new launches and consolidating the initial market response for the Jupiter, which is expected to exploit the market shift from motorcycles to large scooters, is a key challenge that Sudarshan faces.

Sudarshan will drive the company’s growth in the overseas markets as it gears to enter new markets in Africa and South America in addition to West Asia.

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