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The Rediff Business Profile/K Mahesh

From metallurgy to photography through farming, business

'India's become like Italy: governments come and go, and industry takes care of itself'

Text: Shobha Warrier; pix: Sanjay Ghosh

It is but natural that Mahesh, grandson of TV Sundaram Iyengar, better known as TVS, was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. TVS's son T S Krishnan used to tell the young Mahesh: "You can either blow it all up or at sixty, turn back and look at what you have achieved. But at sixty, you won't get a second chance. So, make up your mind about what you want to do."

Mahesh heeded his father's advice and made up his mind pretty early in his life that he won't blow it all up.

Mahesh went through the usual grind of college and hard work; only, he stood to inherit part of a mega business empire. But managing and helping the TVS empire to grow was challenging and testing, says Mahesh.

After graduating in metallurgy from IIT Madras in 1960, he worked for two years in India and then three years in the UK. After specialising in foundry, he came back to India and set up an aluminium foundry in Sundaram Clayton. He then worked as an Executive Assistant to T S Srinivasan for three years. (T S Srinivasan is Krishnan's brother. His son Venu Srinivasan is now chairman of Sundaram Clayton.)

When Sundaram Brake Lining project was launched, Mahesh was chosen to head the new project. "We get rotated in various units of TVS. Those from my generation generally spend about ten years on the floor, out of which, we work outside the group for five years."

In all, he spent 25 years with SBL because "there is so much to learn. With all the new changes in production technology, it doesn't matter where you are. As long as you can learn, it is fun."

When he is not learning new technologies and not experimenting lean management concepts, he loves to indulge in his favourite pastime: photography. "I feel you must be able to look at things other than work. Oh yes, I carry work home. But once I pick up my camera, I forget about work, I forget about what is around me, I forget everything except what I see through the lens."

His passion now is festivals of south India and wildlife. Whether it is the Thrisoor Puram of Kerala or the Chittira Festival of Madurai, Mahesh is sure to be there freezing with his camera all the finer aspects.

"I've been covering the religious aspects of our lives all these years. From this year, I plan to photograph people at the festivals and their expressions."

His passion for photography was triggered by a box camera when he was nine; he has preserved his first love. Then it was Roliflex, Canon, and now Ikon. His personal collection includes 7,000 colour transparencies and 7,000 metres of video of the factories that he has visited. "Photography helps me when I visit plants. I have visited all the Abex plants."

Besides photography, Mahesh has a fascination for farming. When he bought 30 acres of arid land near Madras, agriculturists scoffed at him for wasting money on a barren piece of land. Unfazed, driven by the confidence emanating from the fact that he has succeeded in exporting to 45 countries, he invested time and money on transforming the arid patch into a field that now yields 80 coconuts from every palm tree!

"At three feet level, there is a salt bed. We planted coconut trees in such a way that the root won't grow deep enough to touch the salt zone. Anybody can grow coconut in Thanjavur and Kerala. But I wanted to prove a point that on an arid land too, we can do cultivation."

Work also gives a lot of inner satisfaction for this tycoon who is religious "internally". Work is a "hobby". "Money-making is incidental. What is challenging is the task of making the factory world class."

He says his visits to villages leave him thoughtful. "In the cities, we talk about the Y2K problem. For us, it is the biggest problem. But basic necessities are not there in villages. Roads, drinking water, hygiene. It makes me feel sad. All I can do is, give them employment. But I feel extremely guilty about their plight."

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