Venu Srinivasan is the Managing Director (MD) of Sundaram Clayton Ltd and became the MD of the TVS Motors in 1986. In July 2002, he also became the Chairman of TVS Motors.
Under his leadership as the Managing Director (MD), 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 2004, TVS Motors also won the Deming Award during his tenure as the MD, becoming the first two-wheeler company in the world to do so.
This particular CRM practice is credited to Venu Srinivasan. The common myth is that customer always means external to the company. The word customer customer means a person who buys a product or service from the company. But there exits a concept of a Internal Customers Internal customer can be an employee or a taker of service from another department of the same company. In that way the employees of the company are the customers of the HRM department.
We need to understand that the employees spends up to 8-10 hours at the company. That is nearly 75% of the time that he awake. So what is the feeling that he/she takes home. Is the employee happy about his work? Does he/she come bubbling with enthusiasm? Or are they grumpy or irritated? What is his opinion about the company? What does he tell about his company to his family members? The incident cited will reveal at least some answers to the queries posed.
Mr Venu Srinivasan is a very busy man. He is a globetrotting business leader. But where ever he is he returns to Chennai on the Friday night. He then selects one of the employees for his “special treatment”. This week it is the turn of Govinda Venkataswamy from the Fitting Division. Govinda has been working is the fFtting division for 7 years. He is known as a punctual, no nonsense worker. Well liked and introverted, Govinda is the grain with which the vast majority of factory employees are made throughout the world. He is a part of a silent majority. They do not get the attention or the appreciation that the trouble makers get.
Unknown to Govinda the Mercedes Benz that Venu Srinivasan uses goes to his house. His entire family is then chauffeured to the factory in royal style. They are taken with due respect to the factory area. They are taken to Govinda’s work station. Govinda is pleasantly surprised (He know that his turn might come but it is still a sort of lottery. After all there are 1000s of employees and only 52 Saturdays in a year).
Govinda’s supervisor explains the work that is done by Govinda. He tells the awe struck family members how important Govinda is for the company. He elaborates the initiatives that originated from Govinda. Then the family is taken to the sanctum Santorum the CMD’s office. This is the place that Govinda never even dreamt of entering. And here he is entering the CMD office and with his entire family! Venu Srinivasan receives them. He talks very warmly with the family. He has lunch with them and obligingly poses for keep sake photographs. He presents a memento to the eldest of the family. He thanks the family for giving him an excellent employee and hopes that Govinda stays for a long time with the company. Govinda is allowed to go home with his family that too in the Mercedes Benz that belongs to his CMD.
That is not the end of the story. Once there was a huge threat of a big flood hitting the TVS factory. Venu calls his production in charge and tells him to rush to the factory to protract the precious machinery. Venu drives to the factory at a high speed. He is very anxious that his precious factory be saved from the nature’s fury. To his surprise a heart whelming scene greets him at the factory. His entire production staffs are already at the factory. They needed no second saying. They were working in a torrential downpour. Drenched to the skin, they have already taken full precautions to see that the machinery is adequately covered. Venu is immensely satisfied. He says to himself “My company is in safe hands”. When the employees feel that the company is their own the company is slated to be very long lasting. It is no surprise that TVS group has won the Deming Prize twice. Hats off to You Mr. Venu Srinivasan Sir, way to go.
cheers to Mr. Venu Srinivasan Sir
ReplyDeleteVenu Srinivasa knows that no one has ever attained very eminent success by simply doing what is required of him, but it is the amount and excellence of what is over and above the required that determines the greatness of ultimate distinction.
ReplyDeleteThe Deming Prize not only reflects the success of Mr. Venu Srinivasan but also of the employees who kept faith in his leadership.