, believes that the Thirukkural is the mother of all what-they-don't-teach-you-at-Harvard books. Thirukkural is a 1,330-couplet literary masterpiece of a Tamil seer, Thiruvalluvar, written some 2,000 years back. While Thirukkural is already available in many Indian and foreign languages, Srinivasan is working on a book that's will be called Thirukkural for the CEO.
"This great piece of work speaks in detail of the nuances of day-to-day material life and offers insights into the conduct of affairs. All you got to do is replace the king with the CEO and kingdom with the company, and we have a great management book for the modern day CEO," he says.
Sample this. One couplet translates to something like this: 'Every deliberation must result in a decision and every decision must be acted upon.' Srinivasan says there is also a couplet which can be interpreted as a suggestive note on M&A.
Srinivasan is a chartered accountant, cost accountant and a company secretary. He completed all three in one sitting and was sixth in his CA exam.
"In my academic days I was very strong in mathematics," he adds. Indeed, he topped the university at the maths exam with a score of 698 out of 700.
He joined the ICICI group in 1980 and has worked in its divisions when it was only a development financial institution. "In ICICI, I have been part of the rehabilitation division, investment banking division and systems and processes too," he notes.
Srinivasan took charge of ICICI Infotech in 1999 as its managing director and today heads the Rs 240 crore IT services business of the ICICI group. He is spearheading a crucial transition at his company.
From a single digit product portfolio, ICICI Infotech has already come a long way by having 25 per of its turnover coming from products in 2003-2004. "Over the next two to three year, we will see products contributing 50 per cent of ICICI Infotech's turnover," he says.
Srinivasan spends a good part of the year with his family in the US. "I maintain a house, a car and a driver in Mumbai. My eldest son Kaushik is a computer engineering student and my second son Arvind is a tenth grader "� both are studying in the US."
"I don't have any specific preference when it comes to vacation destinations. I have visited 34 countries. Of these, 18 I visited with my family. Going abroad on vacation is something we have been indulging in since my ICICI days," he adds.
And when he's not vacationing, he swears by the wisdom Thirukkural offers.
