Lakshmi Venu: Chip of the old block

Her engagement to N R Narayana Murthy’s son Rohan Murthy may have made more headlines than her coming on board of TVS Motor Company and Sundaram-Clayton, but Lakshmi Venu knows her place under the son.

Daughter of TVS Motor Co-chairman Venu Srinivasan, Lakshmi has enough feathers in her cap. She is Yale economics graduate and has done her PhD from the University of Warwick, UK.

But it started as a management trainee for three years at Sundaram Auto Components Ltd – a subsidiary of Sundaram Clayton -- in 2003. Lakshmi has been working in the area of product design, sales and marketing, business strategy and corporate affairs. Industry experts say the move could be an indication of training Lakshmi to understand and initiate the company’s growth path such as penetrating new markets in India and overseas as well as expand the company’s product portfolio.

Considering Lakshmi’s mother, too, is a well-known corporate women -- Mallika Srinivasan, who manages tractor giant Tafe, the flagship company of Chennai-based Amalgamations Group – it shouldn’t be too tough for Lakshmi to get it right.