N Srinivasan: What Made Him Walk Away From A Company That He Built Over The Years

"These stands," a sports writer, expansively pointing to the (then) closed I, J and K stands inside the Chepauk Stadium, told me, "in a sense, reflect Srini's (N Srinivasan) life. The refurbished stands and the stadium were all due to his diligent efforts. But he needs to do business with his lifelong bete noire Jaya (Former TN Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa) to get permission for the stands and the stadium remain open. He has always needed to fight with his back to the wall."

I remembered that throwaway line from the past as the news emerged yesterday (28 July) that Srinivasan has sold the promoters' 32.72 per cent stake in India Cements to UltraTech Cement, a subsidiary of Kumar Mangalam Birla-controlled Aditya Birla Group, for around Rs 3,955 crore.

The irony is, Srinivasan is walking away from it all by handing the company to a north Indian entity that he had fought all through his tumultuous but successful career in the cement industry for over five decades.

Summing up the 79-year-old Srinivasan's professional life and times is a daunting exercise as it is filled with many shades — some palatable and some not so — and bewildering contradictions.

Hailing from a family and group that shunned the limelight, Srinivasan has ended up as the most written about and most prominent industrialist of the state (Tamil Nadu), thanks to three Cs that were forever part of his life — cement, cricket and controversies. The man who commands tremendous loyalty from his staff and his handpicked people is also strangely a man who is without committed friends and relatives.

His path to rise in both the cement industry and cricket is littered with broken relationships with people who helped him on the journey.

On the other hand, the biggest political support base for this staunch Brahmin industrialist comes from the 'godless' and ant-Brahmin DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam). The arguably most successful cement industrialist in India is leaving his company when it is in the red. 

How do you make sense of these variegated facts and facets? Srinivasan's journey has been one of managing these complex conflicts with some adroit efficiency.

Though he was always destined to be the honcho of India Cements, his actual entry was sudden and unexpected. As he was completing his Master of Science in chemical engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago in 1968, his father T S Narayanaswami (TSN) died.

His dad was not the founder of India Cements, which was the creation of S N N Sankaralingam Iyer (reason why Sankar Cements was the brand name).

Narayanaswami was, of course, a close confidant of Sankaralingam Iyer, and was taken into the board of India Cements two years after its formation in 1946. TSN, who had been part of India Cements right from its conception stage, is deemed to be a co-promoter of the company.

An Aggressive Start From Srinivasan

Anyway, at the time of TSN's demise, the founder of India Cements Sankaralingam (he was out of the industry then though after having met with a big accident a decade back) wanted to ease his friend's son into the industry and made Srinivasan take up his dad's position in the company — joint managing director.

The US-educated Srinivasan had grown up to be a different person  (from his father) as his way of running business showed.

Right in the early 1970s, when the cement industry was highly controlled (everything from the manufacture and the eventual pricing was highly regulated by the government), Srinivasan understood that to run the cement business political and bureaucratic patronage was needed.

It was then he cultivated top government babus in New Delhi, and also forged a long-lasting friendship with Murasoli Maran, the nephew of K Karunanidhi. Maran wasn't a big politico then, but was part of the first family of Tamil Nadu politics then. 

But his aggressive ways and controversial approach did not gel with the Sankaralingam family, especially his son K S Narayanan, who was the managing director (MD) of India Cements then.

Srinivasan also married into Sankaralingam's family — his wife Chitra is the daughter of Sankaralingam's third son K S Krishnamoorthy.

Despite all the goodwill from others, the rift between Srinivasan and the founder's family of India Cements grew and he was eventually sent packing in 1979 as the financial institutions, which had a stake in the company, also did not want him around.

Even as the financial institutions had their MD in India Cements in the early 1980s, Srinivasan always had an eye on the company and was looking for a way to wrest back control.

The partial decontrol of the cement industry in 1982 helped matters to ease up a bit. But things were still not conducive for Srinivasan to make a move.

All those years, he worked behind the screen with politicians who could be influential in the scheme of things. By the late 1980s, ITC evinced interest in taking over India Cements and was negotiating with the financial institutions.

Politics And Backroom Dealings

And this is where Srinivasan's real innings began. His ability to make things happen from the backrooms kicked in. The ITC bid was halted for reasons that are still shrouded in mystery. A politico from Tamil Nadu who was powerful at the Centre then may have had a say. Or at least that is what the grapevine says.

Anyway, by 1989, Srinivasan was back in the saddle at the India Cements, and his working relationship with the Sankaralingam family was at least for the time being on an even keel. Srinivasan was of course only biding his time.

In the 1990s, with his close friend Murasoli Maran also becoming powerful as a politico, Srinivasan went all guns blazing as he expanded the operations of Indian Cements like never before. Srinivasan had understood every aspect of the cement industry.

He figured out that south Indian cement companies were at a disadvantage as the manufacturing ingredient coal had to be brought from collieries of Bihar and nearby places at a big cost.

And the cement too had to be dispatched to the bigger markets up north at a high cost. So for cement companies in the south to be competitive, they needed to be more aggressive. Srinivasan's path of aggression was to take over competitive companies.

So, came into India Cements' folds the Chilamkur cement plant of Coromandel Fertilisers. 

Over the next decade (till the 2000), ICL brought into its kitty the Malkapur cement plant from the Hyderabad-based Visaka Industries, Yerraguntla cement plant from the state-owned Cement Corporation of India, the Vishnupuram cement plant of Raasi Cements and the Sitapuram plant of its subsidiary Sri Vishnu Cements.

Amidst all this, India Cements also set up its third plant in Tamil Nadu at Dalavoi (Perambalur district).

Its two other plants in the state are of course at its headquarters Thalaiyuthu (Tirunelveli district) and Sankaridurg (near Salem). That these moves also ratcheted up the debt of the company and Srinivasan also had to sell off a few of these acquisitions is another story (and also typical of him).

And that he also did some shady business with Chandrababu Naidu's bitterest political rival Jaganmohan Reddy is also typical of his survival strategies. No one is permanent, as friend, and also enemy.

Amidst all these expansion and acquisitions, he also managed to ease out the original promoters from the company.

Srinivasan and his brother N Ramachandran bought out the stake of N Sankar (son of K S Narayanan, and grandson of Sankaralingam). And by 2009, Srinivasan also bought out his brother's stake in India Cements and become its uncontested patriarch.

Enter Srinivasan, The Controversial Cricket Administrator 

By the 1990s, Srinivasan also went on the front-foot on his other passion, cricket administration. India Cements has a great legacy in supporting up and coming players in their formative years.

This was something that Srinivasan did out of sincere conviction and love for the sport. Indian legend Rahul Dravid was one of the benefactors of India Cements' munificence to budding cricketers.

All international cricketers who have come out of Chennai have been touched by the generosity of India Cements and Srinivasan. Every cricketer in the highly competitive first division league of Chennai will speak lovingly of the unstinting support and contribution of Srinivasan and India Cements.

Srinivasan also loved power and position, and this was amply reflected in his hunt for glory in cricket administration — a phase both spectacular and controversial.

He got his initiation into cricket administration again through the Sankaralingam family. His grandson N Sankar, who became the president of the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) in 1993-94, was the one who prodded Srinivasan to contes for the vice-president post. This was a watershed event for Srinivasan and Indian cricket, in a sense.

Though he lost the election, the cricket administration caught his fancy. Like with India Cements, Srinivasan was ready to play the waiting game.

He built bridges with A C Muthiah, who was a big shot in TN cricket (secretary of TNCA from 1994 to 2002 season) and Indian cricket (Board of Control for Cricket in India or BCCI president from 1999 to 2001) (The Chepauk Stadium is named after his father M A Chidamabaram). Srinivasan was the successor to Muthiah at TNCA in 2002. And from then on, Srinivasan kept widening his horizons.

He fell out with Muthiah (the latter actually filed a case against Srinivasan for 'conflict of interest'). Srinivasan became pally with Sharad Pawar and was the treasurer of the BCCI when the Maharashtra strongman was its president. And then he became its secretary and then its president in 2011, and also was the first chairman of the International Cricket Council (ICC) in 2014. 

His period as an administrator in BCCI and ICC was riddled with never-ending controversies. Not the least through Indian Premier League (IPL) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK), the most successful team in IPL history.

As the owner of CSK, he has shepherded it through the most infamous spot-fixing scandal (involving his son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan) and managed to shield it through controversial methods.

His Legacy In Cement And Cricket 

The selling of India Cements stake by Srinivasan to UltraTech, it is said, would not affect CSK, which is managed by India Cements Shareholder Trust (a separate entity). Srinivasan tried to enlist his daughter's support in cricket administration by getting her to become the president of TNCA.

But she seems to have lost interest. And is now out of it. So CSK will be run by his chosen men Kasi Viswanathan (born in Thalaiyuthu, he is an India Cements veteran) and cricketer M S Dhoni, the two people he trusts totally. 

Like with CSK, his choice of buyers for India Cements reflects the essential philosophy of Srinivasan — he wants his two babies to be in safe hands. India Cements had suitors like Damani and Adanis, but Srini wanted someone with pedigree in the cement industry. Who better than the Birlas then?      

But as he bids goodbye to his professional career (his health is a constant issue, and his eyesight has been terribly affected due to a cataract surgery gone wrong), what is his legacy as a cement industrialist and a cricket administrator?

Despite his questionable tactics, both are secure and he will be talked of as an industrialist and administrator who could face any kind of adversity and build his own empire. 

A highly religious and superstitious man, it is not clear how Srinivasan himself will look back on his innings. Was it successful? Yes. But at what cost?

His relationship with his son is fractured. Ditto for his ties with his brother. No love seems lost between him and the Sankaralingam family.  Cricket administrators like Muthiah, Pawar and late Jagmohan Dalmiya have no nice words for him.

So his victories have come at an emotional price. Poker-faced for the most occasions, he is not a man to show outward emotion. But inside, he should be conflicted as he will settle with a glass of his favourite Scotch and look back on his career.

His legacy is cemented, though his ways were not always cricket, as it were.