If there is any one in the corporate world who commands respect as a towering personality, he is none other than A Sivasailam, Chairman of Amalgamations Group, who still enjoys the status of a giant among industrialists in south India.
Sivasailam is also the one who has made it a point in life to have integrity as the guiding principle to run his business establishments numering around 47, all coming under the banner of Amalgamations Group.
When the All India Management Association recently honoured him with the Distinguished Service Award, he told the journalists assembled there that one should always ‘look straight and stay straight’ if he or she really wanted to stay on in the tough world of business.
He also said, “Ethics is purely a matter of personal standard.
Circumstances may make a person take a decision that is not ethical in our standards.” He also wanted the corporates to work for the betterment of the community around through their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) arm and create institutions in that process where everyone could have the benefit of a character-building education.
Born on August 24, 1934, Sivasailam is the elder son of the late S Anantharamakrishnan, also known as `J’, who was considered to be a great visionary and a pioneering industrialist of his times.
Anantharamakrishnan, who came to Chennai from Tirunelveli district in Tamil Nadu, joined the British-owned Simpsons, which was primarily into building coaches and bus bodies. With his strong roots in finance, `J’ went on to become a trustworthy partner in the company, enjoying the support of its Chairman Sir Alexander Mac- Dougall. Then, `J’ acquired comparable businesses for the Group, besides setting up new manufacturing ventures with foreign collaborations.
Today, the Amalgamations Group has diverse business interests in manufacturing a wide variety of products - diesel engines, automobile components, batteries, cutting tools, tractors - as also in plantation companies producing fine quality teas in the Nilgiris, apart from interests in automobile and auto parts distribution, book selling and publishing.
Sivasailam’s success as an industrialist is marked by three focus areas - entrepreneurship, highest standards of business and personal ethics, and a relentless pursuit of excellence.
Speaking for TAFE’s corporate film in 1992, he said, “To us in TAFE, Excellence is not something that we engineer, inspect and input into our tractors. It is an innate desire to attain the best that comes from within each of us. It defines our lives at work and at home and ripples out into the world around us.” This perhaps best reflects his approach to business - upholding ethical values even under trying circumstances.
He was entrusted in 1961 with the responsibility of developing the then fledgling company, Tractors and Farm Equipment Limited (TAFE), as its General Manager.
Today, TAFE has expanded its original purpose of manufacture and marketing of tractors and farm implements to include batteries, engineering plastics, hydraulic pumps, panel instruments, transmission components and marketing of leading brands of passenger vehicles in South India through its subsidiary.
Donning the mantle of chairmanship of the group in 1968, Sivasailam has been instrumental in nurturing the group from a turnover of just Rs 35 crore then to its current turnover of Rs 6,500 crore.
Long before CSR became a buzzword, Sivasailam thoughtfully continued initiatives in this area that were left by his father, assiduously. A fine example is the `J’ Farm, an extensive adaptive research farm near Chennai that offers farmers extensive inputs on the cultivation of paddy, vegetables and fruits through its extension activities, publications and online information through the community portal jfarmindia.
com.
An inscription at `J’ Farm reads like this – ‘If you plan for one year, plant rice, If you plan for 10 years, plant trees, If you plan for 100 years, educate people’.
The last principle is well exemplified in the running of Sri Paramakalyani Higher Secondary School and the Sri Paramakalyani College at Alwarkurichi, in rural Tamil Nadu, as also in the establishment of an Institute for Environmental Sciences, affiliated to the Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Tirunelveli.
Through TAFE, the group is associated with leading academic bodies such as the Punjab Agricultural University and the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad in specific areas of agricultural and management sciences.
In keeping with his keen interest in developing entrepreneurial skills in the country, Sivasailam instituted the Madras Management Association’s Business Leadership Award, in memory of his father S Anantharamakrishnan, who was one of the founder members of the MMA.
Accolades and recognitions rest lightly on his shoulders. The recipient of the first MMA Distinguished Fellowship award in 2005, he was honoured with the Padma Shri in 2007. He was conferred an Honorary Doctorate of Literature by the Madurai Kamaraj University and a Lifetime Contribution Award by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) 2008. More recently, he has been recognized by ACMA with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
Sivasailam has occupied many offices of distinction related to government and public institutions such as the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Association of Indian Automobile manufacturers.
To be precise, Sivasailam is an industrialist, a philanthropist, a connoisseur, a proud citizen of the country, but above all “The Complete Man”, who made Entrepreneurship, Excellence and Ethics his philosophy at work and in personal life.