About Mallika Srinivasan
Mallika Srinivasan is a well known woman entrepreneur that India has produced. She is a woman who has consistently strived hard to attain sky height success and still managed to maintain her foot firmly on the ground. Being a woman, leading a hardcore mechanical manufacturing products like tractors she has broken the stereotypes of the society.
Mrs. Mallika Srinivasan is the CEO and Chairman at Tractors and Farm Equipment Limited (TAFE) which is a Chennai based company. Mrs.Srinivasan established TAFE with a massive capacity manufacturing firm which makes tractors. She diversified the business to farm machinery, diesel engines, hydraulic pumps and batteries etc.
Education and Career:
She has been a bright student in her academics as she was the gold medalist in Econometrics from the Madras University. She did her MBA from Wharton School of Business. She holds a position in the top 125 Successful Alumni of Wharton School of business at the University of Pennsylvania.
She is a board member of the AGCO Corporation USA and Tata group companies like Tata Steel and Tata Global Beverages. She is also on the governing boards of various premier education institutions like ISB Hyderabad, IIT Chennai and BIM Trichy.
She joined the family business under the guidance of her father and started as the General Manager for Tractors and Farm Equipment Company. She later changed the small company with 85 crore turnover at the time of her joining somewhere around 1985 into a high-tech manufacturing company with a turnover of Rs 5800 crore. Her company now ranks as the second largest manufacturer of tractors and the third largest in the world. The company exports tractors now to various countries.
She feels that her biggest challenge was the acquisition of Eicher Motors in the year 2005, when it was questioned by many people and doubts were raised on her capability to handle such big things. This move got her the number 2 position in the industry in India and she proved her metal to her critics in the industry.
Personal Life:
Her father was an Industrialist and he always encouraged her interest in studies. She is married to Mr. Venu Srinivasan, who is the chairman of TVS motor company limited. She has two children. One of her daughters Lakshmi is married to the son of Mr. Narayan Murthy’s son Rohan Murthy. Mrs.Srinivasan is also known as the tractor queen in an industry which is usually male dominated from many decades. She has a passion for her work and is very punctual about it.
Awards and Accolades:
There are many awards and honors which Mrs.Srinivasan received in recent years. She has been voted as Entrepreneur of the year by Ernst and Young in the year 2011. Forbes India awarded her as the Woman Leader of the Year.
She was ranked 2nd amongst the Most powerful business woman in India by Fortune India whereas Forbes Asia recognized her as one of the top 50 Asian Power business woman. A very popular Indian news channel NDTV awarded her as the Business Thought Leader of the year in 2012.
One of the highest accolades that she has received is the Padma Shri for contribution to trade and industry by the Indian Government in the year 2014. She serves the president of Madras Chamber of commerce and industry and is the first women to hold that position.
Philanthropy:
She has a keen interest in paying it back to the society by doing something for its welfare. She has been taking several efforts to develop the education and health care in India. She is very supportive to various organizations like Sankara Netralaya, Cancer Hospitals in Chennai. She is great admirer of arts and music that is seen by her active involvement in promotion and support of traditional Carnatic Music.
She has stood out completely and made a name for herself in the business world and is proudly recognized as the director of a 2500 crore company. She is a very down to earth kind of personality and a true inspiration for the girls who desire to be a successful business woman.
What she says as a piece of advice to young woman is that never to get bogged down by the difficulties you face in life. She suggests to keeping looking for opportunities always and her mantra for successful work life is to love what you do. That is the only secret she has to pass on to upcoming woman entrepreneurs.
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