Chennai: The former British Prime Minister, David Cameron, will be delivering the KS Narayanan oration on January 30. The day marks the centenary of the suave, soft-spoken pioneering industrialist of Tamil Nadu.
‘Nana’, who passed away on September 28, 2012 left an indelible impression on those he interacted with. From the fertile lands of the Tamiraparani in and around his ancestral village of Kallidaikuruchi in Tirunelveli district, ‘Nana’rose to build an industrial empire through many decades of the vicissitudes of business in an ethical and upright manner that makes him an industrial legend of the state.
His autobiographical ‘Friendships and Flashbacks’captures in a humorous and yet revealing manner while casting light on many incidents that were to dot his life and times. It is a remarkable story of
abundance of business sense in people who lived within a twenty mile radius of Kallidaikurichi and who were responsible for the establishment of many of the top industrial empires of the state, beginning with TVS, Amalgamations, India Cements, Easun and Chemplast.
Nana’s story follows a
pattern of ingenuity shown by many of them from the area during the war when privations of the people in extreme war shortages also led to opportunity. For instance, Nana’s genius in handling rubber to retread old tires was to make him an early fortune in World War II while also shaping him into the shrewd
industrialist he was to become. Of course, he had had a bit of a silver spoon of a start in the ‘banking’business established by his father, SNN Sankaralinga Iyer.
The passage of time may have changed business ties over decades, but Nana always paid generous tributes to his friend and mentor - “Abboy” TS Narayanaswami, the father of N. Srinivasan and N.Ramachandran, who was one of the principal motive forces in starting up the
cement industry in the state along with Nana’s father. (“Soon to become my long-term business associate, my most discerning adviser and by a sort of natural progression, my closest friend”, Nana wrote in his book.
How the two as young men ventured into the industry and built the foundation for the cement major India Cements was a grand story of the conquest of trials and tribulations of business people in the country in the days of the quota and licence raj. Nana’s own success story in formal industry started with an ink factory that he turned around and then went on to conquer rubber with the typical ingenious ways of Indian entrepreneurs whose crisis management skills constitute a byword for innovation and thinking on one’s feet.
His venturing into manufacturing PVC resin was the turning point in his life as well as that of the biggest industry he built in the Sanmar Group.
The aligning of latest technology in manufacturing was his biggest forte. To his credit, Nana would not work a day beyond the age of 60 when he handed over the reins to his sons N. Sankar and N.Kumar and hit the ‘paplu’table with a vengeance as a pastime. His humorous stories of escapades and how he was forced to drink Scotch to mask the taste of caviar and numerous other escapades abroad marks him as a genial man of good humour.
Nana displayed a sporting spirit in everything he did in business as well as in sport itself, of which he became one of the first industrial patrons in sponsoring Jolly Rovers in Chennai’s senior division cricket league. If succeeding generations took cricket sponsorship to a professional level, it is to be taken as their tribute to Nana, the pioneering industrialist who simply loved sport.
Seen as an institution builder, he took keen interest in industry affairs as well as doing one stint as the Sherriff of Madras. It is six years since he passed away, but he went leaving an indelible mark on the life of Madras and Chennai as an entrepreneur with a golden heart and a genuine concern for his employees.
I remember him as an avuncular figure who genially signed a letter in his Dhun Building office in 1967 stating India Cements would sponsor my candidature for a seat in AC College of Technology. Seeing his grace in dealing with a gawky school student, it was not hard to imagine how easily he would have made friends forever in his life. They don’t make industrialists like ‘Nana’anymore.
