You can view excerpts from this interview in our video link

Intro: Managing Director of a leading Corporate Group, recipient of the Business World-Compaq Social Responsiveness Award, FICCI’s Outstanding Woman Professional Award, Mother Teresa Award for Corporate Citizenship, Ms Akhila Srinivasan is the Hony. Consul for the Kingdom of Netherlands, State President of the Art of Living Foundation and Chairperson of the FICCI Ladies Organisation. She has been selected as one of the twenty-five Most Powerful Women in India by Business Today. H Ramakrishnan interviewed her on behalf of Chennaionline. Excerpts:

Ramakrishnan: Good Morning. Can you tell us something about you – your childhood, education etc?

Akhila Srinivasan: Good morning. First of all I should thank you for this gesture of interviewing me.

I was born in Tiruchirapalli. Naturally I had my early education there and my secondary school education in Chennai. Again I went back to Tiruchrapalli to pursue my higher secondary education in the RSK Higher Secondary school, which is part of the BHEL Township. R S Krishnan Higher Secondary School is one of the reputed Central Board Schools, known for its academic excellence. I was fortunate to be educated in such a well-run school. I did my B A and M A in Economics in Seethalakshmi Ramaswami College.

When I was doing my MA, I got married and came back to Chennai with my husband. I pursued my M Phil in Economics. Then my son was born and I was a stay-home mother for two and a half years. It was at that time that I happened to see a newspaper advertisement by the Shriram Group calling for Executive trainees. That is how I joined this Group in 1986.

Rama: Your parents...

Akhila: My father retired as an Executive Engineer in PWD. He is the grandson of Diwan Bahadur K S Ramaswamy Sastrigal,who was a High Court Judge, a contemporary of Rajaji, a great Sanskrit Scholar, a public speaker, well known in his times. .My mother has been a housewife. We come from a middle class family.

Rama: When you completed M Phil in Economics, what made you join this group?

Akhila: After M Phil, the next logical step would have been to do PhD and get into teaching. That was one of the options I had. But as I told you, I was fortunate to see the ad. They were looking for Executive Trainees with good academic background, not necessarily MBA and with good performance in extra-curricular activities. I was neither a chartered accountant nor an MBA, who would fit, in the conventional sense, in the Corporate Sector. I took a chance and applied. An eminent person, P B Srinivasan, the former Chairman of the Indian Overseas Bank was entrusted with the task of recruiting Executive Trainees. Out of the thousands of applications that poured in, twelve of us were selected through a selection process that included a written test, Oral interview and group discussion. Then onwards, my career started unfolding.

Rama: When you joined this group as an Executive Trainee, did you imagine that one day you will occupy the top most position?

Akhila: My attitude in life has always been to give my one-hundred-percent in whatever I take up. I will not look at the immediate returns or reward. It is not enough to merely make a mark and get known. One should strive to derive satisfaction in the pursuit of perfection and excellence. I have been oriented to that. When I joined this group, I found myself in a very good environment. I still remember what our Chairman told the Executive Trainees. At that time, in 1986, we were a small group – small in terms of areas of operation and volumes of business. But, he gave such a road-map and vision for the group in the next ten or twenty years. The Chairman's words enthused many youngsters like me to commit ourselves totally to the task of building the Shriram group. There was a sense of idealism. The credit of helping us to imbibe that spirit goes to Mr. Thyagarajan. The focus was on trying to do your job well and contribute meaningfully to the growth of the organisation.When you focus on that other things come automatically. Your rise in the career, your position, they are all incidental. The aim was not towards that kind of a personal gratification. It was more oriented towards giving one's best to the growth of the organisation.

Rama: How did you manage several global alliances?

Akhila: I joined the group, as I told you, as an Executive Trainee. Then I was Marketing manager, General Manager, President of the Truck Financing Company and right from 1993-94 onwards, the Shriram Group has seen phenomenal strides in its various activities. I was looking after Marketing, Public Relations and team-building of a very large kind. Our Chairman and I explored several avenues outside India as well. We made a valiant effort in getting access to companies involved in activities similar to ours. After a lot of effort and confidence building, we were able to achieve such alliances.

Rama: Your involvement with the Shriram Social Welfare Trust......

Akhila: I started this Trust in 1993. This is a CSR -Corporate Social Responsibility- initiative. We decided that a portion of the profits of the Shriram Group should be channelised to deserving segments, especially the marginalised children and marginalised women. Our first Orphan Care Centre was set up in Alwarpet in 1993 for orphan and destitute children.. We then focused on primary education to the rural poor. We have five schools now in villages, providing free English medium education to over three thousand children. We also co-manage the ` .

We also co-manage the Home for the juvenile delinquents, run by the State Government. There are thousands of children who have committed petty offences or run away from their home. We try our best to rewrite their destinies and rehabilitating them back to normal life. We also have a project called ‘Give Life’, which now educated three thousand four hundred under privileged children in Corporation and Government Schools. It gives continuous education support, uniform, books etc. We also provide breakfast for these children. This is a national movement, where we try to bring like-minded Corporate entities like ourselves to join together to take education to these children and thereby laying a firm foundation for their lives.

Rama: You are also active in micro credit….

Akhila: Yes, we started it in 1995. We were fortunate in finding an individual, Col. Ashok of Bangalore, who has expertise in this field. He has a vision in rural development and rural management. Under his professional guidance, we are now working in 720 villages in various states like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh. We have succeeded in bringing over one lakh and fifty thousand women out of the poverty line in the last eight or ten years. The group has committed substantial funds to this project. Nearly 140 personnel are actively involved in this. In the next three to four years, we envisage that the group itself will allocate more than fifty crore rupees of funding for micro credit. WE believe it is our duty to give a helping hand to women below poverty line, so that they can have access to better life.

Rama: How did you win the Business World-Compaq Social Responsiveness Award?

Akhila: This Award came in 1999. There was a newspaper write-up announcing the award. Since we were engaged in a lot of work pertaining to children and women, we also applied. Out of sixty companies in India twenty six were short listed. Out of these, five were called for the final. The panel of jury consisted of very eminent people. Dr. Abid Hussein, former Indian Ambassador to the US was heading the jury. WE had to make a closed-door presentation of all the work we have done. I am happy to say that Shriram Group, way back in 1999 was bracketed along with the Tatas and we also received one of the coveted prizes for social responsiveness across all companies in India.

Rama: How did you feel when you received the Outstanding Woman Professional for 2000-2001 from the FICCI Ladies Organisation?

Akhila: These awards, of course bestow a great recognition. They also make us feel responsible. For one thing, we must deserve what we receive. Every time I receive an award I have only felt that I must commit more and more to all the roles that I play. I would like to be useful to the people around me. That is the only goal that propels me. If I can create managers, if I can harness the talents of people around me, working with me in the organization, If I can be a facilitator and build better effective teams, If I can change the lives of the deprived people around me – even in a small way, that gives me an inner satisfaction and that keeps propelling me.

Rama: You have also won the Mother Teresa Award for Corporate Citizenship 2002 from Loyolla Institute of Business Administration…..

Akhila: That also is for the social work. This very special because twenty four companies in India applied and we were selected as the winner. Tata team was the runner-up.The jury felt that the micro credit scheme that we are implementing in the villages has been really impact-creating, in terms of creating a permanent social change.

Rama: You have recently been appointed as the Hony. Consul for the Kingdom of Netherlands. How did you get this great honour?

Akhila: To tell you the truth, I was myself surprised. The Netherlands business support office in Chennai recommended three or four names to the Ambassador. Two years back, the Netherlands Ambassador came to Chennai to interview all the four of us. Finally they zeroed in on me. I felt it was extremely great privilege to represent such a fine, great country like the Netherlands. We have set up a separate office for this. We are playing a very good facilitating role for all the tourists, students and Dutch citizens wanting to visit Netherlands from South India.

Rama: You have been selected as one of the twenty-five Most Powerful Women in Indian business by the Business Today. What do you feel about it?

Akhila: Again, it is a very great honour. When I heard the news, I was very pleasantly surprised. All these awards induce you to pursue your social objectives in a selfless manner.

Rama: Can you say something about your association with the Art of Living Foundation, of which you are the State President.

Akhila: Throughout life, you see the divine grace, helping you and propelling you forward. I took the Art of Living course like any other person. I enrolled myself and went through the six day breathing technique. I then started practicing it regularly and reaped enormous benefits in terms of the mental, psychological well-being. The higher level of energy and productivity you feel help me in the discharge of various responsibilities. I had also read a lot of what Sri Sri Ravishankar had said and preached to the world in the field of Yoga and Meditation. During one of his visits to Chennai three years back, I was introduced very briefly to him in a gathering. I was surprised to get a call two months later from the Bangalore Ashram saying that Sri Sri Ravishankar wanted me to be the State President in Tamil Nadu. I thought it was a divine call, coming from a great master like him. I suppose that people like us from the Corporate sector can play a very valuable role in giving a professional dimension to a spiritual organization like the Art of Living, which has innumerable devotees, volunteers, throughout the world. We have a role to play in channelizing and streamlining the administrative processes of the organization and in giving a momentum to its activities. I feel blessed to be a part of this great movement.

Rama: You are also the Chairperson of the FICCI Ladies Organisation. What role do you play there?

Akhila: It is a pan-India organization, the Women’s wing of FICCI. It has seven chapters all over India. They take up any issue relating to women. It is a very vibrant organization and my role is for one year and it concludes in March this year. Every month we organize intensive seminars, programmes, special lectures on Women empowerment. We also conduct rural workshops for marginalised women. We also give vocational training support and entrepreneurial skill development support, generally for women in business. That is the focus of the FICCI Ladies Organisation.

I am very fortunate in that I have various dimensions to the various roles that I play. One is spiritual, one is representing a country like Netherlands, one is related to women’s rights and empowerment, and another is our own social service initiatives and of course my mainstay in the Corporate sector – the Shriram Group. I play a multi varied role, which is very satisfying.

Rama: At a very young age, you have achieved a very high position. What are your future plans?

Akhila: With regard to business, I am presently heading Shriram Life Insurance Company, which is just two years old. Shriram Group has got into insurance in a very big way. We set this up with a joint venture partner, Sanlam Group of South Africa. This is a business having along gestation period. Like Bank, this is a major business. For the next ten years, we have a very big challenge ahead of us. It is a competitive line. The private sector has been opened up and there are already sixteen companies now and many more are coming in. So, building a team across the country, building a good human infrastructure, building the agency force to sell our life insurance products.. are all very big challenges. However, what is close to my heart is the social objective. And whatever we are doing for children and women, we would continue to do with better vigour and more passion, scaling up the activities so that we can reach out to more and more beneficiaries. That is my aim, God willing.

Rama: In this male dominated world, have you ever felt that you could have been a man?

Akhila: No. Never. I feel so blessed to be born a woman. It is the woman who nurses the heart that has nurtured motherhood itself. The experience of motherhood and womanhood cannot be substituted for anything else in the world. I feel very privileged, blessed and proud to be a woman.

Rama: Thank you very much

Akhila: I should thank you for this opportunity.

You can view excerpts from this interview in our video link