In 1989 the current group chairman T T Jagannathan and his mother Mrs Padma Narashiman wanted Srinivasan to head the Rs9-crore turnover condom company TTK LIG. The joint venture partner LIG, UK, wanted a relook at the Indian venture and also explore the possibilities of sourcing sheaths from India.

TTK LIG's total capacity then was 200 million pieces per year. The majority of the production went to the central government and only 30 million pieces were sold in the market.

Accepting the new assignment, Srinivasan visited the company's Chennai plant along with LIG's executives. The foreigners were shocked to see condom packets being stuffed in gunny bags and tied with a jute rope. They realised that a single strand of jute could damage the "mission critical" products.

Immediately Srinivasan banned the use of jute and gunny bags in the company. He also ordered a reengineering of the plant and capacity expansion. From 1990 onwards the condom business started growing rapidly with LIG steadily increasing its sourcing from India.

Sensing an opportunity to extract additional benefits, the labour struck work. However, the new CEO stood firm and the strike fizzled out quickly as he ordered the plant to be operated by just the management staff.

In order to increase exports and to bid for international tenders Srinivasan decided to submit the plants for more than a dozen quality certifications. Subsequently, he also embarked upon total productivity maintenance programme (See: The condom experience)

In 1997 he drew a 10-year plan for the company that recently surpassed targets. The company posted the healthiest margins amongst all the group outfits. In the domestic branded market, the company's brands retained its number one position despite aggressive competition. (See: TTK LIG: A global scale company and not a contract manufacturer). All this has strengthened the respect of Group executives who were once sceptical about a company secretary's skills in leading TTK LIG.

At TTK LIG Srinivasan enjoyed full freedom in making decisions. Often he would start a new project and obtain the board's sanction later.

Says group vice chairman Raghunathan, "Group chairman Jagannathan and myself have had several board room squabbles with Srinivasan. We always found him having the company's interests first, followed by the interests of joint venture partners. As a result we had to go by his advice rather than satisfying our egos."

Citing an instance, Raghunathan says, "We were initially not interested in the Scholl's range of foot care products. However it was Srinivasan who insisted that the group should venture into that business."

TTK LIG bought out Nicholas Piramal's 49-per cent stake in the erstwhile Scholl Piramal India, now called SSL TTK. Last year the company closed its books with a turnover of Rs70 crore, with this year's target being Rs100 crore. Like TTK LIG, the new company will be a major sourcing base for SSL International.

Though LIG has changed hands overseas a couple of times (it is now called SSL International) the successive new owners found TTK group a trustworthy and compatible partner - ihn no small measure due to Srinivasan's skill in nurturing relationships.

Only once was he smitten by the entrepreneurial bug and wanted to promote a printed circuit board (PCB) unit. However, the idea was short circuited as his two sons explicitly expressed their disinterest in running it.

In October 2006, the nine-year old lad who yearned for just two hundred rupees to settle the family's debts and buy some clothes for his family was elevated to the Group board incharge of strategic planning. He will chart the group's new business ventures like GIS / GPS mapping, car navigation, food products, rural marketing and cardio vascular products.

A CEO at home
And what of his wife Rukmini? Happily married, she was able to realise her dreams since college of making global tours; Rukmini often accompanies Srinivasan during some of his overseas trips.

However, she does have a few complaints about her husband. "First, he was not able to spend quality time with the family. Further, he forgot about securing the family's future. Many of his friends and others in his cadre have invested in real estate. But we don't have anything except the apartment we are living now."

At home Srinivasan acts like a CEO. While his office decisions have always fructified some of his decisions at the home have backfired. For instance, Srinivasan's decision to sell his bungalow in Chennai was taken at the spur of moment. Today, he wishes he hadn't and is on the look out for a suitable property.

However as a romantic husband he did surprise Rukmani with gifts like getting her a solitaire from Japan or a dozen sarees from Bangladesh one after another.

As a father, Srinivasan didn't impose his will on his sons. "He could be strict or lenient depending on the circumstances," recalls Dr.Nandakumar, his younger son. The eldest son Dr S Naveen adds, "Getting his signature on our school progress card was a nightmare."

Today, both are in professions of their liking; Dr Naveen is an economist working at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, while Dr S Nandakumar is a chemical engineer, researching on fuel kinetics at the Argonne National Laboratory, in the US.

But what is Srinivasan really like. His brother Prakash compares him to a jackfruit - rough from the outside but soft inside. On the surface he could be short tempered, cold and matter of fact, with short, straight and, at times even, curt conversational style.

"Perhaps the burden of shouldering the family responsibility at a very young age made him hyper anxious to ensure that every thing he does should always turn out to be right," says. "It is this anxiety that could have made him short tempered," he reasons.

"I would term him as a perfectionist and expects others to be like him," says G Seshadri, manager, customer service,.

Adds Rajan, managing director, TTK LIG, "Srinivasan always takes the bull by its horn. While the final decision may be his, Srinivasan had the uncanny ability to make it participative."

They all agree, however, that at heart he is a caring individual who can not only sympathise / empathises with others but also lends a helping hand.

A regular golfer, Srinivasan takes his philanthropic participation with utmost seriousness - so that he may pay back to society for the opportunity that it gave him to shrug-off his early difficulties. He makes himself available to the Spastic Society, Voluntary Health Services, Rotary BloodBank, Venkateswara Trust, Association of Voluntary Blood Donors and Guild of Service.

At village temples he tends to donate very liberally much to the chargin of his family. "I explain to them that childhood poverty could be very cruel. And for a poor family an extra rupee would make lot of difference for their dinner."

As for me, "I am content and happy with my life," Srinivasan concludes.