Akhila Srinivasan is among the most influential persons in the finance industry in the South. She is one of the directors of the R70,000 crore, Chennai-headquartered Shriram Group. Akhila Srinivasan is part of the Shriram Ownership Trust which holds the parent company, Shriram Capital Limited. She is also the managing director of Shriram Life Insurance which she helped launch in 2005. She has made it to the power lists of women in magazines and has had many awards and honours bestowed upon her. She, however, remains low key and never flaunts her achievements.

Joining Shriram 28 years ago, her career has grown at a fast clip. She has more than kept pace with the growth of the group which is one of South?s spectacular success stories. What started as a small chit fund operation has grown into a well-diversified conglomerate that is into truck financing, personal financing, life and general insurance, investments in manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, information technology and property development.

Akhila knew the day she joined Shriram that she will never look elsewhere for another job. She tells me the reason why when we meet for lunch at Anise, the international restaurant at Taj Coromandel, Chennai, to check out its gluten-free vegetarian menu. We order melon and feta salad which turns out to be more interesting and tastier than we anticipated. ?I was doing my MPhil in economics from the Madras University, having completed my post graduation from Trichy. I was quite sure I wanted to work. An advertisement in a newspaper for executive trainees from the Shriram Group caught my attention. I decided to apply.?

In fact, several aspiring candidates were interviewed by PB Srinivasan, who had just retired as chairman, Indian Overseas Bank. It was not necessary to have an MBA degree as qualification. What was required was somebody who had excelled in academics and extracurricular activities. Akhila, a university rank holder, fitted the bill, having won debates and quizzes for her college. Of the 12 candidates selected, three were women and Akhila was one of them. They were the first batch of executive trainees.

When she got her job, she was already married and had a two-year-old son. She was given PR and marketing responsibilities. This meant she had to travel. Akhila?s husband, a chartered accountant, was very supportive and told her not to worry. ?He assured me that we will take this road together.?

Meanwhile, we order a platter of tofu, pak choi, glass noodles with kaffir lime broth, followed by gluten-free pasta with vegetables and olive oil. We are both experimenting with this menu for the first time and the dishes don?t disappoint.

Akhila spent the first few years of her career with the group in raising fixed deposits. R Thyagarajan, the chairman of the group, took personal interest in the trainees. He has always believed in empowering the young. He spotted something very promising in her. After a year as a trainee, she was made the marketing manager. ?I had to create awareness among the public that we were offering a safe instrument. We had to build the Shriram brand. My job was to help create brand awareness throughout the country, also create trust among groups like pensioners. I led teams that did door-to-door canvassing.? She was also involved in creating a broker network. That the group was in chit funds helped. Chit fund agents backed the drive for fixed deposits.

When Akhila became the marketing manager, the company?s deposit portfolio was R10 crore. In the next six years, the deposit/debenture portfolio grew to R1,400 crore with the all-India marketing network she set up. From the marketing manager, she was promoted as the general manager and then was made the president of Shriram Investment Ltd in a span of eight years. ?I started looking after hire purchase operations. We were dealing with the second-hand truck market providing opportunities for those in the fringe like drivers and cleaners who wanted to own a truck. I started looking after lending operations, the branches, recovery and, of course, FD mobilisation.?

During this period, banks started looking at non-banking finance companies more positively. Akhila started developing her skills, working with banks and financial institutions. She was able to negotiate a term loan of R150 crore for the company. Shriram also became the first financial services group to attract PE funds. The first one to come in was TPG Investments. This led to the merger of the financial companies.

By this time, Akhila had had 18 years of helping build businesses for the group. She had also played a role in striking global alliances for her group companies. When a cold call came from a consultant about Sanlam group from South Africa looking for partners to enter insurance business in India, Akhila met them and found there was a meeting of minds. She visited the group in South Africa, which resulted in Shriram Life Insurance, a joint venture with Sanlam. In 2005, she took over as managing director of the company.

The company sold its first policy in January 2006. It has sold over 9 lakh policies as of now. Total number of lives covered is over 48 lakh. ?We have provided close to 10 lakh life covers to the poorer sections of the population. There is so little awareness about what happens when a primary earning member dies in a poor family. This something we have to address.? In an industry where almost all players have recorded accumulated losses till recently, Shriram Life has accumulated a profit of R163 crore, which is almost equal to its share capital of R175 crore. ?It is all due to our teamwork. A single person is never projected in our group.?

Akhila is moving on to the governing council of Shriram Capital Trust. In this role, she will be less involved in day-to-day operations, and more on dealing with advocacy issues, RBI, transport bodies and so on. She will be one of the 12 who will be looking at the future plans of the group. ?We will be concentrating on deeper penetration into tier 2 and tier 3 towns.?

What has given Akhila great joy and satisfaction is being able to spearhead the social welfare and community development initiatives taken up by the Shriram Foundation. The foundation runs an orphanage, primary schools for the poor in villages, and provides micro credit financing for marginalised women in villages. ?We look after 15,000 children and hope to set up 100 rural schools.? She is involved in many other welfare and cultural activities as well.

I ask her how she manages to pack in so much, as we try out wild berry baked yoghurt. ?It is easier now than the first 10 years, when I had to travel to so many small towns, and family life did suffer.? Akhila has enjoyed every moment at the Shriram group. ?I?ve been given so many opportunities to grow and do things. Why would I want to work elsewhere,? she asks with a smile.