Surge: Tamil Nadu's Growth Story

by Sushila Ravindranath

The early ‘80s. The South as a business centre is not on anyone’s radar. Bombay and, to a lesser extent, Delhi, dominate the business world. Calcutta still retains a modicum of power, though it is in rapid decline. Madras is an overgrown village, and Bangalore a pensioner’s paradise.
Fast-forward to 2016. Kolkata is not on the business radar at all. Mumbai and Delhi continue to remain powerhouses. In the South, Bangalore is on top of everyone’s list, and even Hyderabad is seen as a dynamic centre of growth. A little-known fact though, is that Chennai is the base for more industries than either of those two cities.
Tamil Nadu’s industrial growth has to be one of India’s best-kept secrets. For various reasons — Tamil Nadu’s distance from Delhi, the centre’s lack of interest because of the dominance of regional parties, the companies not rushing to the stock market unlike their Western and Northern counterparts — Tamil Nadu is not perceived as an industrially advanced state. Surge seeks to undo that misconception. Examining both old-economy and new economy industries, profiling scions of well-established families as well as young upstarts, homegrown talent and those who came in from outside the state, this book fills an important niche in the story of Indian industrialisation.
An incisive account by veteran business journalist Sushila Ravindranath,this is a must-read for students of business, corporate executives and indeed, anyone interested in the dynamic world of business and finance.

Genres: India, Economics

309 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 15, 2016

Reviews

[Aswin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is a collection of data, facts, anecdotes, paraphrasings, quotes and some numbers. I was expecting an interesting rags to riches story, hardships, personality clashes etc, but, was disappointed in that front. The rags to riches story goes like , "In 5 years, X built his company from Y annual turn over to YYYYY annual turn over". Having said that, I appreciate the author for giving a history of conservative families that controls the business environment and it is interesting to note that most business people from Tamilnadu, do not depend on Loans, but invest their own money into any venture. The final chapter on the emerging IT and Health IT start-ups are encouraging. The chapter on Coimbatore and why that city is entrepreneurial is interesting to read. The take home message is that Chennai leads in automobile, IT export thanks to some early adopters. The writing becomes monotonous after a few chapters and you could guess what the author would write next, for example, there is so much of use of the phrase "As it happened". The book clearly stays away from politics even when discussing Marans and others accused of scams. Overall, I learned a great deal about the business families of tamilnadu and looking forward to a better-updated version of this book soon.

[Tirath · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very badly written, badly edited book - and the journalist didnt really do as much research as one would hope for.
Published in 2016: "Redington is the largest distributor of Blackberry phones in India" - which may be a true statement but no longer pertinent to Redington or Blackberry.


But what saves the book is a very rich history and context for a young reader who wouldnt know much about South Indian companies, one prominent-companies, failed ventures, business history.

I found some parts immensely engrossing, but glad I went through the book super-quick.

[Bhuvanesh Kandasamy · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are very few books which has a compilation of business stories from a particular location. Kudos to the author for creating this knowledge repository. But I felt the book would have been more impactful if the author could have combined how the growth of these businesses impacted the lives of people in the surrounding areas with relevant facts and figures.

[Ankit Agrawal · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book gives a good account of some of the known names from Tamil Nadu in industry but doesn't delve too deep. Most companies' business model and finances haven't been explored too much. It is mentioned about a lot of companies that promoters or managers were able to turn them around but without explaining exactly how when all market forces seemed to be arrayed against them. A reader would like an answer to "What changed?" "What was it that they were doing wrong earlier or how did a change in approach help?" Sadly, the book offers few or no answers in most cases.

Too much information has been sought to be packed into the book, most of which the majority of readers won't be interested in. Small entrepreneurs and their companies have been given too much space of whom the reader would have no recollection after finishing the book. What the book does provide is a lot of trivia about companies, a general idea of the policy landscape over the decades as also some idea of the historical social, political and economic forces that shaped industry in Tamil Nadu the way they did. Best to read quickly and gloss over the unimportant portions.

[Janakan Manivannan · Rating 4 out of 5]

gave great insights to tamilnadu inc. must read for people whose interests converge between tamilnadu and entrepreneurship. title might be misleading as it charts the course of each corporate group separately and do not speak about tamilnadu economic history. balance is maintained bw all the geographies of tamilnadu. more on other industries like education, food and beverage, hotel, entertainment etc. overall worthy of time and money

[Senthilprabhu]

Though the author fails to give a good picture about the established business groups in India, most of the observations are run away kind and doesn't give a much insight about the group. However on the later part, there is good input about companies which are not well known but making serious foray.

Obviously it is one of good book which gives the picture of the industrial and entrepreneurial spirit of the country.

[Shailendra Singh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read about this book in reference to a news article on jayalalitha after her death. The article emphasized on the role of stable political environment in ensuring growth of business in Tamil Nadu. However, the book is no where close to the expectation. It is essentially a compendium of various businesses started by Tamilians or based out of Tamil Nadu without any in-depth analysis of the factors leading to superior industrial growth of the state. After finishing 25-30% of the book, things start getting monotonous although the last section on internet based startups is interesting. Overall, the book does not qualify as a good business read when there are other impactful books in the market like zero to one by Peter Thiel.