N Srinivasan [NS], no not the cricket chief, but the man who helped Deloitte come to India, celebrated his 92nd birthday recently. Here are a few interesting nuggets from his life.
NS wanted to pursue chemical engineering but by the time he submitted his application, the last date was over and on the suggestion of Fr. Ehrhart, he joined Commerce at the hallowed precincts of St Joseph College.
His love for public life led him to take the post of Secretary, Commerce Department and he actively organised several seminars. After a brief hiatus, he attended classes regularly and topped the exams. It didn’t exactly make him a bookworm. He laughs when he says, “I belong to a traditional family. We are taught to study all the time, but I am a huge fan of Tamil cinema. I would book tickets for everyone in the class and arrange for a mass bunk during Tamil sessions.”
At Fraser & Ross (F&R) where he interned, he got along well with the European partners and was part of the teams that audited organisations with which these partners were connected. That was how he came to audit Madras Cricket Club, Royal Madras Yard Club, Madras Race Club… and did it to the satisfaction of his superiors.
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NS was not the atypical auditor, unconnected with what was happening around him. He was an active member of the Madras Chamber of Commerce and Industries, was closely connected with the Amalgamations Group as an auditor and served on the board of India Cements for several years. He was perhaps Chennai’s most renowned corporate auditor and audited most old-world companies like Binny, Best & Crompton, TI, Tea Estates… His two children have made a mark for themselves. Daughter Bhavani Balasubramanian is a former Deloitte Partner with global board room experience. Son S Venkatakrishnan is Chairman of the Board of Endeavour Mining Plc. and was briefly Group CEO of Vedanta Resources Ltd. |
When he qualified in November 1954, NS was offered a position in the firm, which he gladly accepted. NS was elevated as In Charge of the Bangalore Branch within a few months. The majority of the clients were European planters from Karnataka and Kerala.
He accelerated way beyond the expectation of both clients and partners and soon got elevated as a partner in 1962 and as the firm’s senior partner in 1983. The mantle fell on NS to lead the firm forward.
He approached Touché Ross International, a famous Scottish accounting firm and got F & R admitted as a member.
However, the collaboration did not bring any material advantage to F&R. This made NS lookout for another foreign brand. He identified a fledgling Deloitte Haskins & Sells operating in Calcutta, which had a few south India audits. He caught up with the Senior Partner of Deloitte several times during his official visits, and this friendship, over time, resulted in F&R aligning with Deloitte.
F&R started getting referral work on taxes from Touché Ross International and the practice started flourishing. Soon Touché Ross International and Deloitte Haskins & Sells merged globally and many top accounting firms in India joined the Deloitte bandwagon. Thus, in a manner of speaking, NS could rightfully claim as one of the founding fathers of Deloitte in India.
NS opened the firm more fully to girls and over time the unwritten rule was to have 30 per cent women interns.
NS strongly believes that everyone should look at their age with fulfillment, live a life with forgiveness and develop a mindset that understands others’ perceptions.
