T. T. KRISHNAMACHARI

One of the makers of modern India, T T Krishnamachari was the son of a district judge. He chose to be different from the usual middle-class crop who were either lawyers, teachers or Government servants. He wanted to be businessman. Starting at 20, he became an apprentice under A R Doraisami Iyengar, who was running an indenting firm in Madras representing the Lever brothers, selling soap and oil.

TTK had a highly successful sales career, selling soap door to door. The popularity of Sunlight soap in the South can be credited to the efforts of TTK. After the death of Doraisami Iyengar in 1928, TTK was awarded the agency by Lever Brothers. In that year he set up T T Krishnamachari & Co.

TTK changed the very nature of selling as it was known then. From booking indents, he moved the company to stocking and selling directly to dealers in several towns. This meant the opening of depots, setting up a sales organisation, and introducing new accounting practices. The concept of redistribution, of taking the goods from dealers to retailers was introduced by TTK & Co. What seems commonplace today were all TTK's daring innovations. He conducted market survey to study customer preferences, he adopted unique methods of sales promotion and advertising like skywriting, distributing leaflets by air-dropping them, giving away attractive calendars. TTK realised the potential of rural marketing decades ago. He organised rural fairs and melas and prize schemes to attract customers.

The company was well established by mid-thirties and in 1936, he entered politics. Once he joined the Congress, he gave up everything else and went on to lay the foundations for the economic and industrial infrastructure of the country. He was a member of the draft committee of the Indian Constitution. He was also the Union Minister of Commerce and Industry (1952-56) and Iron and Steel (1955-57). But it was as Finance Minister in Jawaharlal Nehru's Union Cabinet (1963-65) that he made his biggest contributions to the nation.

TTK was a connoisseur of Art and Music. The Music Academy, Chennai, owes much of its present relevance to the initiative of this man. Fittingly, its main auditorium bears his name.

  M. A. CHIDAMBARAM

He is the founder of the M. A. Chidambaram group of companies, of which, Southern Petrochemical Industries Corporation Limited (SPIC) is the flagship company. The group has interests in Agribusiness, Chemicals, Petrochemicals, Detergents, Electronics, Shipping, Engineering Services, Infrastructure, Logistics and Port Management.

M. A. Chidambaram (or MAC, as he was fondly called) born on October 12th, 1918, was the third son of Dr Rajah Sir Annamalai Chettiar, the founder of Annamalai University.

MAC started off with a scooter factory in Mumbai. SPIC was established later. Besides being a pioneering industrialist, MAC is also remembered for his contribution to several other fields. He started the Tamil Isai Sangam to promote music in Tamil. His trust contributed substantially to the Voluntary Health Service started by Dr K. Sanjeevi.

He was President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for a term and its Treasurer for a record number of years. He was also President of the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association for more than three decades. Through his efforts, Chennai now boasts a Cricket stadium of international standards - the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium, at Chepauk. MAC was Mayor of Chennai in 1955.

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