Narendran quits TVS-E

N R Sethuraman

Chennai: S Narendran, Senior VP, TVS-Electronics has put down his papers. A
company official who confirmed the news also said that M Somasundram, VP, TVS-E
would be Narendran's successor.

When contacted, Narendran was tightlipped about the issue and promised to
share details at a later stage. Narendran's move has come shortly after his
elevation to the post of co-CEO, along with Somasundram a few months back, when
the company restructured its management. He has served TVS-E for almost 10
years. Though the reason for his exit is unknown, it is sure to have an impact
on TVS-E as the organization had undergone a major restructuring after a bad
show in the market last year.

Incidentally, Narendran's move comes at a time where the overall DMP market
has witnessed a decline of four percent as compared to FY'06. Predominantly, DMP
is the huge revenue-contributing segment for TVS-E. Five major players-Epson,
TVS-E, WeP, Panasonic and LiPi, rule the DMP segment. There is close competition
existing in the segment between Epson and TVS-E. However, Epson overtook TVS-E
by three percent in FY'07. Earlier, TVS-E sold its contract manufacturing
services to a Finnish company for an undisclosed sum. Apart from printers,
customer service center remains a key business area for TVS-E.

Channel partners expressed their surprise over Narendran's exit. However,
their response was mixed as few foresaw an impact in the market and few did not.