Mixing business with pleasure
Battery maker and associate of US’s Johnson Controls Inc. has announced its third quarter FY14 results last week from its corporate office at Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh. The company has manufacturing plant and registered office at Tirupati in the same state of Andhra Pradesh while Johnson Controls is headquartered at Milwaukee in US.
Looking at the last 12 quarterly results and the cities where the board meetings were held, we came across an interesting observation: 4 of the 12 i.e. 33% of the board meetings were held at holiday destinations such as the coffee estate of Coorg (Karnataka) or the palace city of Udaipur (Rajasthan) or even international venue like the picturesque Prague in Czech Republic.
| S. No. | Quarterly Result | Board Meeting Date | Place of Board Meeting |
| 1 | Q4FY11 | 16-May-11 | Milwaukee, US |
| 2 | Q1FY12 | 13-Aug-11 | Tirupati, Andhra Pardesh |
| 3 | Q2FY12 | 14-Nov-11 | Shanghai, China |
| 4 | Q3FY12 | 13-Feb-12 | Udaipur, Rajasthan |
| 5 | Q4FY12 | 28-May-12 | Hyderabad, Andhra Pardesh |
| 6 | Q1FY13 | 14-Aug-13 | Tirupati, Andhra Pardesh |
| 7 | Q2FY13 | 05-Nov-12 | Hyderabad, Andhra Pardesh |
| 8 | Q3FY13 | 28-Jan-13 | Coorg, Karnataka |
| 9 | Q4FY13 | 13-May-13 | Milwaukee, US |
| 10 | Q1FY14 | 13-Aug-13 | Tirupati, Andhra Pardesh |
| 11 | Q2FY14 | 14-Nov-13 | Prague, Czech Republic |
| 12 | Q3FY14 | 23-Jan-14 | Hyderabad, Andhra Pardesh |
Amara Raja Batteries has a 10 member board, of which 5 are independent and 2 are nominees of Johnson Controls. Board meeting venues such as Hyderabad, Tirupati and even Milwaukee mean business, but one wonders if Udaipur and Coorg are aimed to mix work with pleasure!