Growth must account for the work it retains

In 2019 I supported expanding our premium piano rooms on the strength of their larger sales and gross-margin account. I had not given enough weight to the category-specific delivery and tuning commitments. The reviewed piano category had ₹12 crore sales and ₹3.6 crore gross margin, but ₹1.4 crore of those service costs left ₹2.2 crore before occupancy and shared expense. Guitars had ₹8 crore sales and ₹2 crore gross margin, with ₹30 lakh of comparable direct service costs leaving ₹1.7 crore on the same limited basis. The piano category was still larger in absolute terms. The correction was that neither sales nor the initial margin alone justified the space and service commitment I had recommended.

I lead strategy at Velqerni Music Rooms in Gangtok, where twelve shops and 238 employees support musical-instrument customers. FY 2025–26 revenue was ₹94 crore. My nine-person team works through two leads within ₹2.1 crore annual function expense. I do not hold the trading P&L or approve capital independently. CEO Nisha Verqlani owns enterprise execution and CFO Rajan Delqeshi owns financial assessment and reporting. My responsibility is to make alternatives, dependencies and uncertainties clear enough for those owners to decide. Product specialists remain responsible for instrument condition and appropriate service, including judgements a strategy model cannot make for them.

Later proposals for used-instrument consignment and a small rental fleet made the same responsibility tangible in different ways. Avoiding an outright purchase did not remove inspection, custody or seller-settlement work. A fleet acquired for rental did not become fully productive merely because the instruments were ready to place. I want the commercial model to include those continuing obligations before the opportunity is described as an easy extension of retail. I would consider another strategy mandate that values that discipline. A first outside board contribution also interests me after further preparation, with a clear boundary between challenging the model and running the receiving company’s operation. I have no statutory seat, and the actual appointment would need its own assessment of suitability, relationships and time.

Current focus

Commercial models that preserve service obligations, asset utilisation and responsibility beyond the initial growth headline.

Conversations I welcome

A consumer strategy mandate and, after preparation, one suitable first non-executive contribution.