The three promises that needed one capacity decision

The three assignments looked manageable when I reviewed them separately in 2018. Each had a clear exhibition opening window, and each made commercial sense on its own terms. Together they required nine crew teams at the same time, while our available capacity was six. I approved the combined commitment as COO without giving that overlap the attention it needed. The problem was not that the opening dates had changed unexpectedly; my decision had failed to bring them into one operating picture.

I grew up in Bhopal and completed a Bachelor of Commerce at the fictional Varlekhi Commerce College in May 1992. I joined Nelravi Freight Services the following month in an eight-person accounts-support group. We prepared service records and reconciled charges for senior colleagues. I had no investment or operating authority. The work made me interested in what a charge actually paid for and which obligations sat behind a service description that looked simple on an invoice.

In April 2000 I became a commercial manager leading fourteen colleagues within ₹1.9 crore annual function expense. Customers wanted a clear commitment, and operations needed the terms to describe what had been accepted. I learned to connect the commercial account with the resources required to fulfil it. That lesson was familiar by the time I later approved the overlapping exhibitions. The mistake was therefore mine to own rather than a surprise that only an operating specialist could have recognised.

I joined Tarneshi Exhibition Logistics in April 2008 as commercial director, leading twenty-nine colleagues within ₹5.4 crore annual function expense. Exhibition work made timing and preparation especially visible. A customer might move a display repeatedly, but the contents, handling requirements and venue windows could differ. Sanjay’s operating colleagues needed those conditions understood before a quotation became a promise. I worked to make commercial and field discussions part of the same account rather than successive handovers in which the next team discovered what had been omitted.

I became COO in April 2015, with five functional heads and responsibility across an enterprise that reached 184 employees and ₹68 crore revenue by the appointment’s closing year. Annual operating responsibility was ₹52 crore with a separate ₹4.6 crore capital programme. In 2018 the three overlapping assignments exposed the capacity error in my own approval. We spent ₹42 lakh over four weeks obtaining suitable partner capacity and agreeing revised work windows with customers. The revised plan was fulfilled. I did not present the recovery as evidence that the initial commitment had been reasonable or invent a perfect on-time record from it.

My April 2020 appointment combined chief-executive leadership with an executive seat on the board. Six executive heads now support the business, with Sanjay owning operations and Leela leading the board. I carry ₹87 crore FY 2026–27 operating responsibility and a separate ₹9 crore capital programme. My 0.06% interest is included within the employee vehicle’s 40%, alongside founders at 35% and a domestic fund at 25%. Those relationships make the durability of our service capability a board question as well as an operating concern.

In 2023 I backed a repeat-fit crate programme with ₹1.2 crore capital and ₹22 lakh preparation expense. The selected 120 crates were approved for defined repeat uses and supported 216 recorded movements over eighteen months. The 96 movements beyond first use did not establish a universal packing solution or a quantified environmental benefit. In 2025 we piloted customer agreements that explicitly paid for reserved capacity. Four of six customers chose that arrangement, and two stayed with ad-hoc service. One annual agreement of ₹1.8 crore included availability rather than adding a hidden charge later.

An outside-board contribution would need further governance preparation and a specific review alongside my executive directorship. I would bring experience in making the cost of availability and preparation visible before the company accepts a promise. The lesson from 2018 remains central: recovering a commitment can be necessary, but the recovery should not become the business model or a reason to forget the decision that made it necessary. Leela asks me to bring the inconvenient capacity account to the board while there is still a choice to make. I want the executive team to apply the same discipline before a quotation turns the customer’s preferred opening window into our accepted obligation.

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