Thirty years of increasing account responsibility

Mandate

Maintain service continuity, clarify commercial boundaries and build a sustainable investigative practice.

Outcomes

• Reduced unclassified accounts from 211 to 78 in a 620-account diagnostic cohort
• Secured a ₹18 lakh fixed diagnostic assignment after declining a broad contingent fee
• Renewed three of four repriced client contracts and completed one orderly exit

Decisions in context

I took responsibility for the whole company just as service continuity became an immediate operational concern. My first decisions concerned access, client communication and the reliability of our fee forecasts. As that period stabilised, I moved the board discussion towards the types of work we should accept. We were good at investigating difficult balances, but our contracts did not always pay for the time or identify the client authority required. I sponsored the diagnostic cohort, changed how we evaluate contingent proposals and accepted a client departure during repricing. The company now reports service revenue separately from the financial value of records processed. I am an executive shareholder and report to the board; I do not hold a statutory director appointment. That distinction remains explicit in discussions about my governance experience and future availability.

Reason for the move

Current appointment; preparing succession depth before considering another enterprise remit.

Mandate

Make case investigation repeatable without turning unresolved judgement into an automatic closure.

Outcomes

• Introduced monthly review of reopened cases across five delivery teams
• Reduced repeat handovers from 94 to 57 in a 300-case six-month sample
• Established an approved skills matrix for 24 supervisory and specialist posts

Decisions in context

The operations remit forced me to replace personal involvement with an operating method other people could use. I started with reopened cases because a closure report had been concealing work returned by clients. We examined the reason for return and whether a supervisor had enough evidence when approving the case. Some errors arose from training; others came from unclear contracts or unavailable client owners. I resisted treating every return as an analyst failure. My budget responsibility also required choices about specialist capacity, premises and support systems. We retained experienced investigators in small teams rather than spreading them so thinly that nobody could review a difficult account. By the end of the appointment, I could explain the cost and capacity of each delivery group to the chief executive, including the assumptions that made a service commercially fragile.

Reason for the move

Appointed chief executive following the founder's move to a non-executive role.

Mandate

Create a paid investigation service for accounts that routine matching could not explain.

Outcomes

• Established three investigation work packages with defined client approvals
• Trained 26 analysts in separating accepted and contested invoice elements
• Converted seven pilot assignments into annual service agreements

Decisions in context

I joined to turn account investigation from an informal favour into an identifiable service. Early proposals underestimated how long it took to reconstruct old correspondence. I met client finance and sales managers together so that we could agree who would answer which question. The resulting work packages separated routine reference matching, documentary investigation and matters requiring a commercial decision. I also learnt to manage a budget rather than simply argue for more experienced staff. We reviewed pilot economics before extending them, including the time senior colleagues spent rescuing unclear assignments. Seven pilots became annual agreements, but some prospects preferred a less expensive processing service and did not proceed. This appointment gave me the commercial discipline I had lacked in my earlier team role and prepared me to supervise several different delivery groups.

Reason for the move

Promoted to chief operating officer as the company expanded beyond its original practice.

Mandate

Explain unresolved account balances and reduce unnecessary circulation between client departments.

Outcomes

• Introduced an account-question record across twelve investigators
• Cut median internal reassignment from four to two handovers in a 180-case sample
• Prepared monthly client reviews separating missing receipts from contested charges

Decisions in context

My first management role began with a team that knew the accounts well but described them inconsistently. I asked each investigator to identify the unresolved question before assigning the case to another department. That simple discipline exposed repeated circulation between sales and finance. It also revealed that our own requests were sometimes too broad to answer. We tested shorter evidence requests, reviewed a sample with client managers and retained the original disagreement when our interpretation changed. I controlled a modest team budget and made the case for training through fewer handovers, rather than through an ambitious cash claim. I was not authorised to approve client credit notes or negotiate settlements. Learning to operate usefully within those boundaries became an important foundation for the specialist service I later went on to lead.

Reason for the move

Moved to build a specialist practice with direct responsibility for its commercial design.

Mandate

Prepare supported receipt allocations and identify differences requiring client review.

Outcomes

• Maintained supporting references for a monthly queue of approximately 900 receipts
• Created a supervisor-approved checklist for combined remittances
• Mentored three recruits through their initial allocation reviews

Decisions in context

I began by entering references and preparing proposed allocations for a supervisor to approve. A receipt could cover several invoices, and a familiar amount was not enough to identify the customer's intention. I learnt to retain uncertainty rather than force an account to balance. As my experience grew, I was assigned older differences and helped new colleagues understand why an apparently tidy posting might still be wrong. The monthly queue was substantial, but the work remained under client authority and I had no mandate to adjust a debt. I built a small checklist for combined remittances and revised it after supervisors found ambiguous cases. The promotion that followed reflected this ability to investigate and explain, rather than responsibility for a loan book or a claim that I had managed client funds.

Reason for the move

Promoted into account resolution management after taking on complex reference investigations.