Following the work beyond the busiest machine

I completed a diploma in textile processing at Belquvi Textile Institute in May 1997 and joined Merquni Textile Services in Mysuru the following month. My first appointment was as a processing supervisor. I worked under a plant manager and learned to understand a day's work through its sequence rather than through the fastest machine. Material arriving at one stage could be held by a different mix, an equipment interruption or the need for further checks. I could organise my assigned team, but I did not set the company's process standards or approve capital purchases.

In April 2003 I moved into finishing management. I became responsible for thirty-eight colleagues working across drying, pressing and packing. This changed my view of production numbers. A washing total could rise while the volume ready to leave remained unchanged. The useful question was where the work waited and whether the assumptions used to compare stages were actually the same. Different textile mixes and moisture conditions could make a casual comparison misleading. I learned to ask for a defined basis before using a capacity figure to support a service commitment.

I joined Pelquvi Clinical Linen Services as plant manager in April 2009. The business handled non-sterile hospital bed linen and staff garments. It did not prepare sterile surgical packs, and I did not become an infection-control professional by moving into the sector. Qualified quality colleagues and customer teams determined the relevant acceptance conditions. My responsibility was to organise resources, flow and escalation so those conditions remained part of the service. A late order could require a difficult customer conversation; it did not give operations permission to bypass a hold.

Plant management also brought me closer to the customer's item-level requirement. A weight or total piece count could be useful for production planning without describing the contents needed by a particular hospital. We had to preserve size, garment type and ownership through sorting, processing and packing. I learned that an apparent shortage might be a mix problem rather than a lack of total pieces. The response needed to follow the actual requirement instead of producing more of whichever item was easiest to count.

In April 2015 I became head of regional operations. I led 210 colleagues through four managers by departure and coordinated the two sites with transport and customer-service teams. The wider role exposed assumptions that one plant could previously resolve informally. A piece stored at our site might belong to a customer under segregated-stock terms, so its presence did not make it available to another contract. A site could have spare washing time while finishing and dispatch were already constrained. I wanted those differences retained when the account moved into a group-level capacity discussion.

I became COO in April 2021. Today I lead 320 operating colleagues through five heads with ₹46 crore annual operating expense and a separate ₹5.2 crore approved capital programme. Pelquvi employed 430 people in March 2026 and recorded ₹106 crore FY 2025–26 revenue across eighteen institutional customers. Employee holders own 60% and a regional investment partnership 40%; my direct holding is 0.3%. Vinod Narqeli is CEO and Farida Selquni leads quality. I present operating decisions to directors but hold no statutory seat. My authority remains within approved delegations and the boundaries of qualified process acceptance.

The capacity case required me to withdraw a sales assumption I had supported. The washer-stage figure of 24 tonnes per day did not describe the 12 tonnes finishing could support for the defined mix and operating conditions. We funded downstream work instead of accepting volume that would accumulate inside the process. The size case exposed a different mistake:a 240-piece pack could still be forty long sheets short. Counting everything together made the order look complete while the customer lacked the required item.

The stock case concerned a promise we had no basis to make. Of 12,000 serviceable pieces in our proposed pool, 4,500 were customer-owned and could not be allocated as company stock. We corrected the available figure and deferred the new contract. I speak Kannada, Hindi and English. My next role should continue this willingness to make an operating answer more precise even when it becomes less favourable. A first board contribution would require further preparation, consent and a review of my ownership and commercial relationships before any appointment.

Open to Board appointments · Executive opportunities

Languages / Kannada · Hindi · English