From collecting observations to questioning their use

Mandate

Preserve the meaning and ownership of operating data used for financial, service and quality decisions

Outcomes

• Corrected eighteen bundle-to-piece mappings identified in a seventy-two-code reporting review
• Held twenty-seven customer allocations out of billing until finance accepted the reviewed evidence
• Preserved raw records while fourteen timestamp discrepancies were examined
• Postponed an eleven-site ranking until an agreed activity denominator was established

Decisions in context

The CDO appointment made me accountable for a clearer relationship between data and the decisions it supports across Relzavi. I lead twenty-four colleagues through four leads, reporting to Ketan Orzavi. Nadia Qezhari retains quality authority through qualified teams. Recent work has required different responses to different uncertainties: definition repair, a held financial allocation, preserved raw evidence and a postponed comparison. I do not want those actions collapsed into a single data-quality score that hides their consequences. The annual function expense is ₹5.8 crore with ₹1.8 crore approved capital expenditure, within a much larger processing business. Since May 2023 I have also held a separately approved non-executive seat at Nerzhel Workwear Repair. That appointment uses twelve days annually and is distinct from my executive role; it does not make me a director of Relzavi or give its data team authority over another company's records.

Reason for the move

Current role; considering one additional non-executive appointment alongside an existing private-company seat

Concurrent appointment

A non-executive directorship at Nerzhel Workwear Repair from May 2023 runs alongside this employment with consent; it is not a second executive job.

Mandate

Develop operational data stewardship with clear boundaries around technical quality decisions

Outcomes

• Made ownership of data exceptions clearer across operating and quality functions
• Preserved record history in discussions of processing discrepancies
• Developed team leads able to explain why a corrected record did not itself authorise release

Decisions in context

Relzavi brought me into a service where processing records had consequences beyond planning convenience. At entry the business employed 590 people and recorded ₹166 crore revenue in FY 2015. I led sixteen colleagues through three leads, with ₹3.4 crore annual expense and ₹95 lakh approved capital expenditure. I spent time learning which questions the data team could answer and which belonged to quality professionals. A timestamp discrepancy could be described technically, but its significance for a processing record required the appropriate assessment. A missing customer field could be highlighted, but its financial allocation needed evidence accepted by the responsible owner. I learned to make those handoffs part of the data function's work instead of treating them as delays imposed by somebody else. The later CDO role extended that approach into a broader executive account of data investment and the conclusions management drew from its reports.

Reason for the move

Promoted to CDO as the business expanded its use of cross-functional data

Mandate

Connect planning, customer allocation and performance comparisons through understood definitions

Outcomes

• Brought denominator definitions into site-comparison discussions
• Clarified ownership of customer-allocation exceptions
• Developed managers able to distinguish an observed difference from an explained performance gap

Decisions in context

The head-of-function role broadened my work from producing planning analysis to establishing whether the comparison itself was fit for the decision. Orshavi employed 480 people and recorded ₹112 crore revenue in FY 2008. I led seventeen colleagues and ₹2.6 crore annual expense under the chief operating officer. Customer allocation and site performance required discussions with people who collected data for different purposes. I learned that an internally consistent measure could still be unsuitable for comparing two operations. The difficulty was often organisational: a useful definition had to be agreed by colleagues who had sensible but different reasons for their existing practice. I became more comfortable delaying a conclusion while that work happened. Relzavi later offered a setting in which the boundary between an operating record and a qualified technical judgement made this discipline particularly consequential.

Reason for the move

Joined Relzavi to lead data in a clinical-linen service environment

Mandate

Develop planning analysis that distinguishes physical, commercial and processing measures

Outcomes

• Progressed into management of nine analytics colleagues
• Clarified piece, bundle and weight definitions used in planning
• Built working relationships with colleagues who collected operating records

Decisions in context

I joined Orshavi as a data analyst in October 2000 and became planning analytics manager in 2004. The company had 210 employees and ₹44 crore revenue in FY 2000. My later remit included nine colleagues and ₹72 lakh annual expense. Textile operations made the meaning of a unit impossible to treat as an abstract concern. Pieces, bundles, weights and processing events could each be valid observations, while answering different commercial or physical questions. I learned to trace the record back to the task in which it had been collected and to ask the operating colleague what the count represented. That habit helped me explain a report without relying on its title to carry all the context. As responsibility grew, I also learned to make the definition understandable to someone who had not attended the discussion in which it was first agreed.

Reason for the move

Promoted to head of data and planning

Mandate

Prepare and examine supply observations under senior review

Outcomes

• Learned to investigate collection methods before interpreting a table
• Documented unit and coverage assumptions in analysis
• Developed an interest in how operating decisions change the meaning required from data

Decisions in context

My first appointment followed a statistics degree and a full-time master's in applied statistics. I joined Belzari in July 1994 as part of a six-person analysis group, reporting to a senior analyst without independent spending authority. The firm employed forty-five people at entry and worked with regional supply businesses. I learned that a table's precision could be misleading when the collection method was poorly understood. Before interpreting a difference, I would examine what had been observed, which period it covered and whether the same unit had been used throughout. Senior review taught me to state those assumptions where another reader could challenge them. I later wanted to work closer to the operating process itself, where the record was created and the decision followed, which led me to join Orshavi rather than remain solely in an external analysis role.

Reason for the move

Moved into textile operations to work more closely with the people creating and using the records