Following the work into the conditions around it

Mandate

Connect career and employment arrangements with the creative capabilities the enterprise needs

Outcomes

• Established a specialist progression route with evidence and pay distinct from management appointments
• Separated verified contribution records from permitted public credit
• Clarified the boundary between creative review and personal appraisal
• Made disputed internal releases an accountable enterprise decision

Decisions in context

I became CHRO in June 2021 and now lead sixteen colleagues through three heads, reporting to Madhav. Nelqori employs 312 people and recorded ₹86 crore revenue for FY ending March 2026. My FY 2026–27 function expense is ₹1.9 crore, alongside a separate ₹72 lakh development programme. Rukmini retains creative-production leadership, and qualified specialists make the relevant artistic, commercial and employment decisions. My work has examined what the company's career arrangements encourage people to become and what its recognition and mobility promises allow them to do. I have no statutory seat or equity allocation. The role requires me to explain both the employee experience and the enterprise cost, including unfinished appointments and release questions. A future board contribution would use that experience through oversight, with preparation in the whole business rather than an assumption that creative-sector familiarity answers every governance question.

Reason for the move

Current people leadership; preparing to assess a first external board contribution

Mandate

Bring employment processes, development and manager support into a clearer studio-wide account

Outcomes

• Connected development discussions with the responsibilities of actual appointments
• Supported managers in explaining employment decisions
• Introduced a progression framework later revised for its narrow management emphasis

Decisions in context

The January 2016 appointment widened my remit beyond learning to people operations across the studio. Nelqori had 224 direct employees and ₹57 crore revenue for FY ending March 2017. Twelve colleagues worked through three heads within ₹1.2 crore annual function expense. I wanted employees to understand the arrangements behind development, appraisal and progression. Some common processes helped; the management-centred promotion form later showed where consistency had become too narrow. I had accepted a familiar way of describing seniority before considering the craft contribution it made difficult to recognise. The role taught me to examine the practical consequence of a process rather than rely on its tidy wording. Becoming CHRO gave me a wider responsibility to correct those choices, explain their cost and connect people decisions with the capabilities the enterprise needed to sustain.

Reason for the move

Appointed to the CHRO role

Mandate

Organise development around the creative responsibilities the studio actually needs people to carry

Outcomes

• Worked with practitioners to define relevant learning and evidence
• Distinguished course participation from demonstrated creative readiness
• Connected development conversations with production responsibilities

Decisions in context

I joined Nelqori in April 2010 to lead studio learning. The enterprise had 126 direct employees and ₹25 crore revenue for FY ending March 2011. Eight colleagues worked through two leads with ₹63 lakh annual function expense. My production background helped me understand the setting, but I did not claim authority to assess every artistic or technical skill. Creative specialists defined and judged the relevant work. My team organised the conditions in which people could learn, receive useful feedback and demonstrate a contribution. I became wary of treating attendance as a result simply because it was easy to count. The role also showed me how development could be constrained by the career arrangements waiting after the programme. People operations offered the opportunity to connect those arrangements more closely with the learning work, rather than leave a successful course without a practical next step.

Reason for the move

Promoted to lead people operations

Mandate

Keep reviews, revisions and agreed production decisions available to the teams doing the work

Outcomes

• Coordinated review requirements across creative contributors
• Maintained an account of agreed revisions and responsibility
• Learned to distinguish visible presentation from the wider contribution behind it

Decisions in context

From September 2005 I coordinated six colleagues through two project leads within a ₹28 lakh annual administrative allowance. Orqevani employed seventy-two people and reported ₹11 crore revenue for FY ending March 2006. I worked under the production manager, with artistic acceptance and client commitments authorised elsewhere. Coordination made the shared nature of a finished sequence more visible to me. The person presenting the work was not necessarily the only person whose judgement had made it possible. Review notes, revision explanations and a clear account of the next decision mattered to colleagues trying to contribute well. I also saw how a demanding creative conversation could become less useful when it shifted from the work to a public judgement of the person. Studio learning later offered a way to develop those observations into more deliberate support for creative practitioners and their managers.

Reason for the move

Moved into studio learning at Nelqori

Mandate

Develop assigned visual work under creative supervision and respond to reasoned review

Outcomes

• Prepared assigned work within the agreed creative brief
• Learned to explain revisions and receive challenge about the work
• Observed the contribution of colleagues beyond the final presentation

Decisions in context

I joined Orqevani in July 1999 after completing visual communication the previous month. The firm had thirty-one employees and ₹4.6 crore revenue for FY ending March 2000. I worked in a seven-person creative group without reports or spending authority. Senior artists reviewed my work, and I learned to distinguish a useful explanation from a verdict that gave me no way to improve it. The experience also made me attentive to contributions that did not always appear in the final presentation. A colleague could resolve a difficult part of the work and remain largely absent from its visible account. Production coordination offered a wider view of how those contributions met and how a decision moved between people. I chose that move to understand the working process more fully, not because I had ceased to value the craft with which my career began.

Reason for the move

Moved into production coordination