From workshop preparation to the company's future choices

Mandate

Choose a financially workable manufacturing portfolio while retaining the obligations inside growth and continuity plans

Outcomes

• Declined a ₹58 crore acquisition after examining additional ownership requirements
• Funded withdrawal of a custom-cover family with customer transition and staff redeployment
• Agreed a smaller non-exclusive order commitment instead of an indicative exclusive-capacity proposal
• Reported both recovered and rescheduled orders during flood disruption

Decisions in context

The board appointed me CEO and executive director in January 2021. I lead through seven executives and report through non-executive chair Asha Merzhali. The company now has 560 employees and recorded ₹214 crore revenue and ₹17.8 crore operating profit in FY 2026. My profit responsibility is company-wide, but the ₹14.6 crore annual capital envelope is approved by the board. CFO Rohit Nalqeri retains financial-control responsibilities and technical teams retain assessment and release. The recent choices have concerned obligations that a growth headline can conceal: expenditure after acquisition, support after product withdrawal, capacity reserved for a customer and delayed orders after a recovery. I want the board to see the money sacrificed and the choices preserved, with forecasts kept separate from realised results. My statutory role is executive and does not establish independence for another company.

Reason for the move

Current executive appointment; considering one additional non-executive role

Concurrent appointment

The statutory executive directorship and CEO employment began together in January 2021; this is one executive appointment with board duties, not two concurrent employers.

Mandate

Coordinate two-site manufacturing capability with realistic resource and transfer assumptions

Outcomes

• Examined tooling and skills alongside nominal spare machine capacity
• Connected site specialisation with continuity obligations
• Developed operating managers able to explain delivery limits before commitments

Decisions in context

Joining Vezqari gave me responsibility for a two-site operating system rather than a single general-management unit. The company employed 410 people and recorded ₹148 crore revenue in FY 2015. I led 290 operations colleagues through four managers, with ₹61 crore annual expense and ₹4.8 crore approved capital expenditure. We had to decide which work belonged at each site and what would be required to move it. A machine-hours report could suggest available capacity while overlooking tooling, material or skills. I learned to ask those questions before treating one site as a ready substitute for the other. The work also required a clearer relationship between the commercial promise and the operating plan. The CEO appointment later broadened that responsibility into portfolio and capital choices, while leaving day-to-day technical assessment with the colleagues qualified to make it.

Reason for the move

Appointed CEO and executive director by the board

Mandate

Connect customer mix, production economics and investment in one business account

Outcomes

• Brought commercial product variety into operating reviews
• Examined continuing support costs alongside new sales
• Completed a part-time operations-management MBA while employed

Decisions in context

The general-manager appointment required me to understand why the order mix existed, not only how to manufacture it. Norzemi employed 260 people and recorded ₹77 crore revenue in FY 2008. I worked through five functional heads with business-result responsibility and a ₹4.2 crore approved capital programme. Product variety could look attractive commercially while creating preparation and support costs that were difficult to recover. I learned to discuss those costs with sales and finance before proposing an operating solution. A part-time MBA at Orzheni Management Institute, completed in November 2010, helped me connect the financial account with the workshop questions I already understood. The role was managerial, without a statutory directorship. Vezqari later offered a larger operating system in which the same commercial and production choices had to work across two sites.

Reason for the move

Joined Vezqari for a larger two-site COO remit

Mandate

Make delivery plans reflect changeovers, maintenance and the mix of work accepted

Outcomes

• Connected nominal capability with usable production capacity
• Brought preparation and maintenance into delivery discussions
• Developed supervisors' responsibility for explaining operating constraints

Decisions in context

The operations role made me responsible for the working plan behind a delivery date. Kelvashi had 190 employees and ₹39 crore revenue in FY 2001. I led fifty-four colleagues through three supervisors, with ₹7.6 crore annual expense and ₹80 lakh approved capital expenditure. I learned that nominal machine capability was only one part of capacity. Changeovers, maintenance, material readiness and the actual order mix could alter what the team could responsibly promise. The most difficult conversations concerned commitments already made without those conditions being examined. I began involving supervisors earlier so that an operating objection was heard while there was still a choice. General management at Norzemi appealed because it would let me connect that workshop understanding with the commercial decisions that created the mix, rather than receive the order book as an instruction from another function.

Reason for the move

Recruited to general management at Norzemi

Mandate

Translate product drawings into repeatable preparation and production work under engineering review

Outcomes

• Learned the handling and preparation behind a drawing
• Investigated rework and repeatability with workshop colleagues
• Moved into operations management after six years in engineering

Decisions in context

I joined Kelvashi in July 1995 after completing production engineering that May. I was part of a seven-person group under a production engineering manager, without independent spending or hiring authority. The company employed eighty-five people and recorded ₹12.3 crore revenue in FY 1995. My work followed the drawing into the workshop, where preparation, handling and rework could change the economics of a product that appeared straightforward on paper. Experienced colleagues taught me to observe the sequence before proposing a faster method. A design could be technically possible without being easy to repeat at the promised cost. That lesson remained useful as my responsibilities grew. The move into operations management gave me a broader view of how several such products competed for the same people, equipment and delivery window.

Reason for the move

Promoted to operations manager