From account queries to enterprise commitments

Mandate

Lead a regional lender whose commercial promises remain consistent with credit, funding and servicing capacity.

Outcomes

• Approved a ₹14 crore facility after reopening a ₹24 crore request
• Deferred ₹70 crore of planned lending when choosing longer funding
• Removed ₹48 lakh of assumed annual automatic-rollover fees from the plan
• Approved a revised ₹82 lakh annual service budget after two counter closures

Decisions in context

I became the first CEO from outside the promoting family after eight years as chief operating officer. The board appointment broadened my responsibility from delivery to the commercial and financial commitments behind that delivery. I now lead seven functional heads, including credit and finance, while those specialists retain their own professional responsibilities. The cases on this site concern decisions made during this appointment, with the income forgone and uncertainty retained stated explicitly. I have had to explain why a smaller facility, a higher funding price or a lower fee budget could be the more defensible choice for the company. Ownership expectations remain part of that conversation, but I take proposals through the board process rather than treating a shareholder preference as an approved instruction. The directorship is executive service at my employer; it is not an independent appointment at another company.

Reason for the move

Current appointment; exploring a bounded external board contribution subject to approvals.

Concurrent appointment

The executive directorship began with the CEO appointment in May 2020 and is concurrent with it.

Mandate

Build operating capacity beyond relationships personally managed by the founders.

Outcomes

• Introduced a shared record of sanctioned and drawable amounts
• Assigned named ownership for unresolved servicing conditions
• Added service-work estimates to branch-location proposals

Decisions in context

The operating remit combined branch service, processing, collections administration and technology delivery. I was accountable for how those functions worked together, rather than for approving credit outside delegated authority. The company expanded its geographic reach during the appointment, which made informal escalation through a founder less workable. I introduced a shared handover record and asked managers to distinguish a missing item from a decision that required fresh approval. Some colleagues initially saw the extra explanation as slower service. I saw that a fast but incomplete answer could create more work and frustration later. I also began reviewing location proposals by activity, including the work that would move into central teams. Those reviews shaped my later decisions about counter closures. The appointment taught me to connect a service promise to resources and responsibility before treating a new system or location as an improvement.

Reason for the move

Appointed CEO following the board's succession process.

Mandate

Translate approved lending terms into a consistent customer service process.

Outcomes

• Separated sanctioned limits from currently drawable amounts in service records
• Created written escalation paths for disputed invoice evidence
• Established joint handovers between branch and central colleagues

Decisions in context

Moving from trade services into a lender required me to learn the boundary between explaining a condition and deciding whether it should apply. My team received questions after a loan had been approved, often when a customer expected to draw immediately. We needed to identify the outstanding evidence and the person authorised to assess it. I worked with credit colleagues to make those handovers explicit. The change did not allow servicing staff to amend a sanction, nor did it make every disputed invoice acceptable. It improved the internal record of what remained unresolved. I also asked branch managers to review the language used before approval so that a likely facility was not described as an unconditional commitment. This appointment gave me a practical understanding of lending operations while preserving the distinction between customer explanation, credit judgement and legal interpretation.

Reason for the move

Promoted to the broader operating role as the branch network expanded.

Mandate

Make account-query handovers reliable across supplier and buyer contacts.

Outcomes

• Introduced separate queues for missing documents and commercial disputes
• Assigned an account owner for unresolved buyer correspondence
• Created monthly client reviews of cases awaiting decisions outside the service team

Decisions in context

I became responsible for two teams supporting suppliers with account queries and documentary reconciliation. Our clients wanted their receivables explained, but we did not finance them or determine whether a buyer had accepted contractual performance. I learnt to make that boundary clear when a client asked us to treat every overdue amount as a collection problem. The teams organised the evidence, identified the question and referred the unresolved commercial decision to the appropriate people. I introduced separate queues because a missing delivery note and a dispute about completed work required different responses. The monthly reviews also exposed cases that had been described as active merely because another reminder had been sent. Managing the service budget and team capacity gave me my first sustained operating responsibility. I left when an opportunity arose to bring that experience into the servicing function of a regional finance company.

Reason for the move

Joined a lender to apply servicing experience within a business carrying credit commitments.

Mandate

Keep dispatch, invoice and payment records sufficiently clear for an account owner to act.

Outcomes

• Reconciled supporting records for recurring supplier accounts
• Identified missing acceptance evidence in overdue-account queries
• Coordinated a small team after taking responsibility for a client portfolio

Decisions in context

My first role involved comparing dispatch documents, invoice records and payment advice. I began with supervised tasks and gradually took responsibility for a portfolio of client queries. The work was detailed and sometimes repetitive, but the differences mattered. A payment could be missing from one record while already allocated in another, or an invoice could remain unpaid because the buyer disputed the work. I could assemble and explain the evidence; I could not settle the parties' disagreement. That distinction stayed with me when I later worked inside a lender. In the final part of this appointment I coordinated four colleagues and checked that a handover included the unresolved question as well as the latest correspondence. The promotion that followed reflected an ability to organise the service reliably, rather than a claim that I had already acquired credit or board responsibility.

Reason for the move

Promoted into customer-operations management.