Six appointments that each began in the field

Mandate

Turn a backup-power company into a home-energy company before backup demand declined, and turn a catalogue of solar panels into a product households could trust.

Outcomes

• Grew solar revenue from ₹110 Cr in FY2020-21 to ₹1,020 Cr in FY2025-26, with more than 1.12 lakh residential rooftop systems installed.
• Cut the inverter range from 112 models to 46 and made the hybrid inverter the default; hybrids reached 41 per cent of inverter units.
• Reduced first-year service tickets from 38 to 11 per 100 rooftop systems after moving installation standards into product.
• Cut the median wait from installation to subsidy credit from 97 days to 38 for households on the central rooftop programme.
• Launched a small-factory rooftop product that installed 1,400 systems worth ₹154 Cr in FY2025-26.

Decisions in context

I joined Dhruvanta in April 2021 at the invitation of Ambar Sethia, the managing director, who had seen the rooftop loan pilot I ran at Prayavan Consumer Finance. The company earned ₹2,240 crore that year, almost all of it from inverters and batteries, and its solar business was a catalogue of panels and charge controllers sold through retailers. My mandate was to build a home-energy business before better grid supply eroded backup demand. In five years we launched residential rooftop installation, a hybrid inverter range, a subsidy-journey product, an offer for small factories and an app now linked to about 2.3 lakh connected inverters. Not every decision went well: our early growth outran installation quality, and correcting it cost a year of plan. I lead 260 people with seven direct reports and work most closely with the chief technology officer, the head of sales and the head of our services subsidiary.

Reason for the move

Current role. Not seeking an executive move; considering one independent directorship with the Dhruvanta board's consent.

Mandate

Shorten loan approval at the shop counter without loosening credit, and extend point-of-sale lending into smaller towns.

Outcomes

• Cut the median approval time at the counter from 22 minutes to six with a redesigned application and document check.
• Extended point-of-sale lending from 190 towns to 320, with thirty-day arrears held at about 2 per cent.
• Designed a rooftop-solar loan pilot that financed 1,900 small systems in 2019–20.
• Built a repayment-reminder journey in four languages that reduced first-instalment defaults by about a third.

Decisions in context

Prayavan approved small loans at shop counters for buyers of televisions, refrigerators, phones and home inverters, often in towns where the customer had no credit history. I led a product team of 38 that owned the application journey, the document checks and the repayment experience, working alongside a credit team that set the risk rules and held all approval authority. We cut the median approval time from 22 minutes to six and extended lending from 190 towns to 320 while keeping arrears close to 2 per cent. In 2019 I designed a pilot loan for small rooftop systems, which financed 1,900 systems in its first year. It showed me how a lender sees solar: a long-lived asset, a monthly instalment and an installer nobody has assessed. I left when Dhruvanta offered me a product role that included the physical product itself.

Reason for the move

Invited to lead product at a listed home-power company, with responsibility for the physical product as well as the customer journey.

Mandate

Reduce churn among prepaid households and, from 2013, improve the installation and repair network.

Outcomes

• Reduced monthly churn among prepaid households from 2.6 per cent to 1.7 per cent with balance alerts, small recharges and a grace day.
• Cut repeat technician visits within thirty days from 21 per cent to 9 per cent.
• Introduced technician certification and pay linked to thirty-day quality across 7,500 contracted technicians.
• Reduced set-top boxes returned for repair by 28 per cent through a remote diagnostic flow.

Decisions in context

Taravani served more than nine million households, most of them on prepaid plans recharged every month at a neighbourhood shop. I joined to run product for prepaid subscriptions and found that churn was driven less by price than by surprise: a channel switched off without warning, or a balance that ran out on the night of a cricket final. Balance alerts, small-value recharges and a grace day cut monthly churn from 2.6 per cent to 1.7 per cent. In 2013 I also took over installation and field services, with 7,500 contracted technicians paid per visit and repeat visits within thirty days running at 21 per cent. We introduced certification and linked part of each technician's pay to thirty-day quality, and repeat visits fell to 9 per cent. By 2016 the category had stopped growing, and I wanted to understand household finance in smaller towns.

Reason for the move

Satellite television had stopped growing; wanted to learn how households in smaller towns finance larger purchases.

Mandate

Rebuild the agricultural pump range around field conditions and test whether solar pumps could become a product line.

Outcomes

• Redesigned the submersible and monoblock range for low, unstable feeder voltage, cutting warranty motor burn-outs by 35 per cent.
• Built a training programme that reached about 4,000 village mechanics.
• Ran a 120-farmer solar pump pilot in 2010; the pumps performed, but financing and subsidy timing did not.
• Reduced the range from 340 variants to 210.

Decisions in context

In 2007 I took charge of product management for Kodaivel's agricultural pumps, a business of about ₹520 crore sold through some 2,800 dealers and kept running by village mechanics we had never counted. I spent my first months riding with those mechanics in the Kongu belt and in Vidarbha. Our motors were rated for a voltage that farm feeders rarely delivered, and warranty burn-outs showed it. We redesigned the submersible and monoblock range for low and unsteady supply, cut warranty motor failures by 35 per cent and trimmed the range from 340 variants to 210. We trained about 4,000 mechanics, because they decided which brand a farmer bought next. In 2010 I ran a solar pump pilot with 120 farmers. The pumps worked; the financing and the long wait for subsidy did not. I left in 2011 to work on a subscription product at national scale.

Reason for the move

Wanted to work on a subscription consumer product at national scale.

Mandate

Bring customer research and failure data into the design of domestic pumps.

Outcomes

• Introduced quarterly field-failure reviews based on dealer returns into the design process.
• Launched a domestic pump with dry-run protection for towns with intermittent municipal water, which became the range's best seller within two years.
• Completed a part-time postgraduate diploma in management alongside the role.

Decisions in context

I joined Kodaivel Pumps in June 2002 as product manager for domestic pumps, then a ₹180 crore business selling to households in south and west India. Most product decisions were made from the factory's view of the pump. I began reading dealer returns as evidence and brought a quarterly field-failure review into the design process. The review showed that many burn-outs in towns with intermittent municipal water came from pumps running dry for hours, so we launched a model with dry-run protection that became the range's best seller within two years. I was promoted to senior product manager in 2004. Between 2004 and 2006 I also completed a part-time postgraduate diploma in management on weekends at the Velvizhi Institute of Management, which gave me a vocabulary for pricing and channel economics that I had been learning informally from dealers.

Reason for the move

Promoted to lead product management for the larger agricultural pump business.

Mandate

Install, maintain and repair UPS units and stabilisers for small factories, offices and clinics.

Outcomes

• Handled about 1,200 service calls a year across western Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
• Wrote the field report that led to a wider input-voltage range on the company's mid-size UPS.
• Trained six trainee technicians in battery care and site wiring checks.

Decisions in context

I joined Velmuran Power Electronics in July 1998 as a graduate engineer trainee, straight from my engineering degree, and became a service engineer a year later. Velmuran made UPS units and voltage stabilisers for small factories, offices and clinics, and I handled about 1,200 service calls a year across western Tamil Nadu and Kerala, most of them alone on a motorcycle with a toolbox and a multimeter. The defining call came in 1999 at a knitting unit in Tiruppur, where a UPS I had repaired twice kept failing because the evening supply sagged whenever nearby looms started. My field report led to a wider input-voltage range on our mid-size UPS. I also trained six trainee technicians in battery care and site wiring checks. I left in 2002 because I wanted to decide how products were designed rather than only repair them after they failed.

Reason for the move

Wanted to decide how products were designed, not only repair them after they failed.