Learning strategy from the working life of equipment

I grew up in Goa and began work where a production plan had to survive the realities of a factory floor. After a Bachelor of Commerce at Darsovel College of Commerce in May 1995, I joined Tenvora Machine Components that July as a cost assistant. I compared planned material use with production records and helped explain differences to the finance manager. The work was detailed and sometimes repetitive, but it taught me that a plausible spreadsheet could conceal a machine waiting for a part or a batch requiring more rework than the standard allowed.

As I moved into planning analysis, I spent more time with production and maintenance colleagues. They could explain why a new machine's stated capacity did not translate directly into saleable output. Changeovers, service access and the range of work mattered. I learnt to ask how an asset would be used rather than treat its purchase price as a complete account of its economics. I was not an engineer or an investment approver. My contribution was to make the assumptions in a financial comparison visible enough for the responsible managers to challenge them.

In January 2002 I joined Orvessa Industrial Leasing as a portfolio analyst. The move took me from one manufacturer's equipment to a range of customer businesses. A machine could remain technically sound and still be difficult to redeploy because its configuration suited a narrow task. I reviewed lease portfolios, service records and disposal experience with colleagues who understood the assets. The lesson was not that a resale estimate should always be pessimistic. It was that the estimate needed a credible route from the asset's condition to a buyer, including the time and cost of that route.

I joined Kavreni Equipment Finance in April 2009 as head of business planning. The regional lender needed a common way to compare expansion proposals from offices and dealer relationships. I built a small team that brought demand estimates, operating costs and the required support functions into the same paper. Branch colleagues knew their markets better than we did, but a strong local relationship did not by itself establish the size of an opportunity. We visited customers and partners to understand which assumptions came from observed activity and which came from a hope that the lender's arrival would create it.

In October 2015 my remit expanded to strategy and alliances. Partnership discussions made the cost of dependence more visible. A dealer could offer a large pipeline while asking us to restrict other relationships. A proposed new segment could look attractive because a model assumed an asset would retain its value without accounting for refurbishment or the limited pool of buyers. I learnt to bring alternatives into the discussion before a preferred proposal became the only option people felt able to defend. That included a smaller experiment, a non-exclusive arrangement or a service contract instead of ownership.

I became CSO in April 2021. Kavreni now operates 32 offices across seven western and southern Indian states and employs 650 people. At March 2026 its loan portfolio was ₹2,200 crore; income for the year ending that month was ₹340 crore. An industrial investment company owns 55% and a regional private-capital partnership owns 45%. I lead twelve strategy and partnership colleagues through three managers with a ₹6.8 crore annual function budget. I report to the CEO and present strategic proposals to directors, but I do not hold a board seat or individual credit authority.

The distinction between strategy and approval matters in the cases published here. My team can show how a programme's economics depend on a dealer, an asset assumption or a service network. Credit, risk, treasury and operating colleagues must still exercise their own responsibilities. A pilot ceiling is not an instruction to lend up to it, and a modelled contribution is not earned income. I want the board to see the proposal's conditions clearly enough to decide what the company should attempt, while preserving the authority needed to judge each subsequent transaction.

I am now interested in a first board role where this experience can help a company examine an asset-heavy growth decision. I would bring an industrial and financing perspective, together with the humility of knowing that I have not yet served as a director. My executive work has taught me to ask what an attractive plan depends on and what the company would do if that dependency weakened. In a board setting, the task would be to help management answer those questions responsibly, without building a second strategy office around my own preferences.

Open to Board appointments

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