Choose the commitments behind the next market

I am chief strategy officer at Zevrali Simulation Works in Shillong. We develop software that helps instructors prepare and deliver industrial maintenance training. Our customers remain responsible for their training programmes, equipment procedures and assessment of competence. I lead eight strategy colleagues through two leads, with a ₹4.6 crore annual function budget. My work is to help the business choose which products, partnerships and markets deserve a commitment, then make the assumptions behind that choice available for later review.

My first planning job was in equipment services in 1992. I learned that a sale could leave obligations long after the commercial excitement had passed. Digital learning brought a different product but a similar question: who would keep the content useful when equipment, software or the customer's training practice changed? Since joining Zevrali in 2006, I have moved from commercial planning into product strategy and, in January 2021, the CSO role. The increasing responsibility has made me more interested in what we stop or postpone, not only what we add.

The stories here concern eight older modules retired through a funded transition, a licensed simulation engine chosen over an internal build, an initial market pilot shaped by instructor availability, and a partner programme that began with six capable organisations rather than thirty expressions of interest. These are choices made under specific conditions. I do not present them as a formula for every software company. Their value is in the questions they exposed and the obligations the final decisions made visible.

Current focus

I am bringing product-support obligations into the same discussion as new development. The aim is to make the consequences of adding, licensing or retiring a module visible before the annual plan treats every proposal as a separate opportunity.

Conversations I welcome

I would consider a first external board role where product economics, learning services or strategic resource choices are material. I can provisionally allow twenty-two days annually, subject to employer consent, relationship checks, appropriate preparation and a realistic discussion of exceptional work.