Learning the whole operation through wider responsibilities

Mandate

Connect commercial commitments, operating capability and capital with the enterprise's responsibilities

Outcomes

• Separated the ownership transfer from the company's capital funding
• Negotiated a shorter customer framework with input review
• Delayed an incompletely staffed shift and selected bounded automation

Decisions in context

I became CEO and executive director in February 2021. I lead six executive direct reports with enterprise profit responsibility and a ₹24 crore annual capital envelope approved by the board, reporting to Mira. Thomas leads finance. Vezqoshi employs 520 people across Kolhapur and Sangli, recording ₹228 crore revenue and ₹19.4 crore operating profit for FY 2026. The 2022 secondary transfer left founders with 30%, the investor with 55% and the employee trust with 15%; I hold no direct equity. My recent work connects ownership, commercial terms, staffing and automation with the commitments the enterprise can support. I do not treat company results as my sole achievement or investment approval as completed benefit. Technical assessment and release remain with authorised specialists, while directors and executives retain their respective decision responsibilities.

Reason for the move

Current CEO role and sole statutory appointment

Concurrent appointment

The executive directorship accompanies the CEO role at the same company; it is one statutory appointment.

Mandate

Coordinate production responsibilities across the manufacturing sequence

Outcomes

• Took wider responsibility for the operating system
• Supported and then reversed a tensioning outsourcing trial
• Changed how retained work entered process comparisons

Decisions in context

I became COO in April 2015, leading 330 operating colleagues through five heads with ₹28 crore annual expense under the CEO. The business employed 430 people and recorded ₹174 crore revenue for FY 2016. In 2016 I supported a tensioning trial using a ₹2.4 crore outside annual fee against ₹3.6 crore internal expense. The comparison did not fully describe retained responsibilities. Nine months brought ₹78 lakh of additional freight and rework, after which we returned the process in-house and planned the return of 22 redeployed colleagues. I retained responsibility for the proposal's framing rather than treating the reversal as a success that erased the original error. The experience changed how I wanted operating and finance colleagues to examine the boundary of a process before approving its apparent economics.

Reason for the move

Appointed CEO and executive director in February 2021

Mandate

Organise manufacturing around the different work represented by the product range

Outcomes

• Moved into industrial-screen manufacturing
• Connected product variation with the operating account
• Developed cross-functional responsibility before the COO appointment

Decisions in context

I joined Vezqoshi in July 2009 as operations general manager. The enterprise employed 310 people and recorded ₹108 crore revenue for FY 2010. I led 190 colleagues through five heads with ₹18.2 crore annual expense, reporting to the CEO. The move required me to learn the practical differences among woven-wire and fabricated screening panels rather than rely on experience with wire products in general. Product variety affected the sequence of work and the meaning of a capacity estimate. I worked with technical, commercial and finance colleagues to make those conditions part of the operating account. My remit covered operations, not the authority to determine every technical release or represent every customer forecast as secured demand. This period developed the broader coordination needed for the later COO role.

Reason for the move

Promoted to COO in April 2015

Mandate

Connect production plans with people, process availability and customer work

Outcomes

• Took responsibility for a plant team and operating expense
• Learned to explain the conditions behind a production commitment
• Developed coordination across process stages and support work

Decisions in context

I became plant manager in May 2000. Qerzhavi had 240 employees and ₹62 crore revenue for FY 2001. I led 120 operating colleagues through four heads with ₹9.6 crore annual expense under the COO. The role required me to explain how people, process availability and the sequence of work supported a production plan. A local improvement could be useful without resolving the factory's wider commitment, and a problem at one stage could create work elsewhere. I learned to examine those relationships with the teams responsible rather than expect a headline output figure to describe every condition. Managing the plant broadened my judgement beyond engineering support. It also gave me experience that should have made the later outsourcing comparison more careful, which is why I keep my own responsibility for that decision visible.

Reason for the move

Joined Vezqoshi as operations general manager in July 2009

Mandate

Support production engineering with an understanding of the complete work sequence

Outcomes

• Applied production-engineering study in a factory setting
• Learned how local process choices affected surrounding work
• Built experience before taking people and budget responsibility

Decisions in context

I joined Qerzhavi in July 1992 after completing my production-engineering degree in June. The company employed eighty people and recorded ₹14 crore revenue for FY ending March 1993. I worked in a six-person engineering group under the works manager, without direct reports or delegated spending authority. My work brought me close to the sequence that turned material into a usable industrial product and to the people who understood its practical constraints. I learned that a stage could look straightforward in isolation while depending on work before and after it. My role was to support that understanding and the engineering tasks assigned to me, not to exercise the authority I would hold much later as a plant manager or CEO. The experience formed the beginning of a continuous manufacturing career.

Reason for the move

Promoted to plant manager in May 2000