From reconciling the entry to questioning the enterprise proposal

Mandate

Connect manufacturing evidence and contractual resource conditions with enterprise financial decisions

Outcomes

• Matched the treasury plan to dated dollar receipts and payments
• Corrected a borrowing-base submission before drawing against customer-owned property
• Removed an unmet rebate assumption and clarified an internal shared-cost allocation

Decisions in context

I became CFO in February 2022 and report to CEO Rohit Qevshali. I lead 42 finance colleagues through five heads with ₹8.9 crore annual function expense. Our two factories employ 620 people and serve 28 OEM customers, with ₹246 crore revenue and ₹38 crore EBITDA for FY ending March 2026. My decisions concern the resources the enterprise can commit and the conditions that make them available. I have addressed the timing of dollar receipts, the ownership of stock in a facility submission, a purchase-rebate threshold and the interpretation of shared cost. COO Arun Zevqeshi and technical colleagues retain their respective operating and approval responsibilities. I hold no statutory directorship and have no direct personal equity, although my employee-trust beneficiary interest remains relevant to relationship assessment. Financial recommendations do not replace the company's approval authorities.

Reason for the move

Continuing the CFO role while evaluating a first outside board contribution

Mandate

Develop a financial account that connects accepted production with commercial and resource choices

Outcomes

• Took enterprise finance leadership under the CEO
• Corrected my 2018 start-count interpretation before price approval
• Supported a separately funded ₹3.2 crore process programme without altering technical acceptance criteria

Decisions in context

From May 2016 I led 31 finance colleagues through four heads and managed ₹5.8 crore annual function expense under the CEO. Merqavi had 420 employees and ₹168 crore revenue for FY 2017. The finance-director title described my executive responsibility and was not a statutory seat. In 2018 I prepared an operating-planning comparison using ₹24 crore spend and 600,000 starts, producing ₹400 per start. The accepted quantity was 480,000 sets, implying ₹500 per accepted set on that basis. Arun challenged the interpretation, and I withdrew the proposal before price approval. We separately supported ₹3.2 crore of process work while technical colleagues retained acceptance authority. The experience changed my review of labels and denominators: a calculation can reconcile and still answer a different question from the one the receiving manager intends to decide.

Reason for the move

Appointed CFO in February 2022

Mandate

Connect factory records, acceptance conditions and customer arrangements with financial control

Outcomes

• Moved from general precision engineering into ophthalmic-instrument components
• Learnt the distinction between accepted output and other factory counts
• Worked with operating colleagues on customer-owned material and commercial records

Decisions in context

I joined Merqavi in September 2009 and moved to Silvassa. The company employed 210 people and recorded ₹78 crore revenue for FY 2010. I led 23 finance colleagues through four leads with ₹3.6 crore annual expense under the finance director. Our business supplied non-optical housings and mechanical subassemblies to instrument manufacturers. I needed to understand the events behind a customer record without claiming authority over technical acceptance or the finished clinical instrument. The work included learning why a factory could hold material that it did not own and why output counts at different stages served different purposes. I built working relationships with operations so finance could ask those questions before a concise report removed the context. The subsequent finance-leadership role expanded my responsibility for how that evidence shaped commercial proposals and company resource decisions.

Reason for the move

Promoted to enterprise finance leadership in May 2016

Mandate

Make operating-cost comparisons explicit about their activity and output basis

Outcomes

• Took responsibility for a finance team and its expense
• Developed the practice of checking the unit behind a comparison
• Prepared for factory-control responsibility in a specialised supply chain

Decisions in context

My cost-management role began in December 2002. Tovqeli had 240 employees and ₹63 crore revenue for FY 2004. I led sixteen finance colleagues through three leads with ₹2.4 crore annual expense, reporting to the finance director. The work required me to explain why two apparently similar unit costs could represent different activities or stages of completion. I was learning to manage that discussion through a team rather than resolve each difference personally. Operating colleagues helped us understand what the count described, while finance had to make the basis clear enough for another reader to use. The role strengthened my interest in the relationship between a source record and the decision made from it. Moving to Merqavi brought those questions into a more specialised manufacturing supply chain and expanded my responsibility from costing into financial control.

Reason for the move

Joined Merqavi as financial controller in September 2009

Mandate

Reconcile financial entries with the operating events and documents behind them

Outcomes

• Applied commerce study to practical manufacturing accounts
• Learnt to follow a discrepancy to its source event
• Developed the foundation for later costing and people leadership

Decisions in context

I joined in July 1996 after completing my Master of Commerce the previous month. The business employed eighty people and recorded ₹15.8 crore revenue for FY ending March 1997. I contributed to a six-person accounts group under the chief accountant, with no supervisory duties or spending authority. My work was to understand the event represented by an entry before treating a difference as simply a timing problem. A source document could answer one question while leaving another unresolved, and I learned to ask colleagues what had actually happened in the factory or commercial relationship. I was not setting policy or leading the enterprise at that stage. The experience gave me a disciplined interest in the meaning behind financial records, which later became central when I managed a costing team and signed proposals others would use.

Reason for the move

Promoted to cost manager in December 2002