Leadership review
Esther Qevsami
Chief Operating Officer · India
Highlights
180
Operations colleagues through five heads
₹54 crore FY 2026–27 delegated operating expense
52
Completed project assignments in FY 2026
18 clients; ₹96 crore company revenue
27 years
Transcription to interactive-service operations
Five continuous appointments beginning July 1999
A letter from Esther Qevsami
I want the delivery account to follow the material into the version the player will actually encounter. A correct sentence can arrive too quickly to read. A well-recorded line can belong to an obsolete script. A translated application can sit beneath an unreconciled storefront image. Operations should make those relationships visible before completed files become a claim that the experience is ready. I have learned to own the handoff as well as the work inside my function, including when the handoff I accepted caused expensive repetition.
I grew up in a Christian family in Shillong and completed English at Qevlumi Arts College in June 1999. The following month I joined Zemvqari Language Studio as a transcription assistant. I worked under the production manager in a six-person group, with no reporting staff or expense delegation. Listening closely was part of the work, but so was understanding why the written record existed and which version a colleague was expected to use. The difference between an accurate transcript and a usable production source became an early practical lesson.
Esther Qevsami
Chief Operating Officer
Strategic priorities
01
02
03
04
Performance
Priority outcome 01
In 2022 a recording batch contained 1,360 takes produced from a script that no longer fully matched the client's approved source. After the change was reconciled, 940 remained usable and 420 required rerecording. The performances were professionally delivered against the material supplied. I had allowed the session to proceed without a sufficiently explicit confirmation of which version applied, so the correction belongs in my operating account rather than in a story about actors or coordinators failing to work carefully. The account lead wanted to continue the remaining sessions while the client resolved the wording. Studio colleagues argued that stopping would disrupt booked performers and facilities. Those were real costs, but continuing without a source decision could enlarge the same problem. I agreed a pause for the affected material and worked with the client and production owners to identify the version and the takes that genuinely needed replacement. We did not discard the 940 usable takes to make the correction look simpler. The rerecording and coordination work cost ₹27 lakh. The revised handoff recorded the applicable script, its approval and the owner of any later change before a session proceeded. Creative approval remained with the client and production specialists; the new process did not give operations authority to settle wording alone. Nor did it prevent future revisions. It made the consequence of a revision explicit enough to decide before further work accumulated. The result was a corrected batch at additional cost, with my earlier decision visible. I would ask which approved source a session is authorised to use, not merely whether some approval exists. A recording can be excellent and unusable for its intended purpose at the same time. The operating task is to connect the decision outside the studio with the work inside it, including the uncomfortable choice to interrupt productive activity when its basis has become uncertain.
Priority outcome 02
A 2023 subtitle pack contained 2,800 items with completed translations. Review identified 560 above the project's agreed 17-character-per-second trigger. That figure was a specific review criterion for this assignment, not a universal standard for every language, audience or accessibility requirement. The words had been translated, but the available display periods did not support treating all items as ready. I asked for the timing and linguistic questions to be examined together rather than return the whole issue to either team alone. The delivery sponsor wanted to accept the translation sign-off as completion and leave any later adjustment to the client. Linguistic colleagues were concerned that shortening lines mechanically would damage meaning. Testing colleagues could identify the timing pressure but could not decide every rewrite. We reviewed the affected population with the client's owners: 320 items were retimed where the sequence allowed it, and 240 were rewritten and rechecked. The two interventions solved different constraints and were not interchangeable instructions. The additional work cost ₹42 lakh. Client acceptance followed the revised pack and the agreed review, but we did not claim to have measured comprehension among all players. Timing checks, linguistic judgement and audience research answer different questions. We retained the criterion and the scope of the review in the delivery account so a local acceptance would not become a broad statement of universal accessibility or cultural suitability. The consequence was more work after a superficially complete translation milestone. I would establish the relevant display context before treating the word count as the whole production task. Translation can change the space and time a line needs, while the surrounding interaction remains constrained. Operations should arrange the decisions that let specialists resolve that mismatch. It should not reward a completed file by making the receiving team responsible for discovering that the experience still cannot be accepted.
Priority outcome 03
In 2024 a client proposed a ₹2.8 crore extension involving existing voice assets in model training. The material was available to our production team, but the recording agreements did not include that proposed use. The commercial sponsor saw a way to extend a completed relationship without another recording programme. I asked that the operating plan wait for a specific permissions and contractual assessment instead of treating possession of the files as authority to use them for a new purpose. The sponsor argued that the client's interest and our access to the recordings made the extension commercially straightforward. Production colleagues could describe the assets but were not qualified to settle the rights question. With the appropriate client and professional owners, we identified what the new use would involve and which additional permissions and review it would require. We declined the extension as proposed. It remained unexecuted; I do not describe it as a later recovered sale. We spent ₹24 lakh on the review and related operating controls. Those controls kept the proposed material and instructions outside an authorised production workflow until the necessary basis existed. The decision was not a claim that every use of artificial intelligence in voice work is unlawful. Nor did I determine performer rights from my COO title. The point was that this particular new purpose had not been established within the existing scope, and the company needed qualified assessment before promising to supply it. The consequence was a forgone opportunity at the proposed value and a cost to make the boundary usable in operations. I would ask about the intended use early in a reuse discussion, while there is still time to shape an offer responsibly. A technically accessible asset is not a general permission slip. Commercial and professional decisions need to reach the people handling the material, or a cautious contract discussion can coexist with an operating action that has already assumed the answer.
Priority outcome 04
A 2025 portfolio report described nine of twelve projects as accepted and led with 75% completion. The count was accurate, but the word completion encouraged a broader inference. The nine accepted assignments represented ₹18 crore of ₹60 crore combined contract value; the three awaiting acceptance represented ₹42 crore. Within those pending projects, ₹7 crore of invoices could not yet be released under their terms. A project population and its commercial exposure were describing different distributions. The programme lead wanted to retain the headline because it was easy for executives to follow. Finance colleagues were concerned that it obscured the work and acceptance conditions behind the remaining value. I recommended a report showing the count, the value associated with each state and the unresolved acceptance conditions together. We did not replace 75% with 30% and call that a better measure of effort completed. Contract value was not a validated weighting of production effort, and acceptance was not the same as revenue recognition. The revised account made the three pending assignments visible without implying that all their work was unfinished. It also kept the ₹7 crore invoicing condition separate from a claim of bad debt or lost revenue. Client and finance owners retained responsibility for contractual and accounting interpretation. The operating discussion could then examine what would make acceptance possible, who needed to decide and which obligations remained, rather than debate a single percentage as if it settled the portfolio. The consequence was a less reassuring but more useful management paper. No new cash receipt or project acceptance is claimed as a result of changing the report. I would define the state and its population before summarising performance. A count can be entirely correct and still be the wrong basis for the conclusion a leadership team is drawing. Operations should preserve the distinctions that let the board and executives ask a better question, even when that makes the headline less compact.
Priority outcome 05
A 2025 release covered six markets. Application translations were complete, but the storefront package was not equally ready: four markets had reconciled screenshots and text, while two still contained assets inconsistent with the approved local experience. The launch account treated the application milestone as if it covered every public surface. I asked for the two incomplete market packages to be shown separately before the client confirmed its publishing decision. The release sponsor wanted all six markets to keep the original date and suggested correcting the storefront after launch. Language colleagues pointed out that the unreconciled images and text would be part of the first experience, even if the application itself used the right material. I supported a market-specific delay while the client's publishing and creative owners assessed the consequence. Operations did not have unilateral authority to release or withhold the product. Our responsibility was to make the readiness account accurate enough for that decision. The client moved the two affected launches by twelve days. We spent ₹34 lakh on asset correction, review and coordination, while the four complete market packages retained their agreed sequence. The revised material was accepted for those two markets. We did not claim a quantified number of complaints prevented, sales protected or players retained. Those outcomes were not measured by the asset review, and an expensive correction does not need an invented disaster to justify explaining it. The consequence was a split launch and visible rework rather than one clean date for the whole programme. I would identify the full public package earlier, including the material surrounding the application. Localisation is experienced across surfaces that may have different owners and approval paths. A delivery report should connect them without pretending one team's finished file completes all the others. The practical lesson is to define the thing being released before celebrating the completion of one component within it.
Stakeholder voices
Esther made the report show what acceptance meant before we used the project count to describe the whole portfolio. The paper became less comfortable and much more useful for deciding where attention was needed.
She brought timing and language together without asking either team to pretend it could settle the other's judgement alone. The client received a specific account of what changed and what the review actually supported.
Outlook
I allowed a recording session to proceed without making the applicable source version explicit. The correction showed why approval must travel into the production handoff rather than remain a fact elsewhere in the project.
Read the essayA completed translation pack still required retiming and rewriting. The operating decision joined linguistic meaning with the display conditions, without turning one project's review criterion into a universal audience claim.
Read the essayThe project count was correct, but it carried a conclusion the distribution of contract value did not support. We replaced one reassuring percentage with an account that kept acceptance, value and invoicing conditions distinct.
Read the essayAn invitation
I would explore a first outside contribution where a board needs experience of creative-service delivery and its commercial boundaries. I have no statutory appointment. Fictional IICA registration began in July 2026; the proficiency assessment remains unfinished and no exemption is claimed. Twenty-two days is a provisional allowance requiring employer consent and a realistic review of the proposed responsibility.
office@estherqevsami.example