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Kunal ZhevqariChief Strategy Officer
Portrait of Kunal Zhevqari

Chief Strategy Officer · India

KunalZhevqari

Choose the business behind the market opportunity

The demand number was not invented. The boundary I placed around it was wrong.

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Choose the business behind the market opportunity

I lead strategy at Lerqavhi Workholding in Nashik. We manufacture mechanical toggle clamps for industrial fixtures, with production in Aurangabad. Our 680-person company recorded ₹296 crore revenue and ₹25.2 crore operating profit for FY ending March 2026. Eighteen strategy colleagues work through three heads within ₹5.8 crore annual expense. I report to CEO Maya Zerqavli; investment approvals, product suitability and financial reporting remain with their responsible owners.

My starting question is what kind of business we would have to become to serve an opportunity. A distributor route and a wholly owned local subsidiary do not differ only in their opening cost. An acquisition's revenue may include trade already passing through our channels. A territory we stop pursuing may still contain commitments that deserve attention. Strategy has to make those relationships understandable before a large market number becomes a reason to act.

In 2016 I supported a paper describing ₹120 crore of demand as a merchant opportunity. It included ₹45 crore of captive internal supply that independent sellers could not simply pursue. The corrected merchant estimate was ₹75 crore, still a market estimate rather than our revenue forecast. Research and replanning cost ₹38 lakh, and a proposed ₹36 crore expansion was held. I do not call the unspent proposal a saving. I retain the original mistake because it changed how I examine the boundary around an opportunity.

Two entry routes described different institutions

We selected a distributor-led launch with ₹2.4 crore approved scope over a ₹14 crore local-subsidiary proposal. The routes differed in staffing, control and reach. Four of six distributors placed repeat orders in the first eighteen months; two did not. Neither the budget difference nor the repeat count established a completed return.

Acquisition revenue was not automatically new reach

A catalogue reseller's ₹31 crore annual sales included ₹18 crore sourced through our existing channel. We declined the ₹22 crore acquisition after ₹64 lakh diligence. The overlap informed the strategic question without becoming an assumption that every rupee would be cannibalised.

Withdrawal left work that still belonged to the enterprise

A two-territory distributor exit retained eleven open commitments. Seven were completed while four remained under review. Finance approved an ₹84 lakh transition provision; that was not a statement that the full amount had been spent or that the exit was finished.

Current focus

Making market entry, application coverage and geographic withdrawal part of one coherent account of the business we intend to run. That includes the roles, relationships and obligations a route creates, and the evidence still needed before the next commitment.

Conversations I welcome

One carefully assessed first outside board role where commercial strategy can complement operating, financial and technical expertise. I have no equity or statutory seat; fictional registration and assessment completion are preparation facts. Twenty provisional days depend on employer consent, relationship review and the actual appointment demands.

39 years

Commercial and strategy career

Continuous employment from July 1987; CSO since January 2021

18

Strategy colleagues

Three heads within a 680-person manufacturing enterprise

₹5.8 crore

Annual strategy expense

Separate from investment approval and the company's revenue

A market can be large while the opportunity available to our particular business is smaller. I want a strategy to explain the route by which we would serve that opportunity, the institution that route requires and the commitments it creates. I have had to narrow a market paper I wrote, and I expect a withdrawal decision to be examined as carefully as an entry proposal.

Kunal Zhevqari

Chief Strategy Officer

Areas of stewardship

Where accountability has been mine.

  1. IMerchant-opportunity definition
  2. IIRoute-to-market institutional choices
  3. IIIChannel-aware acquisition judgement
  4. IVStaged coverage and responsible withdrawal

Selected work

Decisions, and what they changed.

I

Removing captive supply from the opportunity I had asked us to pursue

In 2016 I supported a market paper describing ₹120 crore of demand as an opportunity for independent suppliers.

The full account

II

Choosing a distributor route without calling the smaller budget a saving

In 2022 we selected a distributor-led entry programme with ₹2.4 crore approved launch scope.

The full account

III

Declining a reseller acquisition whose turnover overlapped our existing channel

A 2023 acquisition proposal offered a catalogue reseller for ₹22 crore.

The full account

In the words of others

Trusted by those who appoint.

Kunal explained the control we would give up through the distributor route alongside the commitment it required. He kept the two relationships without repeat orders in our review instead of presenting only the four that progressed.
Maya ZerqavliCEO, Lerqavhi Workholding; fictional colleague
He distinguished the reseller's turnover from the commercial reach the acquisition would add. The diligence cost stayed in the account when we declined, and the unspent purchase price did not become a claimed benefit.
Dev MezvuliCFO, Lerqavhi Workholding; fictional colleague

The journal

Perspective, set down with care.

An invitation

Contact

One carefully assessed first outside board role where commercial strategy can complement operating, financial and technical expertise. I have no equity or statutory seat; fictional registration and assessment completion are preparation facts. Twenty provisional days depend on employer consent, relationship review and the actual appointment demands.

Open to
  • Board appointments
  • Advisory roles
  • Speaking invitations
Write to Kunal

office@kunalzhevqari.example