From following the production order to leading the whole enterprise

Mandate

Connect manufacturing, service obligations and shareholder capital in the enterprise plan

Outcomes

• Declined spare-parts exclusivity after negotiations failed to preserve existing service access
• Completed the approved ₹4.2 crore fixtures and training programme in 2024
• Implemented higher remote-partner retainers and a revised distribution with separate parts funding

Decisions in context

I became CEO and executive director in February 2022, reporting to our seven-member board and leading seven executives. Zavqumi now has 480 employees, two assembly sites and 42 service partners, with ₹162 crore revenue and ₹15.6 crore operating profit for FY ending March 2026. My responsibility includes the relationship between new sales, ongoing product support and capital available for both. I declined a channel proposal whose parts restrictions remained unresolved, brought a differently scoped investment to the board and supported more expensive remote service capacity. I also revised a dividend proposal in which I had a personal shareholder interest. Technical director Maya Tershuvani and CFO Faisal Qemvadi retain their professional responsibilities. Individual product assessment and care belong to qualified people; my CEO role does not confer clinical authority. The appointment is my one current statutory directorship.

Reason for the move

Continuing as CEO while considering one complementary external appointment

Concurrent appointment

The executive directorship accompanies the same CEO appointment; it is not a separate operating job

Mandate

Organise assembly and support commitments while retaining technical approval boundaries

Outcomes

• Led a broader operating remit across manufacturing and service support
• Withdrew my premature 2019 component-substitution approval
• Accounted for a five-week hold and ₹3.4 crore replacement and rework expense

Decisions in context

From June 2013 I led 210 colleagues through five heads with ₹46 crore annual operating expense, reporting to the CEO. The company employed 310 people and recorded ₹87 crore revenue for FY 2014. The wider remit made me responsible for the operating consequences of product and service promises across the business. My most important correction arose in 2019, when I approved purchasing movement before a replacement component's intended interface had technical acceptance. We held 2,400 sets, including 600 completed warehouse chairs and 1,800 unfitted sets. No chair in that held group had been delivered. Replacement and rework cost ₹3.4 crore over a five-week interruption. I learned to examine how an executive's approval can make a specialist's unfinished decision seem commercially settled. That experience shaped the capital and channel questions I later carried into the CEO role.

Reason for the move

Appointed CEO and executive director in February 2022

Mandate

Build a dependable assembly plan that recognises configuration and approved components

Outcomes

• Moved from general engineering into mobility-equipment manufacturing
• Connected configured orders with their actual assembly requirements
• Developed practical working relationships between assembly and technical colleagues

Decisions in context

I joined Zavqumi in September 2005 and moved to Rajkot to lead assembly. The business employed 140 people and recorded ₹31 crore revenue for FY 2006. I managed 68 colleagues through five supervisors and ₹9.2 crore annual expense under the operations director. The product changed the questions I asked of a plan. A familiar model name could contain different configurations, and a part supplied later would need to fit the intended assembly. I worked with supervisors and technical colleagues to understand those differences before describing the work as routine. I did not decide individual product suitability or replace technical approval. The role taught me that manufacturing consistency depends on understanding legitimate variation, not simply asking every order to behave like the standard demonstration. The broader operations appointment subsequently brought the support network and enterprise commitments into the same discussion.

Reason for the move

Promoted to operations director in June 2013

Mandate

Make the production commitment consistent with tools, skills and approved inputs

Outcomes

• Took formal responsibility for people and operating expense
• Made dependencies visible in production discussions
• Prepared for a sector move through practical factory leadership

Decisions in context

My production-management appointment began in June 1998. Veqrani employed 220 people and recorded ₹39 crore revenue for FY 1999. I led 46 colleagues through four supervisors and managed ₹4.6 crore annual expense, reporting to the works director. A schedule was now a commitment for which I had to organise people and resources, not only a document I helped prepare. I learned to distinguish an achievable sequence from one that depended on an unexamined assumption about tools, material or skills. The task was to make those dependencies clear without allowing uncertainty to excuse weak preparation. I also had to hear supervisors whose practical knowledge differed from the view presented in the planning meeting. Moving to Zavqumi extended that experience into a product whose configuration and later support made the consequences of an assembly choice particularly visible.

Reason for the move

Joined Zavqumi to lead mobility-equipment assembly in September 2005

Mandate

Follow production orders through the dependencies behind the schedule

Outcomes

• Developed practical planning experience after mechanical engineering study
• Learnt how material, tooling and sequence affected an order
• Built the foundation for later people and expense responsibility

Decisions in context

I began in July 1991 after completing mechanical engineering at Tazqeri Institute of Engineering the previous month. Veqrani had ninety employees and ₹12 crore revenue for FY ending March 1992. I worked within an eight-person planning group under the plant manager, without direct reports or spending authority. The early work taught me to follow an order beyond its scheduled date: what material it needed, which operations had to precede others and where a missing input would become visible. I was learning the factory rather than directing it. Asking experienced colleagues about those dependencies helped me understand why an apparently tidy plan could still be fragile. The later production-manager role made me accountable for organising the people and resources behind that plan, while retaining the habit of checking what the schedule assumed before asking others to commit to it.

Reason for the move

Promoted to production manager in June 1998