The financial answer needs the conditions behind it

The denominator in a cost sheet can look too ordinary to deserve a senior discussion.

Open to

Board appointments
Advisory roles
Speaking invitations

Keep the unit, the date and the ownership in the number

My finance work sits inside the manufacture of precision housings and mechanical subassemblies for ophthalmic-instrument companies. At Merqavi Ophthalmic Components in Silvassa, I lead 42 finance colleagues through five heads, with ₹8.9 crore annual function expense. The company employs 620 people across two factories and supplies 28 OEM customers. For FY ending March 2026, revenue was ₹246 crore and EBITDA ₹38 crore. These are company measures, distinct from my finance team's resources and from the technical decisions I support but do not approve.

I entered precision-engineering accounts in 1996 and moved into ophthalmic components in 2009. Cost management taught me that an apparently ordinary denominator can change the answer a commercial team believes it has received. Treasury work added another dimension: an annual net amount can conceal months in which cash must be held or found. As CFO, I connect these questions with the ownership and contractual conditions around inventory, facilities and rebates, so the enterprise understands the resources it can actually commit.

I include a cost proposal I prepared on the wrong output basis, a currency plan that needed dates, a borrowing-base correction, a rebate condition that was not met and a changed internal allocation. The decisions do not all end with a saving. They include additional process funding, cash retained for a later payment, less facility headroom and a foregone expected rebate. I want the financial account to remain recognisable after the attractive assumption has been removed.

Production starts did not describe the accepted output

I initially divided ₹24 crore of operating-planning spend by 600,000 starts, producing ₹400 per start. The corresponding accepted output was 480,000 sets, making ₹500 per accepted set on that planning basis. We corrected the proposal and funded a separate ₹3.2 crore process programme. Neither figure was asserted as a statutory inventory valuation.

Annual dollar netting hid a six-month interval

US$4 million of receipts in June 2022 and US$2.5 million of payments in December produced a US$1.5 million annual net amount, but they were not simultaneous. We retained US$2.5 million of the June proceeds for the later obligation under the approved treasury plan, rather than treating all the receipt as available for another use.

Warehouse custody overstated the proposed borrowing base

Stock physically held was valued at ₹14 crore for the facility review, including ₹5 crore of customer-owned property. The fictional facility admitted only eligible company-owned stock at a 70% advance rate. Applying that rate to ₹9 crore gave ₹6.3 crore, rather than ₹9.8 crore. We corrected the submission before borrowing against it.

Current focus

I am improving the handoff between operating evidence and financial proposals. Accepted quantities, currency dates, title to stock and contract conditions need to remain visible when information moves into a concise management account. A correction can make the available answer less favourable without changing the underlying work; that is a reason to understand it before approval, not to hide it in a later explanation.

Conversations I welcome

I am considering a first outside board role where manufacturing economics and contractual resource constraints matter. I have no statutory directorship. This invented career includes March 2026 IICA registration and a September assessment pass, with no exemption. Twenty-six provisional days, employer consent and a review of trust and commercial relationships would precede any appointment.

Finance colleagues through five heads

₹8.9 crore annual finance-function expense

30 years

From precision-engineering accounts to CFO

Five continuous appointments beginning July 1996

OEM customers supplied by the company

620 employees; ₹246 crore FY 2026 company revenue

I want a financial number to retain the conditions that make it useful. A set started is not necessarily a set accepted. Two dollar amounts can fall in different months. Stock in our warehouse can belong to a customer. Those distinctions should shape the proposal before a favourable total makes the decision look finished.

Lalrini Thavzeli

Chief Financial Officer

Areas of stewardship

Where accountability has been mine.

IAccepted-output economics
IICurrency timing and usable resources
IIIInventory custody and facility conditions
IVContractual rebates and internal cost interpretation

Selected work

Decisions, and what they changed.

Correcting the output basis in a cost proposal I prepared

In 2018, as finance director, I prepared a component-pricing comparison using ₹24 crore of operating-planning spend and 600,000 production starts.

The full account

Retaining June dollar receipts for an obligation that arrived in December

Our 2022 treasury schedule included US$4 million of receipts in June and US$2.5 million of supplier payments in December.

The full account

III

Removing customer property from a proposed borrowing-base submission

A 2023 facility review began with a warehouse report showing ₹14 crore of stock physically held.

The full account

In the words of others

Trusted by those who appoint.

Lalrini made the dates and reserved amount visible before we relied on a June receipt for another commitment. She explained the flexibility we were giving up without presenting the plan as an exchange-rate success.

Rohit QevshaliCEO, Merqavi Ophthalmic Components; fictional colleague

When I challenged the output basis in her proposal, Lalrini reopened the interpretation. She did not ask technical colleagues to change acceptance criteria to preserve the cost figure finance had first presented.

Arun ZevqeshiCOO, Merqavi Ophthalmic Components; fictional colleague

The journal