My contribution to a board
I would help directors ask what a financial amount represents before deciding what it implies. The unit may be wrong even when the calculation reconciles. The service horizon may extend beyond the estimate, and a combined programme may be larger than the scope the company has actually contracted to supply. These are practical questions about the enterprise commitment, not requests for a board to redo routine finance work. I would bring experience of correcting an account I had previously accepted, with the cost and customer adjustment visible. I would also distinguish the modelled difference in a decision paper from the result later achieved. My executive background gives me useful questions, but I have no statutory-board experience. I would need induction into the whole company, its duties and its nonfinancial risks, alongside colleagues with complementary operating, legal and sector expertise.
Judgement in practice
01Correcting a reliable count that described the wrong billing object
Twelve invoices used 1.48 million files at ₹5, totalling ₹74 lakh before tax, while the agreed eligible population was 1.02 million pages and ₹51 lakh. We issued ₹23 lakh credits and spent ₹18 lakh on control changes. I had accepted the earlier counter, so the correction includes my own responsibility. At board level I would ask whether assurance tests the meaning of the measure as well as its consistency across systems. The case is specific to those contracts and exclusions, not a universal billing rule. Qualified owners handled the actual tax and accounting consequences. The useful oversight issue is whether a control can be challenged when a clean reconciliation gives the wrong commercial claim an appearance of certainty.
02Making the promised period match a defensible service account
The indefinite-access proposal compared ₹6 crore upfront with ₹4.9 crore forecast costs for only five years. We declined the unbounded wording and agreed a defined five-year ₹7.4 crore service in November 2023, with renewal and export responsibilities. I would ask a board where the estimate ends and what supports any promise beyond it. The signed amount does not mean all cash or revenue arose on signature. Client ownership, technical preservation and actual contractual duties retain their respective owners. The judgement concerns whether the enterprise has accepted a commitment it can explain and sustain, rather than whether the first few years of a much longer promise look attractive.
03Keeping a volume discount conditional on actual use
A ten-million-credit minimum cost ₹1.8 crore, while the reviewed six-million need would cost ₹1.26 crore at ₹2.10 per image before other differences. We chose usage charging and retained the approximately 8.57 million-image crossover in the comparison. I would bring that case to oversight as a reason to examine the commitment behind a unit discount. The ₹54 lakh difference was illustrative at the stated volume, not a realised annual saving. Technical quality, review effort, timing and contract conditions still required assessment. A board should understand both why the forecast supported this choice and what changed evidence would favour the alternative, without expecting management to pretend that uncertain demand had become exact.
My first year on a board
I would start with the receiving company's business model and the chair's expectations, then learn how its operating measures reach the financial and board accounts. Familiar words such as completed, recurring or contracted may have a different meaning in another enterprise. I would ask management to explain the definition and evidence rather than import my own company's categories. Induction should include the operating work behind the figures and the duties of the relevant committees, with agreed access to people rather than a separate instruction channel. Through subsequent meetings I would follow the assumptions and commitments the board had chosen to monitor. If a measure changed, I would ask whether the comparison had been restated clearly enough to remain useful. I would also seek feedback on whether my CFO habits support collective oversight or draw discussion too readily into management detail. The aim is a broader understanding of the enterprise, not a new director's private finance-control programme.
Conflicts and their management
Before receiving confidential papers I would disclose relevant links through Qevsuli's investors, founders, clients, partners and suppliers, together with personal interests. Institutional-service relationships can overlap in ways that are not obvious from a company's principal activity. Qualified advisers should examine the particular circumstances under applicable company-law, independence and listing requirements where relevant. The absence of a personal allocation does not settle those questions. I would consider whether any recusal leaves enough scope to contribute usefully, and would decline a role if the overlap or demands make that impractical. Employer consent and actual time belong in the same assessment. I would not bring client invoices, pricing terms, private forecasts or financial records from my executive work to support an outside conclusion. Experience should improve the questions I ask while each organisation's confidential evidence remains with the people entitled to use it. That discipline needs to continue as relationships change after appointment.
My independence statement
Connections through Qevsuli's investors, founders, employee vehicle, institutional clients, partners and suppliers need assessment for a proposed role. No personal allocation and no current statutory seat are facts about my position, not a conclusion about independence.
Board and committee exposure
Presented to the Board or a committee
Qevsuli Preservation Systems
CFO presentations through the CEO; no statutory directorship or committee seat
February 2020 onward
Presents financial performance, commercial comparisons and control corrections. Executive attendance does not confer a director vote or responsibility for every technical and contractual decision.
Committee contribution
Chair and member readiness| Capacity | Committees |
|---|
| Ready to join | Audit committee membership after assessment of the company's needs and applicable requirements · Risk or strategy committee examining service obligations and commercial commitments |
|---|
Capacity and preferences
- Time available
- 26 days per year
- Current directorships
- 0
- Sectors
- Technology-enabled institutional services · Recurring business services with clearly defined commitments · Enterprises improving the connection between operating measures and financial decisions
- Company type
- A company that permits finance to correct the meaning of a persuasive commercial measure
- Company stage
- Reconsidering service terms, partnership scope or the financial basis of growth
The seat I am pursuing
I am interested in one first outside appointment with a clear need for financial judgement about service commitments and commercial measures. Audit committee membership may be appropriate after the company assesses its requirements and my preparation; I do not assume immediate readiness to chair. A risk or strategy committee could also use the perspective alongside qualified operating and legal expertise. I have no current statutory seat. The fictional databank registration and September 2026 assessment pass describe completed preparation steps, not an entitlement to appointment. Twenty-six days is provisional and must include induction, papers, travel, meetings and exceptional demands beside the CFO role. I would seek a chair who supports learning and expects attention to the whole enterprise beyond finance. The role should have a specific purpose I can serve responsibly, with relationships and capacity assessed before the appeal of a board title becomes the reason to accept it.
Governance learning and readiness
IICA Independent Directors’ Databank: Proficiency assessment passed
This fictional profile records IICA databank registration in May 2026 and a proficiency-assessment pass in September 2026. No exemption is claimed. Appointment requirements, independence and suitability remain specific matters for review rather than consequences of completing that preparation.
- Study the receiving company's duties and committee responsibilities beyond the CFO remit
- Learn the business and operating meaning behind unfamiliar financial measures
- Develop collective oversight while respecting management's professional ownership