Getting recognition for your work from your peers in a company is what many employees yearn for, but getting recognized from the CFO himself is a sign of your excellent performance. This is exactly what Nishant got when he worked for Tata AIA. With his belief that businesses should uplift the society, Nishant wants to improve the standard of living of people through his career. All of this has led him to become the Winner of InsideIIM’s Most Employable CA Challenge. Check out his full story here.
The following is Nishant Nair’s set of responses to a questionnaire floated amongst CA graduates to determine the Winners of Most Employable CA Challenge. Amongst the massive number of entries and responses being evaluated by Mrs. Miti Vaidya, VP of Marketing at Kapiva and a CA herself, Nishant’s story and profile stood out. Here's his own story in his own words.
“My name is Nishant Nair. I am based out of Mumbai and currently, I am pursuing MBA in Finance from SIBM Pune. I am passionate about trekking, chess, and badminton. I have visited several places in Maharashtra for treks such as Kondana caves, Harihar fort, Bhandardara dam, Karnala bird sanctuary. I also like reading books. One of my favourite books is “The Intelligent Investor'' by Benjamin Graham. Some other books I like include “The Polyester Prince” by Hamish McDonald, “Sapiens” by Yuval Noah Harari, “India after Gandhi'' by Ramchandra Guha, and “Great Expectations” by Charles Dickens."
What do you think is the purpose of your career? How is it going to make an impact in the world?
“I believe that business should contribute to society in a positive way. This does not mean businesses should resort to charity but rather it means that businesses present solutions to society’s needs. For example:- Tesla is a pioneer in the electric vehicle space. It’s actions not only benefit its shareholders but also benefit the public who are keen to prevent global warming and do not want to contribute to carbon emissions.
Another example would be of Reliance Jio. It’s mobile recharge plans drastically changed the telecom market in India and forced all competitors to bring down their tariff plans too. Due to this, the consumer greatly benefitted from cheaper data plans.
I want my career to help improve the standard of living of people. If I can provide solutions that improve management of companies and reduce costs, then this will result in the company producing better products and services, which will ultimately benefit the end consumer. In this way, I feel my career can make a difference to the people of India as well as the world."
Tell us a difficult situation which you faced in your previous company / articleship and how did you handle it?
“In my previous workplace - TATA AIA Life Insurance, my team had monthly reviews with the financial controller of the company wherein we would create and present a powerpoint presentation showing the problem areas and the way we are trying to resolve those problems. I was in-charge of taking care of accounting entries of commission expenses. In one of the meetings, the controller was not happy with the data provided to him. He asked the team to revise the data and present the revised data to him within 2 days. Since I felt that I was a fault here, I asked my manager to give me a chance to prove myself. I was determined to make things right.
I sat down to work and created a new PPT in 2 days which we presented to the controller. In order to obtain the revised data, I liased with the Business Intelligence team. I also worked with the Distribution Operations team to obtain the necessary information for commission. After reviewing our work, he was happy with the data as well as the clarifications we provided to him. He asked to closely monitor the progress of the projects underway and directly get him involved in case of any roadblock.
This was a good learning experience for me as it helped me to understand the expectations of the company’s top management from me and my team and accordingly prepare more thoroughly for future monthly reviews.”
Tell us about a time when you had to manage a team and demonstrate leadership skills.
“I did not have the opportunity to manage a team in my career, however I often had to display leadership skills and take the initiative even in the position of an executive. I was working in TATA AIA life Insurance for one year when suddenly 2 employees in our team quit after the annual appraisal was over. This meant that the other employees had to pick up the extra slack and learn the work handled by them before they left the organization. TATA AIA had a policy of notice period of one month for employees at Assistant Manager level or below. This meant that I had only one month to learn.
I took this up as a challenge and worked hard with the team to create documents which detailed all the tasks handled by the soon-to-leave employees so that knowledge transfer can happen in the smoothest way possible. I also prioritized tasks and took up activities which needed to be completed immediately and automated repetitive tasks using MS-Access and Macros. After 2 months, I was able to not only gain complete knowledge over all the activities and also train the replacements on the tasks but also make suggestions to IT to automate certain activities."
Tell us about your experience of presenting technical financial data to people with non-financial backgrounds.
“In my previous workplace - TATA AIA Life Insurance, I had to work on automation projects which required me to work with the IT development team and engineers. An initial meeting is held with the engineers in order to check the feasibility of the project before preparing the change request(CR) and business requirement development documents(BRD). For these meetings, I had to sometimes explain to the engineers how accounting entries that are generated by the transaction systems are expected to change.
In such cases, I would prepare a sheet in word showing the accounting entries in a tabular format with sample figures and time stamps. Often, the engineers need to understand the difference between the old system and the new system. I would show 2 tables showing accounting entries in the old system and the accounting entries in the proposed system. This would help the IT team to understand exactly what change is required, if there is any new accounting entry or deletion of an old entry. In another table with 2 columns, I would summarize the old system vis-à-vis the new system and I would explain the benefits of the proposed changes."
What are some of your most significant accomplishments or achievements?
"Obviously, the most significant achievement of my life was to clear the CA exam. It was a long and difficult journey and I felt very satisfied after finally fulfilling my dream. Apart from this, I also received a certificate of recognition from the CFO of TATA AIA Life Insurance himself for excellent performance in a particular quarter.
I was asked to work on a project for a single-day payout of claims for TATA AIA Life Insurance in 2018. My reporting manager nominated me for the task. I was determined to achieve the target set by the company as it was a high visibility project. I worked hard with IT and the claims team to get the job done. At every stage of the project, we kept my reporting manager and the financial controller of the company in the loop. To my manager’s delight, I and the team successfully implemented the project. For doing this, I was nominated for the award from the CFO by my manager. The feeling of receiving a certificate from the CFO himself felt very gratifying."
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