I was born and brought up in Mumbai. In college, I cultivated my love of finance & represented Mumbai at the National Finance Olympiad. I pursued Chartered Accountancy simultaneously with B.com and did a 3-year articleship in the field of taxation. Post qualification, I worked in the Treasury Front Office of L&T Finance Limited. The treasury managed around Rs 70,000 crores of debt. I was part of a sub-team that oversaw around Rs 15,000 Cr of bank borrowings.I enjoy singing and am an avid reader. My favorite genres are thrillers (fiction) and personal finance management (non-fiction).
Tell us more about your extracurricular achievements
I had the opportunity of representing Mumbai in the National Finance Olympiad. After qualifying at the school (std 12th) and city level, my team was invited to Delhi for the national finals. While we were unable to clinch a podium position, I had the opportunity to interact with students from across the country. It also taught me to balance my academics i.e. studying for my standard twelfth board examinations with my competition preparations.I was selected as an assistant contingent leader to represent my institute at a college fest. I had to coordinate with over a hundred students. I had to encourage students to participate, ensure a fair audition and selection process & make sure the students followed event rules. Most importantly, I had to manage student grievances. While my institute secured an overall third rank in the festival-the most important learning was how to keep team morale high in spite of long hours and uncertain outcomes.
Tell us about a time when you messed up, and what you learnt from the experience?
After securing a good percentage in my standard twelfth boards, I was confident that I would crack my inter-CA examinations using the same approach. However, even two months before the examination, I was unable to secure passing marks in the mocks. I realized that in my attempt to complete the entire portion I was comprising my understanding of key concepts. I realized that I had to prioritize those topics which would help me sail through and then cover miscellaneous topics if time permitted. Subsequently, I was able to apply this learning on the professional front. I learned to manage deadlines by first focusing on the perfect execution of key deliverables and then moving on to minor aspects of the task.
Tell us something about yourself that others may be surprised to know about you.
While most people consider me to be a calm and composed person, I used to be absolutely terrified of public speaking. As speaking skills are an important part of professional life, I knew that I would have to overcome this fear sooner than later. I participated in various events to practice and reduce my nervousness. I practiced speaking at both structured forums (such as debates) and unstructured forums (such as extempore) to improve my confidence.
What have been your two biggest successes in life? What did you learn from them?
My biggest success would be clearing my CA final examination in the first attempt, in spite of facing a health scare. 10 days before my final exam, I sprained my right hand. By the time my finals arrived, I could write slowly and with considerable pain. I gritted my teeth & wrote through 8 subjective papers because I was determined to clear my exam in the first attempt. This incident taught me the importance of persevering in the face of uncertainties and obstacles.Another success would be handling significant additional responsibility in the early phase of my career. When I joined L&T finance, I was initially assigned the responsibility of managing banking relationships for 8 banks. Two months later, due to a vacancy in the team, an additional 14 banks were added to my portfolio. I learned to effectively multitask to adapt to a sudden surge in work. I also learned the importance of quickly building a rapport with senior bankers who were used to dealing with more experienced personnel. These learnings and the guidance of my colleagues helped me handle the additional responsibility to the satisfaction of my superiors.
Professionally, what is your ideal image of yourself five years from now? Where do you see yourself?
Five years from now, I visualize myself working in the corporate finance function of a prestigious FMCG organization. My goal is to effectively lead my team. I would like to be considered as a thought leader and subject matter expert in my chosen field. I also hope to have mastered the soft skills required to be an empathetic leader. Even after climbing up the corporate ladder, I would continue to have a learning mindset and grab every opportunity to upskill myself.
What is the one skill or characteristic you possess that you are most proud of, and why?
A characteristic that I am proud of is that I am extremely organized. This helps me maintain a work-life balance and achieve my goals in a systematic way. As part of my organized approach, I break down a mammoth task into multiple small steps and set timelines for these smaller steps. This helped me smoothly complete my CA final portion. This approach also helped me maintain relationships with over 20 banks during my tenure at L&T Finance Limited. Being organized helped me respond to numerous banking queries and maintain version & content control of critical loan documents on a timely basis.
In your opinion, what skills or qualities does a successful manager possess?
I believe that a successful manager should be a good listener-this helps you assess the needs of your subordinates & is instrumental in gathering knowledge from different sources. Secondly, a manager must be humble and recognize that while he is guiding his subordinates, he too can learn from them. I also believe that a manager should have the ability to take timely decisions and the courage to take onus for the consequences of his decisions.
Tell us about an ethical dilemma that you may have faced, and how you resolved it.
During my articleship, my firm was unable to pay me a stipend for 2 months due to a Covid-induced cash crunch. The firm had paid for and installed a tax filing software on my personal laptop to enable working from home during the pandemic but had forgotten to uninstall this after completion of my articleship. An acquaintance who was in the process of setting up his own practice asked me to share this software key for a certain sum. He justified that I wasnt misusing the firms resources as they owed me money. However, I was uncomfortable with using the firms software without their knowledge. I declined the offer from my acquaintance and reminded HR to uninstall the software from my laptop post which it was assigned to another employee.
If you were the CEO of any company of your choosing, which company would you choose and what would your first action be as CEO?
I would choose to be the CEO of Procter & Gamble Limited as its products touch the lives of millions of Indians on a daily basis. Being at the helm of this company would help me directly impact these lives by continuing to ensure quality products at affordable prices. Having been shortlisted under the P&G Emerging Leader Program 2022, it would be an honor to represent a company known for its employee development and empowerment.P&G has taken up a sustainability goal to ensure that 90% of its product packaging is recyclable by 2030. However, in addition to the recyclable content of the package, I would encourage the company to participate in the recycling logistics. My first action would be to introduce 100% re-usable packaging, especially for hair care products. I would use the companys extensive distribution to set up dispensing centers and refill-drives at super-marts and local kirana stores. Customers would be able to retain the original container and refill it from these centers. This would eliminate substantial packaging waste, reduce packaging costs for the company and incentivize customers through slightly lower costs for refillable products.
Any Other Comments Or Factors You Would Like To Highlight About Yourself?
I am really passionate about practicing sustainability and raising sustainability awareness. I have spent 5 months volunteering with a youth-led sustainability forum and have organized webinars relating to careers in sustainability & sustainable start-ups. I have also penned articles about the confluence of sustainability and finance -ESG funds, ESG ratings etc. to highlight the growing importance of sustainable parameters in financial decisions. In L&T Finance Limited, I also had the opportunity to work closely with the Environment & Sustainability team and pitch ESG-linked borrowings to various banks and financial institutions.
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