Finance Director & Regional Compliance Officer
As CFO, I am responsible for managing the financial aspects of India business; I oversaw a matrixed team to manage tax audits, P&L accounting, budgeting & forecasting, payroll compliances, growth of sales & operating margin, as well as optimization of cost and resources. Functioning as a strategic leader steering critical decisions aligned to organizational goals, I ensured adherence to legal norms and IFRS. Optimizing inventory, streamlining accounting procedures, renegotiating contracts, and capitalizing on regulations to curtail costs were my primary focus areas. Some of my significant accomplishments here have been: ► Conceptualized and introduced a retail fabrication model as against the existing, organic; executed the 1st pilot phase at Mangalore in 2021 with the agenda of targeting tier II & III cities.► Optimized working capital and increased; controlled OpEx as against budgeted figures for 2021.► Deployed multiple cost control initiatives to achieve financial targets in 2020 & 2021, despite the unprecedented times of the COVID-19 pandemic; measures enabled the organization to gain each year through savings and/or additional income. ► Proved instrumental in issuance of Special Valuation Branch order in favour of Schueco, post defending of initial rejection at appellate authority. Averted additions in basic customs duty and issuance of any scrutiny from the Transfer Pricing Authority with respect to direct tax in any of the last 10 years’ assessments.► Held complete ownership of the compliance portfolio since 2018; drafted special guidelines for the Indian entity on various regulations.► Negotiated with the vendors to surrender the receivables claims in exchange of refund. Overall write-offs were significantly lower than the provisioned amount.► Initiated the first-time-ever business model in the group of leased assets option for IT infrastructure & Fit-outs of leased office; received accolades from Group CFO for deploying the innovation
