Best CFO Awards 2016-17 | Keeping The Balance

Jacob Kuruvilla joined V-Guard in February 2010 as vice-president & CFO. On 1 January this year, he was promoted as senior vice-president. Designation aside, Kuruvilla wears multiple hats. He heads the finance and secretarial functions of the organisation and is also a member of the management committee that takes major operational decisions of the company. He is also a part of the steering committee of various transformational projects the company undertakes from time to time.

The origin of V-Guard as a company dates back to 1977, when Kochouseph Chittilappilly set out to build a robust brand in the Indian electric and electronic goods panorama. With a small manufacturing unit for voltage stabilisers, a vision and a strong belief, apart from a capital of Rs 1,00,000 borrowed from his father and two workers to assist him, he set sail to make his dreams come true. V-Guard grew rapidly to become a name synonymous with voltage stabilisers across South India. The company soon extended its range of products to digital UPS, inverters and inverter batteries, electric water heaters, solar water heaters, domestic pumps, agricultural pumps, industrial motors, domestic switch gears, distribution boards, wiring cables, industrial cables, induction cooktops, mixer grinders and fans.

Very soon, the brand expanded its wings and is now available across the length and breadth of the country. In its endeavour to reach every nook and corner of the country, V-Guard tied-up with 500 distributors, 3,000 direct dealers, and more than 20,000 retailers and service centres across all states.

In his various roles, Kuruvilla has made major contributions to the progress of the company. “The borrowings of the company was brought down progressively by better working capital management. Presently, it is a cash-rich company generating about Rs 100 crore in cash from operations every year. I was in the steering panel of customer service, supply chain management and other transformational projects undertaken by the company, which laid the pillars for its sustained progress,” he says.

Kuruvilla took several significant initiatives over the years. For instance, while in charge of the IT systems of the company, he initiated SAP ERP implementation in 2012, which helped the company surge ahead in the transactional and reporting systems. “I introduced channel finance for distributors and dealers that helped in bringing down debtor days. I also headed the Enterprise Risk Management Systems in 2010, Internal Financial Controls implementation in 2015, Compliance tool and Ind AS implementation in 2016, which addressed the statutory requirements in this regard and also resulted in value addition,” he says.

Make no mistake, Kuruvilla has had his own share of challenges to overcome. Given consumer electricals is a working capital-intensive sector, the company’s entry into newer geographies and diversification into more products, had put stress on the company’s funds position requiring higher borrowings and interest costs. To solve this, he focussed on options such as issuing of commercial papers and introducing channel financing. “Concerted efforts of the management team helped to turn the company into a debt-free company, and now, it has surplus funds to invest,” he says.