Strategising comes easy to her. A qualified chartered accountant by qualification, Rashmi Joshi has over 20 years of experience in finance function. She has, during this time, worked across FMCG, pharmaceutical, consumer durable and lubricants businesses.
In August 2013, Joshi was designated director finance at Castrol India. Castrol India is a debt-free company that has been consistently paying dividends to its shareholders. It is a market leader in a fragmented lubricant market and has high brand recall, strong technological prowess, an extensive distribution network and premium products such as synthetic lubricants in its kitty.
At Castrol India, Joshi is responsible for not only maintaining strong corporate governance standards but developing finance talent and transformation of finance processes. Improving key performance ratios and shaping country strategy for India and South Asia are also part of her key responsibilities apart from risk management and investor relations.
Performance DeliveryJoshi believes she has contributed to Castrol India’s financial success by keeping the organisation focused on “performance delivery using robust financial framework and best-in-class processes”. Joshi says she has been playing an important role for Castrol India in creating a five-year strategy for India and South Asia.
Before her current stint, Joshi was based in Singapore for four years as the planning and performance manager for Asia & Pacific operating unit of the Lubricants business. In that role she was responsible for leading the financial planning and performance management process for the Lubricants business in the Asia & Pacific region comprising 17 countries, influencing the regional leadership team to intervene to ensure delivery of financial plans and strategy, region-wide business process change management, working capital improvements and MI simplification. She also led finance teams for a cluster of five countries covering Middle East, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Korea and Taiwan. While in Singapore, she served as a non-executive director on the board of Castrol Philippines.
Robust StrategyWhen asked to describe the challenges that CFOs in this sector face, Joshi says: “Volatility in the crude prices and exchanging rates pose a significant challenge to the business. The CFO has to ensure that the margins are protected.”
She says that the patchy economic recovery has led to challenges in the B2B part of the business.
But Joshi notes that Castrol has a significant market share and is highly profitable.
“It is challenging to keep delivering higher volume in a sector where use of lubricants is declining over the years due to changes in technology leading to longer drain intervals. Castrol, however, has a robust strategy in place to deliver profitable volume growth,” says Joshi.
But for Castrol India to consistently perform, Joshi feels that it is important for the company to continue investing in the brand and technology while managing other costs increases below inflation. “Competition has intensified in the sector over the last few years and volume-value choices are important to ensure value creation for all stakeholders,” she says.
Joshi, a self-confessed Bollywood fan, strongly believes that all of us have the power to achieve whatever we really want.
“Once we have the clarity on where we want to be, we find a way to get there,” she says.
A nature lover, she loves to spend time with her family. She enjoys cooking, reading, travelling and believes in staying healthy. So that she can think up more strategies!
ashish.sinha@businessworld.in; @ashish_BW
BW Reporters
Ashish Sinha is an experienced business journalist who has covered FMCG, auto, infrastructure, tourism, telecom among several other beats. Ashish has keen interest in the regulatory scenario impacting different sectors. He writes on aviation, railways, post and telegraph, infrastructure, defence, media & entertainment, among a wide variety of other subjects.
