Intuition Is Key
If you have ever withdrawn cash from an ATM or purchased something using cash, you can thank the Director of Finance and CFO of the Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India (SPMCIL), Ajay Agarwal for that. Managing the finances of a company is never easy, let alone a government-affiliated company like SPMCIL. Every turn, every decision comes with a myriad of paperwork and hoops to jump through, but Agarwal makes it look easy.
Prioritising things
Arguably Agarwal’s strongest suit is his intuition on knowing what things to prioritise, and this only comes from a lot of time spent get ting to know the ins and outs of one’s company and planning out every step of the way. Speaking on the financial strategy of SPMCIL, Agarwal states that the company’s strategy is based on three focal areas: 1. Right deployment of capital for effective returns on capital employed. 2. Effective business planning & driving key strategic projects including long-term (five year) and short-term (two year) business plans and strategies along with executing critical strategic investments decisions such as purchase of stake, conversion of general reserve, etc. 3. Digitalising Finance – Improvement of internal controls through automation across the group, tax digitalisation, treasury automation etc. All three parts make up a co-dependent system in which all parts are equally important in developing a strong financial framework. Agarwal has also been able to bring everyone in the company together for the common good, aligning all employees with the vision of the Board and Management Committee, reinforcing communication through circulating commandments of finance, rule books, etc. And tracking individual key performance indicators (KPIs) to see how each of these are performing, seeing if any changes need to be made, and making a course correction if needed.
The outcome
All of Agarwal’s steps have shown to work, as he states, some of the outcomes of his efforts include saving interest cost and improving inventory management, allocating financial resources to different areas of business to increase efficiency and maximising profits, and seamless data flow and effective decision making from all the teams and individuals of the organisation. Overall, Agarwal has been instrumental in steering the ship at SPMCIL, and with a portfolio of over Rs 4000 crore revenue, it shows.
