CA. Ankit Agrawal — Head Business Finance — Group Apparel & MTM Business at Raymond

CA. Ankit Agrawal — Head Business Finance — Group Apparel & MTM Business at Raymond

Q1. What are the events in your schooling and college at Goenka that helped you evolve as a person?

Ans: I was born and brought up in Kolkata, having my schooling done at first from a co-ed school, then to a convent and then moving into a higher secondary from convent and then doing my college from Goenka, it helped me to evolve as an individual, develop self-sustenance, despite being with a background of a business domain hamlet, wherein I could have had a laid back life and carried on the legacy of my forefathers in joining the business, but I chose otherwise. I chose commerce to develop myself as a career oriented individual, and it was a potential strength in my overall schooling. In my school I have been ranking between 1st and 2nd throughout. I took it as a challenge, to teach as ways and means to solicit few youngsters and spread the knowledge that I have to cater to their difficulties they may face. That’s how my school phase has been, quite challenging in the individual front, yet those days were the most precious days of my life.

Q2. How did the choice of Chartered Accountancy happen? Did you just step into the shoes of your elder brother who is also pursuing the same path?

Ans: Theoretically, no, but yes, it sets you some kind of direction when you have your elders pursuing a certain career, you look forward to similar kind of profession if you are inclining towards it. Having said that, my inclination was always towards the commerce background, most likely because I belonged to a business background, it really gave me that moral and boost to pursue that career more from a challenge perspective. I chose the path which actually was the direction that I was inclined to with the level of confidence and mindset I had in my mind.

Q3. For the last 16 years, how is it that you kept reinventing yourself, each profile coming with specific challenge?

Ans: I will consider myself as very privileged with having being given the opportunity to experience different industries with few challenges over the period. To start with ICICI bank, yes, getting into the best brand in the banking industry to start your career with, there’s nothing better than that, that too in a city like Kolkata where the options were quite limited. It was like a dream come true. It happened that I got into the retail operations, initially I was handling customer accounting. It was a 2-year journey with ICICI bank at that point in time and it was the thought that how to deal with operational issues involved in a banking industry that brought vigor in me. Towards the end of the 2-year journey I started looking at the other side of the coin, basically reinventing the wheels with the corporate office in Mumbai and clearing of all the bad loans or bad assets and reviving those assets too. So that was a different experience and then fortunately again, I got into Bharti Airtel as the next move. I began handling customer accounts office which was again handling the complaints of customers from a postpaid vertical. Then thereafter within 6 months’ time, I got into reporting of revenues for Calcutta. I was initially given 2 circles and then it expanded to West Bengal and Bihar. Premierly the eastern part of the entire revenue reporting was under me and thereafter I moved back into operations and managing the accounts of our distributors. It’s a prepaid account that is managed with almost more than 60 million transactions. The telecom itself is so advanced in terms of technology, that you just have to manage those transactions in a very process-oriented manner. So on a monthly basis I had to handle almost about 600 distributors and their entire accounts with a team of almost 10 headcounts. After 4 years, I got an opportunity with the Tatas in Kolkata, again a dream company to work with. The vertical that they had set up which was their commercial vertical for West Bengal circle, I happened to land there. I started the entire thing as a state commercial operation with the head office in Mumbai. I was her for a year and a half and then I was handpicked by the MP for a 1-year project-based assignment which was again a surprise and that’s how Mumbai started. I left Kolkata because I couldn’t have left this opportunity, at some point in life you have to take tough calls to balance out your personal and professional life. I think it was the right decision in that point of time. After moving to Mumbai, I was with the MD office for a year and we worked on multiple projects and assignments across divisions and functions. This experience opened the entire corporate world to me, as to how does the corporate world work in terms of managing the business, managing the people and ensuring that the work is done. It really helped me to grow personally at a different level of maturity. I also managed to roll out a few projects which are running at this point of time. After that 1 year, I was given an option whether I want to move in to business or finance, and I chose the second option. I moved into the finance vertical and joined another company. Ultimately the opportunity with Raymond came by and Raymond as you know is the leading brand in the retail industry, it’s a 100-year-old legacy organisation and the brand is known to any and everyone in the industry so I moved in. I have grown over the time period from a FPNA head to now heading the entire finance division which is about a 2000 crore business unit that I handle independently with my team. Accounting was difficult but it was also fun to carve it out in a manner and bring it on ball.

Q4. SAP S/4HANA implementation, are these projects for chartered accountants? Is there a lot of technical components in these? What exactly happens in this?

Ans: The exciting part of it is that you are so much part of the entire building block, in the implementation phase for S/4HANA with Raymond, it really helps you to be building block in base level working from a project point of view. As a CA or a finance profession, it has a larger role to play that being a technical guide. Implementation without having the right resources or right kind of people into that would result into failure. Be it CA or operation guide, everybody has their independent role to play in the entire implementation phase. For me in Raymond, of course it has a larger role to play because the entire building block processes of the financial part, every module has transaction level accounting, functionality which backed my day-to-day operations. So it has a high vulnerability if it is not correctly stitched together. Finance plays the most critical roles in any implementation whether is an accounting software or a operational software.

Q5. The company also underwent recently a demerger so was that also something that brought in additional responsibilities?

Ans: We are in a process of separating our lifestyle from the other legacy and this process is still underway and not yet completed. It will take about another 6 months to implement. Any such changes that happen in an organisation, merger or demerger, calls for a certain level of understanding and changes within the entire accounting. Once this demerger is done, there would be a different set of accounting that probably will evolve and we will follow accordingly.

Q6. What are the challenges that involves in leading a team?

Ans: When I put across my people as a team, I don’t represent them or call them a team, they are kind of a family to me. Similar way at your home you have people of different stature, so it’s about how you manage a family. Within a family you have some levels of expectations, you develop some level of understanding which probably coherent and help you to stay focussed and connected. It’s the same thing I follow at my office also. For me, my office is my extended family and every individual is different. You cannot treat and individual at par or below par or at the same level of expectation. As a manager, it’s your skillset as to how do you make your deliverables happen given the workforce that you have and strengths and weakness of each person. You have to balance it out. As a finance domain, one thing is very important to know that there are no time boundaries. You have to work on the basis of required outcome. In that perspective, for my team I have given them the liberty that the work has to be completed, now how do you do it, today, tomorrow, the deadlines are to be met. They understand my expectation, I understand their capability and together we work as a team or a family. We not only share the work, but also the fun that comes along with it. You have to have an emotional touch with your extended family.

Q7. Have awards really mattered to you, you have got a lot of awards recently in terms of contribution, etc. Do you attribute it to the team at large?

Ans: It’s all because of the team. I am not now an individual contributor, it’s the team who delivers and manage. Every award, whether it’s individual award or a team award, belongs to the team. I am just a guidance to them. Work speaks.

Q8. How did you manage to get two consecutive jobs in Thane staying in Thane, where your office is just 5 minutes from your home?

Ans: I will again put it to my destiny. It is something that I am enjoying right now. Perhaps you are seeing 5-minute distance now but I have travelled almost about 2000 kilometres 7 years back.

Q9. You supported your wife’s coming back to her career after she had that career break. So what are your thoughts on having two kids, a wife who is now working as a Tata Capital? What are your thoughts on that?

Ans: It’s not about just a support. As an individual that is one learning that I had taken from my grandfather that every individual has their own self-belief and self-persona and he used to guide me that in our life we all evolve as well-educated individuals. So to say, my brother is a CA, my sister-in-law is a CA, I am a CA and my wife is a CA and it’s not that we should let it go. My grandfather was very particular that if you have earned something, you should put it to the best of the use. So it just wasn’t me supporting her career, we all supported as a family, despite having two kids. I had my parents staying with me all throughout my life and they really have been the backbone of our career perspective. I am just a helping hand to her like any other individual. When it comes to professional life, it’s not about a husband-wife relationship, it’s an individual to individual relationship. Her career is as important as mine. I would always look forward to exploring her career, diversifying her career, and letting her grow the way she wants to grow. One very important thing which is unsaid is, every wife manages multiple roles, not just professional, but also as a wife, a mother, a daughter-in-law role. Typically, in our culture she has to manage all these roles in a single day and hats off that she has done it so far so good.

Q10. What do you do for your fitness? Do you run marathons?

Ans: Yes, I do. I have done it thrice. I love cycling, I often go for short trips. Whenever I get time, I try to keep myself fit and fine because that’s one thing that you have to consciously put effort to, given the lifestyle you follow.

Q11. What do you do for fun?

Ans: I enjoy with my kids. Nothing is more fun than having laughter sessions with your children and your family, and of course there are small outings that we do just to relax ourselves from our hectic schedule.

Q12. What would be your recommendation to youngsters who are planning their careers, how they should choose their jobs, what are the things that they should keep in mind to be successful, etc.?

Ans: Looking at the generation now, I think they are very fast forward, they want to get everything in the short span of time which is something they should take care. They do understand the importance of career, but what is more important in a professional life is stability and responsibility. If you are responsible you will be stable, and if you are stable you will be responsible.