Consultant
Freelance
Total years of experience :34 years, 2 Months
Freelance Business Consultant
Was engaged in part time corporate consultancy during the period especially on Project Finance area. Specific assignments are;
• RETAIL INDUSTRY: Project Report preparation and advising a start up venture in Retailing of Fruits and Vegetable in the area of designing the inventory management and sales mix process.
• RETAIL INDUSTRY: Consultancy for Retail franchise restaurant model for Arab chicken menu with International reach. Assignment covers valuation of the potential business for securing investment and vetting of standard agreement for Master Franchisees and Franchisees.
• Project Report preparation for loan syndication for a Resort-in Farm Tourism sector.
• Capital Structuring and detailed Project Report preparation for a TV News Channel in Malayalam including business valuation for securing investment.
Was associated during the period with a start up business, Ozone Cleantech Energy Pvt Ltd located near Pune-Maharashtra, India. Ozone Cleantech is a company engaged in generation and distribution of renewable energy fuel- Bio CNG (purified Biogas) to Industry. This is the first of its kind project in India. The company is well settled now and is independently managed by my brother. The services given to the business are;
• Project Report preparation and submission for prospective investors and financial institution.
• Negotiating and securing strategic investment
• Drafting of a detailed share holder agreement.
• Investor relation management.
• Negotiation for capital equipment.
• Price negotiation with customer.
• Customer Relation management.
• Corporate regulatory services.
Head of Finance and Commercial Funciton of Reliance Retail - Value Format of Kerala, India and was working at Cochin, Kerala. Roles;
1. Finance Control at the State Level
2.. Region level MIS
3. Budgetary Control
4. Monthly/Periodic Finalisation
5. Control of Store Level Expenditures
6. Analysis of Regional Accounts
7. Negotiation with vendors for regional services
Achievements;
1. Training of all the staff in the department to make them prepare for multitasking, to avoid loosing of skill set during attritions.
2. Migration from franchisee model of business to direct employees.
3. Brining up controls at store level to ensure timely deposit of collecitons
4. streamlining the petty cash expenses to ensure better budgetory control
General Manager-Internal Audit and Compliance. Leading the Internal Audit department of the Company in two states of India-Viz; Kerala and Tamil Nadu and national audits of Reliance Jewellery Operation.
Reliance Retail Limited is largest retail business in India, owned by one of the worlds leading conglomerate Reliance Group known for their success in Reliance Petroleum refining and related product businesses
The following are the role definition;
# Coordinate all the Internal Audit operation in the Indian states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, having a strength of around 100 retail stores in the month of April 2008.
# Leading all the audits of the Format Reliance Jewellery. A Business unit under Reliance Retail offering all ranges of Gold, Platinum and Diamond designer jewellerys across India. The job include design and executing the audits for this format of business across India, using other state coordinators and then following up with the Jewellery team to close the audit findings and getting them implemented.
# Training and engaging the outsourced auditors hired for doing the routine audits, including planning, leading, auditee tracking and concluding the audits in the region. Currently manage 7 Chartered Accountant firms directly who all engages around 25 staff every month for executing the assignment given.
#Negotiate and convince the auditees for implementing the audit findings.
# Participate in the improvement of checklists and audit tools to make the department work efficiently.
Achievements
# rewarded with salary increment within 6 months of service and rated at "outstanding" level for the year 2007-08 period.
# Contributed tremendously in preparing the checklists for Audits of retail stores.
# Training and motivation of outsourced staffs, so that their reporting and delivery are above the average performance in firms engaged by other states.
# Recognised as only state team member equiped to train outsourced auditors in Store Audits.
Management Accounting and Business Analysis of a US retail franchisee in UAE. The business runs with SAP system backbone. The job responsibility and objectives cover the following broad areas;
# Periodic MIS preparation for Brand Management and for the Divisional & Group Management,
# Administerings the ERP configuration,
# Project Report preparations and capital budgeting for new projects/stores of the Brand, Analysis of Business with innovative scenarios and presentation in the management meeting, contribution towards the internal control systems of the Brand.
# Participate in the inventory control and cost control processes.
Achievements
# Instrumental in improving the quality of spreadsheet based MIS Reports and reduce the time taken for report preparation
# Micro analysis of store level performance with KPIs introduced to improve the planning process.
# Analytical work for a "margin managment excercise" teaming with buyers and operation team, which resulted in gross margin improving by by 3% over 1 year time.
# Streamlining the SAP usage and authorisation levels in line with the processes and controls
# Grade promotions within 1 year of joining.
Working as Senior Manager-Finance in a SEI-CMMI Level 5 Software Company in Technopark, Trivandrum, India specializing in engineering applications with clients based in Japan, Europe and USA. The company is part of a Large IT based Industrial Group in Kerala. I report to the Vice President (Corporate Finance). My key responsibilities are:
· Treasury/Working capital management and liaison with bankers
· Budgetary control of eight Strategic Business Units
· Pricing and commercial documentation
· Project cost monitoring & cost controls
· Preparation of monthly management reports
· Setting up and maintenance of internal control systems
Key achievements in this position have been:
· Participation in the development of budgetary controls, MIS and project costing in the company has contributed to better control of operations, facilitated effective management review and helped in realizing better value from software consultant time.
· Involvement in pricing made company more competitive in the Japanese market resulting in obtaining more projects and getting overseas software development centre status of two large Japanese Technology companies.
· Involvement in reducing the cost of non-salary items has resulted in keeping the cost per hour of billable engineers at competitive level.
· Based on functional consultancy skills shown in internal implementation, got deputed (from Feb 2004) for implementing ERP product SAGE at two Middle East facilities of two multinational companies (UAE and Iran), as Senior Functional Consultant-Finance.
The Group is focused on Information Technology (IT) based hardware manufacture and software development. The Group has several Fortune 500 clients and an annual turnover of US$50 Million with 2500 staff with manufacturing/development facilities in South India and marketing offices in US, UK and Japan. My key responsibilities were:
· Coordinating the internal audit function of group companies.
· Setting up financial accounting system for all the group companies.
· Project report preparation & project tracking for new investments of the Group.
· Involvement in pricing to multinational clients.
· Development and review of the corporate operating manual.
Reported to the Director. Misha Consultants is a Management Consultancy Company specializing in Project Finance and Corporate Finance. I was associated with several key consulting assignments as set out below:
· Business plan preparation for projects covering Infrastructure, tourism, hotel/resort, chemical, trading and service sectaries.
· Supporting clients in Pricing and Costing.
· MIS development for a Government companies in Kerala.
· Setting up of Organization and Internal control Systems
· Syndicating Project finance and working capital finance from Banks for clients.
I reported to the Vice-president. The duties include client servicing in Secondary Market Operations, Private Placement of Shares and Project Finance.
I reported to the President and was responsible for supervision of accounting systems, bank and institution liaison, taxation and periodic reporting.
Articled Clerk and further from January 1992 as Audit Supervisor of M/s Mohan and Mohan Associates, Chartered Accountants, Trivandrum on assignments covering External and Internal Audit, Finalization of Accountants and Corporate Consultancy.
Finance Management Management Accounting Cost Accounting Auditing Taxation Corporate Laws
Cost Accounting, Management Accounting, Finance Management, Accounting, Cost Audit
Subjects learned- Finance Management, Accounting, Management Accounting, Costing, Banking, Auditing, Management and Marketing