Country Finance Business Partner
Syngenta Pakistan Limited
مجموع سنوات الخبرة :30 years, 10 أشهر
Associated with world leading multinational Agri Business Company, Syngenta Pakistan Limited (formerly Novartis and Ciba-Geigy Pakistan Limited), since July 1993. 25+ years of career in this company is marked with a successful track record of achievements and contributions in various roles; elaborated below in chronological order for each role, starting from Assistant Manager to the current role of Functional Head.
In 2012 when Finance function was restructured across all Syngenta companies worldwide to separate Finance services and Commercial Finance, I assumed the role of Country Finance Business Partner. Since then I am leading Finance Business Partnering function in SPL reporting to South Asia Territory Finance Business Partner in India.
Main purpose of this role is:
• To act as financial advisor for achieving business objectives in short term and for preparing mid to long term plans.
• To provide insightful and sound financial analysis to support decision making by reviewing and challenging underlying assumptions. And to help in selecting the best financially viable and feasible option for all the functions of the business.
• A member of Country Price Steering Committee, Credit Credit Committee, Country Risk Management Committee. I help in identifying financial and business risks and support in preparing remedial actions and alternatives.
• To monitor financial performance and keep stakeholders abreast through relevant and proactive financial analyses.
• To act as the finance-lead in cross-functional teams, projects / initiatives from initial appraisal through implementation and ultimately monitoring performance on completion. To support in obtaining necessary approvals from appropriate authority levels as per County, Territory, Regional and Global Delegation of Authority (DoA), as applicable.
• In nut-shell, the main purpose of this role is to contribute in bringing financial prosperity and maintaining financial discipline in the organization.
In Financial planning & Analysis role I enhanced my knowledge and understanding of the agriculture industry, Syngenta business and its processes. Now I was ready to take-up a more value-adding role in Finance. Therefore I assumed the roles of "Manager Business Support" and "Manager Business Controlling" during this tenure.
Main responsibilities include:
• To support delivery of financial objectives of the country business without compromising on the business quality (i.e. to meet or exceed financial commitment of the top-line and bottom- line).
• To support County Head and other functions’ leads to develop annual business plan and mid to long term strategy in line with the direction from SA Territory and APAC Region.
• To lead Credit Management function and ensure adequate checks and controls are in place and performed before extending credits to customers.
• Analyze business risks and provide sound fact-based financial advice to respective functions.
• Through assessment of relevant indicators, provide insights and recommend mitigation options to potential risks / exposures.
• To lead product pricing and costing exercises with the aim to deliver committed annual target and to sustain profitable growth.
• To support financial compliance by performing relevant checks and controls and to guide other functions on day-to-day matters in mitigating risks.
• To represent Finance in regular and adhoc meetings at Country/Territory and Regional level.
This role provided an opportunity to work more closely with all the functional heads and senior leadership.Major responsibilities include Business controlling, short & mid-term financial planning, annual budgeting, financial evaluation of strategy, financial analysis, Group financial reporting, management reporting & decision support, monitoring & control of product cost & function expenses.
In this role I contributed to manage and continually develop an effective financial reporting and management information systems. Supervised Finance team members who were performing Expenses processing, General Ledger maintenance, Sales reporting and Fixed Assets.
Key responsibilities include:
- To develop and present Performance Measurement Reports on KFPIs (sales, expenses, working capital etc.) and other analyses/information (on request) to concerned key managers for the purpose of review, improvements, business control and decision support.
- Manage financial reporting in line with the Group and Asia Pacific Regions’ reporting requirements. Quarterly Reviews of Actuals, Full year Latest Estimates, Annual Budget and 5-years Plan as per group requirements and management direction.
- Worked on the project to map General Ledger accounts in the required format for group reporting by ensuring quality and accuracy of data/reports.
- Manage Fixed Assets Accounting & Control System to keep updated and accurate records of company’s fixed assets. Monitor and report on capital expenditures against budget.
- Manage email communication with Syngenta companies worldwide, especially with AP Region/Basel. Responsible for coordinating with Group especially with reference to reporting instructions/guidelines.
- Lead team members towards continuous improvement in their day-to-day work with efficient use of computer.
In 2005 Company introduced Balanced Scorecard (BSC) to monitor performance and progress on strategic initiatives. I got BSC training in Malaysia along-with Country Leadership Team (CLT) and cascaded it to other senior and middle managers in the company. I was nominated BSC champion and was responsible to prepare and present consolidate BSC report in monthly BSC review meetings.
Syngenta came into being in 2000 when the agribusiness arms of Novartis and Astra-Zeneca were merged. This created the world's largest agricultural corporation, located in Switzerland. This merger also did not affect Pakistan business as there was no counter-part entity of Astra-Zeneca operating in Pakistan. Creation of Syngenta in Pakistan was again a name change case only. However, Syngenta acquired couple of products being marketed in Pakistan by Astra-Zeneca through its local agent ICI Pakistan Limited. My role as Manager Account continued as usual in Syngenta.
During this tenure a global project was initiated named "MAGIC" to create a unique product identification code for all the products (SKUs, Intermediates, Unpacked chemicals etc.). All the materials across Syngenta had a unique 7 digits codes and was traceable with the Syngenta entity where it is used. I was the lead of this project from Pakistan and attended the training in Bangkok.
Another big change came with the introduction of a new financial reporting package "Hyperion" across Syngenta. I attended its training Hong Kong alongwith Financial Controller and implemented it in Pakistan.
AgroInvest was a reporting package to capture data on fixed assets. Similarly CRISP for product-wise reporting of sales, inventory and cost was also introduced. I contributed in the implementation and reporting through these systems.
As "Manager Accounts", I assisted Controller in establishing an efficient and effective accounting system. When I assumed this position, BPCS (Business Planning & Control Systems) was in use that was a DOS based ERP. When a windows based BPCS system was introduced, I played a key role in its implementation by designing improved reports to cater the business needs.
During this tenure there was a global noise about Y2K and companies were concerned about the continuity of their ERP systems with the change in year 2000 from 19xx. Therefore Novartis also took various measures to ensure business as usual and no major break-down take place. I also played a vital role from Finance's plate-form in Y2K project of the company.
After global merger of Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz, Novartis was the name of the new company. However, in Pakistan instead of legal merger, only change of names took place. Ciba-Geigy became Novartis Pakistan Limited and Sandoz was named as Novartis Pharma Pakistan Limited. With this merger each business division was made a separate business sector. As a result Crop Protection and Animal Health businesses of Agriculture Divisions were split into two separate sectors. With this change each sector had their own Finance and support services contrary to the earlier setup of Central service functions catering to all divisions.
At that time I was selected to join Animal Health sector to lead its Planning and Logistics function. In this role I was responsible to establish a set-up for AH to run its finance, logistics & distribution and IS operations independently. However, since AH was much smaller business as compared to CP, therefore it could not sustain the cost of overheads that it used to get under CP umbrella. Therefore the company decided to close AH business. All AH employees were given severance package to leave the company. However, I was retained and was moved back to Crop Protection Finance.
After completing MBA with major in Finance, I joined Ciba-Geigy Pakistan Limited in its Agriculture Division as Assistant Manager PIC (Planning, Information & Control). In this role supported Manager PIC to lead PIC function for Agriculture Division (Crop Protection + Animal Health). I was responsible for:
- review and monitoring of function expenses for all the departments
- review of import and production plans for inventory management
- assisting in preparation of Division's annual budget and quarterly Latest Estimates
- liaise with Central Finance for actual monthly financial reporting and providing inputs for Cash Forecasting and preparation of Company's consolidated Financial Statements etc.
- visiting upcountry distribution warehouses for surprise audits and stock checks.
Achieved 3.4 GPA (82% average). Scored As and Bs in all courses of MBA.