Today's CFO Is A Financial Strategist And Business Adviser To The CEO

With the introduction of a wide array of alternative content, the exhibition business is all set for a major disruption.

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As a CFO, can you please elaborate on your top three key priorities during next three years?

With the introduction of a wide array of alternative content, the exhibition business is all set for a major disruption. The aim is to strike a balance between the growth levers of the business and the core of the existing business. In the evolving regulatory landscape, it becomes imperative to measure the political impact and its effects on the industry as a whole. Accordingly, it is important that we have the overall controls in place, so that the company is compliant with all the laws and regulations. Further, as an industry representative, it also becomes necessary to put forward the industry-wide issues by liaising with various government departments in a timely manner. As a CFO of a company with such a high growth rate, it becomes important to manage the debt of the company. The challenge is to strike a balance between the high growth and also the level of debt the company can accommodate. The strategy would be to device an appropriate finance structure which is most optimal to the organisation.

Can you highlight the strategic initiatives that paid off well for your company during your tenure as a CFO with the present company? How did these help the company and investors who have parked their money in your company's stocks?

The following key initiatives were undertaken:

- We entered into a fresh deal with a few ticket aggregators which in turn led to an additional revenue of approx. `100 crore over a period of three years.

- We formed centralised procurement cell to take advantage of bulk buying, better rates and to maintain integrity issues

- We introduced multiple banking arrangement in the company and optimised the loan mix from Indian and foreign banks, leading to substantial savings in the form of lower interest rates