Sudha is a Finance professional with over 20 years of experience and joined Ujjivan in November 2008. A Chartered Accountant, Cost Accountant & Company Secretary, her contributions include implementing best practices and achieving excellence in fiscal management, strategic business plans, operational controls, budgetary controls, transparent reporting, statutory and regulatory compliances, synergizing it all with a challenging and satisfying career.
Sudha was born into a typical middle class family. She is one amongst the five siblings and a happy childhood, which she spent across different cities and towns in India, as her father was in a transferable job with the Indian Defence Accounts.
Sudha was a bright student (and still is!) and has very fond memories of her childhood at Nashik and Dehu Road (near Pune). As a topper in her class and an active participant she won many prizes in extra-curricular activities such as debates, dramas, music and recitations. She believes that these laid the foundation, for shaping her as a confident personality with good communication skills.
She moved to Calcutta in 1977 and completed her schooling from KV Fort Williams. Her interest in the field of commerce was ignited through her interactions with her sister’s students, who were pursuing courses in commerce. Much to the surprise of her teachers and friends, she decided that she wanted to be a Chartered Accountant, as the trend in those days amongst bright students was to pursue science. But she was firm with her choice and went ahead to complete her B.Com (Honours) from City College of Commerce, Calcutta. She had simultaneously enrolled for her Chartered Accountancy and Cost Accountancy courses, and completed both of these in 1987.
Sudha began her professional career with Tropical Agro Systems, Chennai in 1987. Analysis of the complete business cycle from planning to strategy and execution, formulating budgets in sync with organizational objectives and realistic projections, variance analysis and designing and implementation of appropriate MIS were her key contributions.
To take on new challenges she moved to Zodiac Clothing in Bangalore as Financial Controller. Her responsibilities included synchronizing business plans with organisational goals, financial control with accounts, budgeting and upgrading to ERP system. After her stint with Zodiac, Sudha joined Mysore Kirloskar Ltd, where her role was exclusively to source funds & working capital, through term loans and ICD’s. This involved constant trips to Mumbai and sharpened her negotiation skills.
She then joined Taneja Aerospace Ltd, a public listed company as Finance Head where she also handled the additional responsibilities of a company secretary. Devising accounting policies/procedures & control systems, monitoring fund flow and financial performance, finalisation of accounts & compliances with SEBI directives, company secretarial matters including board meetings, AGM, and statutory compliances were her major responsibilities. Her zeal and enthusiasm was always a motivating factor for her team and colleagues.
In 1996, she moved over to private practice in her firm M/s. S. Rao & Associates as she wanted to devote more time to her family, with two young children to take care of and also to find some new areas of interest. This break from the corporate world enabled Sudha to revive her other passion – Music. She is trained in Carnatic music and enjoys a wide range of music - from classical to Bhajans & Sufi music to Bollywood songs.
Sudha joined the Executive Committee team at Association of Women Entrepreneurs of Karnataka- AWAKE as a voluntary service. She headed the RRC (Research & Resource Centre) at AWAKE and her role was to hand-hold women entrepreneurs from the Idea Generation Labs to executing the business plan. Sessions on budgeting, costing and accounting were an integral part of her contribution in training and mentoring young women entrepreneurs at AWAKE. She also delivered guest lectures at various commerce colleges.
But ultimately, the call of the corporate world caught up with Sudha, as she wanted to create value by taking an active part in nurturing and growth of SME organisations. She joined Park Controls & Communications Pvt. Ltd. An IT Company specializing in Embedded Systems for Defence use. She had set herself the mission of bringing financial stability by sourcing VC Funding for the Company. Achieving this goal gave her an immense sense of satisfaction of achievement. Due diligence, business plans and investor specific financial information, ESOP scheme planning & implementation and arranging for a technology grant from the Department of Scientific & Industrial Research for the Company were her major contributions apart from the VC Funding.
After a brief stint with Turbomeca Turbochargers, a French company, where Sudha was part of the Core Management team as its CFO, she took up a challenging assignment in the booming realty space, with Skyline Constructions. Developing and implementing financial and operational controls for enhancing profitability, project costs review, term funding, commercial negotiations for capital expenditures, treasury operations including effective working capital management and investment of surplus funds, assessing financial viability of projects and associated business strategies were her key operational areas.
In 2008, Sudha felt the strong need to associate herself with a larger mission. Amidst evaluating possibilities of new entrepreneurial ventures, training & teaching or working in a different industry, Microfinance became a strong contender. The opportunity at Ujjivan came as a natural sequel and she joined it with abundant enthusiasm. She felt that Ujjivan provided her with an ideal platform, where she could contribute by applying her professional experience and skill sets in an organization, whose ultimate aim was to give back to society and enable upliftment of economically active and poor women who work with dignity towards self reliance.
What has impressed her most is the culture of openness and transparency that the company has embraced across all levels- be it the leadership team, or across all its departments. She is greatly inspired by Ujjivan CEO Samit Ghosh, for his simplicity and open-mindedness. What she admires most is his ability to carry people along.
Handling key portfolios of financial control, sourcing of funds, business plan & budgeting, board & secretarial compliances, capital structuring, transparent and useful MIS & exploring new avenues of finance, she believes that a strong Finance & Accounts team is the cornerstone for success in an organisation. She constantly mentors & trains her team hands-on to attain higher levels of capability. Her ability to interact and communicate in six languages is an USP. She is confident that the Finance and Accounts team at Ujjivan is geared for greater challenges and can operate seamlessly & independently, supporting each other and the organization with an infectious team spirit.
She is proud of her team at Ujjivan and firmly believes that succession planning is key to the success of an organization, for people may come and go, but an institution must be built with strong values & goals, excellent policies and robust procedures for reaching higher echelons.
Sudha is happy to have been a part of Ujjivan’s growth story, culminating in profitability and is confident that team Ujjivan will take the organisation to greater heights to ultimately become the best MFI in the world – with quality outreach and excellent business growth – while also improving the quality of life of employees and customers alike. Personally, Sudha believes in living life passionately and cheerfully with a great degree of enthusiasm and zeal in all activities. |
