Appukutan Vidyasagar wanted to be an engineer. But, he came from a family with limited means. Vidya proposed doing a diploma. But dad was not happy with the idea of Vidya spending the rest of his life on the shopfloor. Dad’s wisdom was that it would be best that Vidya works in offices, preferably government ones. So the decision was made for Vidya to do commerce. Vidya did his B.Com from Ness Wadia College in Pune, and went on to do a specialisation in Costs and Management Accounting – ICWA – after his degree in commerce. In the early nineties, there were very limited opportunities in the private sector. One of the most popular newspapers of those times was the government published Employment News, which would hit the stands every Wednesday. Vidya did give a shot to all the sarkaari exams, but the government’s loss has been finance’s gain.

In 30 years of his financial career, Vidya has managed taxation, costing, mergers and acquisitions, and off late, Information Technology. He has been through 8 jobs, in sectors like IT, capital goods, pharmaceutical, auto ancillaries, and animal proteins. We wanted to know what have been Vidya’s reasons for switching jobs. Vidya knows people who have spent their entire life in one company, and that’s ok. If a company gives you opportunities to grow, if it gives you different functional experiences, there is no reason to change. But if such opportunities are not presented, they have to be created.

Currently, Vidya is head of finance and on the board of directors of the Rs. 1000 cr Japfa Comfeed India Pvt Ltd, Japfa started off in 1975 in Indonesia, and today is present in India, China, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Myanmar, with headquarters in Singapore. In India Japfa has five plants for producing poultry feed. The main ingredient for the poultry feed is corn and soya. Prices of these feedstock vary every day, and so does the price of chicken. Most poultry farmers in our country operate in makeshift sheds covered by green cloth. But managing poultry also means managing disease and managing environments. The standard deviation in yield for the poultry business is very high. At times you can have windfall profits, but you could also have a single loss which wipes out all of these profits. To manage these gambles, you need a strong financial backbone. 

What Vidya likes about his current work is the way the top management team has been transforming Japfa. For the last 5 years there has been a lot of workflows digitisation. Usually, accountants have to take care of drudge work like checking and passing bills. IT systems at Japfa have taken over these menial tasks, giving space to accountants to reskill themselves. What probably helped in this process was Vidya’s first job was at NIIT, where he also finished a diploma in systems management. There are three divisions at Japfa and all three were running their own IT systems. Vidya believes that there should be a single source of truth for decision makers, so he went on to merge all the IT systems into a single SAP ERP system. 

I have known a lot of companies struggle in SAP implementation. Another challenge in SAP has been the RoI, as the software is expensive and the implementation typically tends to overshoot budgets. What has been Vidya’s experience? It was a challenge, but in Japfa’s case since they had an inhouse IT team who understood the processes well, creating systems was not the problem. The challenge was to reskill the operators who had to move from a basic standalone system (Tally) to a complicated and larger system like SAP. Japfa had to ensure the trainers came down to the level of these employees, and explained things to them in a simple manner. At times the work instructions were translated to the local language. 

Time for Q and A. 

What is important for a student who wants to look at a career in finance? A flair for numbers. To be able to join the dots between production and sales. To have a holistic view of the business. What he did not say, but we can probably infer, is that it helps to be conservative. My own take is that good finance professionals are always the designated drivers in parties. The vegetarian, teetotaller, non tea drinker Vidyasagar fits the bill perfectly! Another inference that I could draw is that good finance professionals are bad entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship is about managing high levels of risk. And the CFO’s primary job is to know when to rein in the CEO. 

Is the love for numbers inborn? Vidya doesn’t think so. He remembered that he had had a particularly uninspiring math teacher in grade 5. He had almost given up on math then. But what he realised then was that the best teachers are always within ourselves – and he continued working himself on math and went on to master it. 

What is more important in choosing a career: Passion or Money? Being a finance guy, I was sure that Vidya’s answer would have been money. But Vidya chose both. Though money is important, it is passion that helps you find the means to get to your goals. It is passion that helps you pick yourself up and reinvent yourself when faced with failures. 

How do you recognize your passion? Vidya had a very simple exercise to do that. Take a piece of paper and write down all the stuff that you like and enjoy doing. Hidden inside that list is your passion. Note the singular. You need to define the passion in such a way that it becomes a guiding force in your life. 

Is it possible to prepare for CA and earn some extra money by the side? The articleship will not leave you with too much spare time. But if you are able to get that time, you could look at helping with accounts for small businesses and get paid for it. 

How to make money in stock markets? Vidya’s view was that stock markets are for people who love bungee jumping! You have to have a good appetite for risk. Having said that, it would make more sense if you are going to be a long term investor. 

Vidya’s role model has been his dad, who has always believed in hard work. And who has always followed the Bhagavad Gita maxim about efforts being more important than results. Another role model for Vidya has been Ravindra Gujar, his boss during his DGP Hinoday days. From Ravindra, Vidya has learnt the importance of calmness in crisis. During Ravindra’s stint as Head of Finance at DGP Hinoday, the company went through 2 recessions, in 2001 and 2008. Ravindra could convince the company’s bankers for funding expansion, even during those tough times.

Vidya ended by talking about one of his school chums who did his engineering from a renowned NIT. Unfortunately, our friend lost a job during one of the recessions – and was not able to find another one for a long time. This friend then gave up on his struggles. Handling failures is not part of any school’s syllabus, even when failure is the only exam that life puts you through. Schools like Mindtree should take an initiative to build a positive framework for students to handle failures. Attitude, not Aptitude, determines Altitude!

Short Introduction: A Vidyasagar 

Vidyasagar is a total Pune guy, a Punekar.  He has finished his schooling, college in Pune. And he continues to work there. After his graduation in commerce, he went on to do his ICWA – and specialised as a Cost and Management Accountant (CMA) from the Institute of Cost Accountants of India. He also has a Diploma (Honours) in Systems Management from NIIT.

Vidya has over 25 + years of experience in the various gamuts of finance. He has been the youngest member of the Business Management Team jointly responsible for the Profit and Loss of the business and driving Operational Excellence. As Finance Head , he has worked with Managing Directors/ CEOs to build long term and short term plans for the company. As part of his job, he also is  entrusted with putting in place a system of checks and balances to manage risks. He has also been involved in acquisitions of other companies. He has also been involved in Change Management and has been a successful member of Transformational Teams.

Being in finance has led to a diversity of companies that he has worked with.  He started his first job in the software industry (in NIIT , where is was also a student at the same time) and then went on to work for many MNC  and Indian companies in Capital Equipments, Pharma, Auto Ancillary . His rise has been fast – as in 10 years time he was already Heading Accounts and Costing Team in an Auto Ancillary and went on to rise to Head of Finance for a pump manufacturer. For the last four years he has been with Japfa Comfeed, as head of finance for the Indonesian company’s Indian subsidiary. Japfa is into the Animal Protein Industry , present in six countries and in India , it is a supplier of poultry feed on a pan India basis. It also is producer of one day hatchlings. He is also a full time director in the company.  

Vidyasagar, believes in the adage “ Attitude and not Aptitude Decides Altitude”.

Here are questions received by students after they were given the profile.

Q1. What is the scope of a career in finance? How do I prepare for the same?

– Nandini Aggarwal, IX D

Q2. You might have faced some obstacles in your life, out of which one may

have motivated you the most, what was it and how did you make it your driving

force?

– Jashanpreet Singh, IX B

Q3. What according to you are the career prospects in the field of commerce?

– Punya Jain, IX C

Q4. What according to you is the best way to communicate an innovative idea

to your boss so that he has no other option except saying ‘yes’?

-Suhana Mittal, IX C

Q5. When choosing a career, what should a person give importance to- his

passion or money? Why?

– Pranav Arora, IX A

Q6. What do you like most about your work? Who has been your inspiration?

– Ruhani ,IXC

Q7. How do we recognise our biggest strength which can help us carve a

successful career?

-Nandini, XA

Q8. Did u face a dilemma while choosing a career? How did you solve this

dilemma? – Aishveer Singh, IX A