JASPAL- BIKER, BLOGGER, PHOTOGRAPHER
Triumphing as a generalist in the specialized world
LIVEÂ IT FOR NO REGRETS LATER
Make it happen
A QUICK SUMMARY
I am an experienced professional triumphing in the specialized world with focus on learning and mastering new skills. I prefer to learn and slog at new skills and termed smarter than intelligent.
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I was born in Jamshedpur, an industrial town in Jharkhand, India. My grandfather moved to Jamshedpur in mid-1930s to join a subsidiary of Tata Steel. He never left the town for the entire 95 years of his life.
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Grew up in a very protective environment- love of grandparents and parents. I hardly socialised till I left home to pursue high school in Chandigarh. Picked cycling as a sport to have enough engagement when not studying.
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Moved to Indore, MP in 1996 and graduated and post graduated there. Got married to love of my life, and then moved to Mumbai, then Delhi, and now in Chandigarh since 2016.
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Fathering two daughters with elder one already in first year of College.
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For living I work but unlike my grandparents and parents, I have changed jobs. They have helped me learn faster and stay adaptable. I am taking every new job as a project. A project - to make it happen. Sounds! Naive?
Yes that is what I am when we meet in person.
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EXPERIENCE TILL DATE
Making a living
VICE PRESIDENT OF SALES, JUNGLEWORKS
Responsible for scaling outbound sales for the SaaS products of the Company. Tough one but trying my best.
VP MARKET DEVELOPMENT, ABZOOBA
The leadership at Abzooba lets me romance trying winning few customers for the newly launched MLOps platform. I have been spending most of my time on prospecting, I mean intelligent prospecting and pretty content with the my progress.
But why Am I quitting so soon?
It is to do more with my ambition than anything else. I am obsessed with purpose when it is to make-a-living. My intuition lets me decide my next steps.
CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, ORANE INTERNATIONAL
The beauty skilling company run by the CEO/Co-founder with no senior leader to take lead and build processes and systems. He aimed a leader who could take lead, gets hands-on and also relates to the risks of delegating too much and too soon.
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I took the reins and have empowered teams to take decisions, think in terms of simpler processes, and minimize dependencies across function. 'Ownership' with empowerment worked wonders.
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They miss me a lot. :)
HEAD FINANCE & OPERATIONS, JUGNOO
Startup in Chandigarh with very strong brand recall for being the first auto-aggregator of India.
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Founding team 8-10 years younger team who wanted someone experienced but still not an old schooler.
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I took quick decisions, focused on impact and results and delivered the business goal outlined.
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CHIEF FINANCE OFFICER, EASTMAN AUTO & POWER
Joined a Strategy head and transitioned to lead the finance and account function when annual sales were USD 10 mn.
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Built the function from basics of improving working capital management cycle, improving statutory compliances, and minimizing revenue leakages.
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I liaison with banks for the most flexible options for meeting the working capital funds and suited the seasonal nature of working capital, got the credit rating improved to A minus from BB plus and saving more than 5% in annual interest costs.
HEAD CORPORATE PLANNING, DENAVE INDIA
A sales outsourcing services company wit most of the business from managing channel sales for IT enterprises in India likes of Intel, Microsoft, and HP.
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I had joined on the reference of my mentor Subu who was good friend to one of the founders.
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They were looking for someone with a strategy mindset and could work on new business idea, explore alliance opportunities, etc.
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I helped them raise alternate source of funds from a public sector bank without the need to furnish collaterals. Also, took lead to singly manage the client relationship for Microsoft and HP. I had a pretty decent success managing Microsoft relationship resulting in 5 major projects winnings.
SENIOR MANAGER STRATEGY, ADITYA BIRLA RETAIL
Aditya Birla Retail (ABRL) was in its first year of incorporation and part of large industrial group. Organized retail was still in its infancy then.
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My role involved tweaking the 30-sheet financial model for impact of ROI and pay-back period and additional funds needed. The senior management including me usually anchored their review to Chairman to the business plan. Quite rightly so, since it was still first year of their operation.
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I developed a co-development financial model for the store expansion team, signed a partner for in-store media revenues, and weakly performance tracking reports. All of this in excel. Infact, there was very little automation except an ERP that was hardly used by anyone other than the Accounts team.
MANAGER CORPORATE PLANNING, JASUBHAI DIGITAL MEDIA
I still wonder why was I hired. The Founder/CEO liked my calculative-academic approach.
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They needed a fresh guy with no prior experience from the industry but has the intellect to build a business model, and prepare information memorandum (Pitch deck).
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Though my role extended to be part of business meeting, finance reviews, and improving reports. I even wrote articles for some magazines of the Company.
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Found my mentor, Subu who has been a great support and guide.
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ACADEMIC ASSOCIATE (F&A), INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT, INDORE
My batchmate asked me to appear for an entrance test to be hired as Academic Associate. I wonder how would working for IIM Indore help me in my plans to complete a doctoral program.
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As usual, I was wrong, I not only cleared the entrance test but also the interview with 7 professors sitting in semi-circle table inside a large conference room. I sitting on a single chair in the center with no table to hide the shiver in my legs.
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I still recall answering most of questions on finance likes of cost of capital, some theories, economic concepts. But, I failed to say the full form of PhD. I was nervous and was murmuring philosphe..but one of the professor said, "its Doctorate in Philosophy."
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I loved assisting Prof LV Ramana and visiting Prof G Sethu. My tenure was like completing a PGP program with learning subjects like Risk management, Strategic Finance, Quantitative Foundations of Financial Markets, Debt Markets, Financial Accounting, and Stock & Options.
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I learn using MS Excel, read lots of quality research papers, browsed online resources like Ebsco, Proquest, etc..
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Complete a case study on Maruti Suzuki- its transition from a Govt. controlled entity to being owned by Suzuki.
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ASSISTANT PROFESSOR IN FINANCE, VAISHNAV INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT, INDORE
I was clueless about my next move. Whether to pursue Doctoral Program or find a job.
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I get to hear about walk-in interview from a batchmate while visiting his place. And, next day I was amongst some 50 plus wannabe lecturers ready to be interviewed for finance alone.
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I was hired. Lucky since this was a small start but aimed at giving me a sense of purpose after my MBA
EDUCATION
Most relevant ones
MBA, DAVV, INDORE
July 1999 - June 2001
Finance Specialization
BBA, DAVV, INDORE
July 1996-June 1999
Finance Specialization
FELLOW PROGRAM, NITIE, MUMBAI
July 2004-June 2005
Complete the 1 year coursework for writing a thesis on macro-economic determinants of capital structure. Reached the pre-thesis stage and preferred to drop out pursue a corporate career
SKILLS
BUSINESS OPERATIONS
I am proactive and take a hands-on approach to lead transformation, structure teams, and execute business plans
CORPORATE FINANCE
Well versed in core concepts of finance, working capital management, leverages, cost of capital, firm valuation, financial modelling, and scenario analysis.
MENTORING
In my leadership role, I have been a mentor to
COMMUNICATION
Ability to communicate effective is key skill that has let me transition across industries and roles seamlessly.
BUSINESS MINDSET
I have worked with entrepreneurs and may be that may have helped me to take a broader view of the business situations - competitive scenario, intuition backed with data insights, etc.