DSIJ Interview With Sanjay Upadhyay Director - Finance & CFO , Deepak Nitrite Limited

"Moving Forward, we aspire to be a one billion turnover company"

Sanjay Upadhyay Director - Finance & CFO , Deepak Nitrite Limited  




CFO Profile

Shri Sanjay Upadhyay is an Associate Member of the Institute of Cost Accountants of India. He is also a Fellow Member of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India. He has completed an Advanced Management Programme from Wharton, USA. He has vast experience in the areas of Finance, Accounts, Commercial and Secretarial Functions. He is associated with the Company since 1994. 

What are your top Four strategic priorities as a CFO? 

1.Creation of sustainable value for all stakeholders, especially for capital providers through an optimum mix of debt and equity raised through various sources at best possible terms
2. Mitigating internal and external risks through better use of technology
3.Cost and productivity management to achieve cost leadership. Use technology tools.
4.To have resilient team to cope up with ever-changing business environment

How is digitisation and technology influencing your company's operations?

1. Digitisation is helping us to take quicker decisions by generating user-friendly dynamic dashboards and graphics tailored to internal customer needs
2. With technology, we are working to map continuously changes in environment to predict and realign strategy and reduce risks
3. Optimising financial processes through extended digital tools
4. Increase productivity of transactional processes

What are the key risks facing Indian economy in your view? 

1. Slowdown in consumption-based demand n Liquidity issue among NBFCs and banks n Protectionist trade polices of developed countries
2. Recession in global economy due to various reason like Brexit, trade war, etc.

What are the key growth challenges facing your company? 

1. Volatility in commodity prices n Slowdown/recessionary situation in the global economy

What are the key growth drivers/ levers of your company? 

1. Generating new platforms for sustainable growth
2. Optimising capacity utilisation, enhancing capacity by way of de-bottlenecking and process improvement and integration of value chain
3. Doing more of the same thing, more efficiently
4. Exploring more geographies

What skill-sets are a must to be a successful CFO of a company? 

1. Domain Expertise n Perspective of risk n Deep understanding of business

What is the single most challenging aspect of being a CFO?

Creating sustainable business model by adopting latest trends and managing risk.

How has the role of a CFO evolved over the years? 

1. From managing and presenting financial numbers to being a business partner and strategic advisor to the board
2. Being controller to risk manager
3. Embracing new tools and technologies embracing new technology and tools
4. Complex businesses like DNL, CFO is expected to have commercial mindedness, strategic delivery, delivery of complex transformation,  people, processes, systems and structure

What is your the growth outlook for your company?

Moving forward, we aspire to be a one billion turnover company and also being the fastest growing chemical intermediates company.