Q1. Could you start by giving us a brief overview of your professional background, particularly focusing on your expertise in the industry?

I have 10+ years of PQ experience. During this period, I have worked on multiple profiles/projects/Companies/Sectors.

I have worked with the following Companies:

• Deloitte-Consultancy, I have worked on various projects for Companies such as DSP Mutual Funds, Lubrizol (Chemical, Additives), Specialty Restaurant (Fine dining chain), MSPL (Iron ore mining, Wind Power), TUV, etc
• JM Baxi Group- (Port operations, Logistics-Rail, Inland Container Depot (ICD), Container Freight Station (CFS), Heavy Logistics, Warehousing, Third Party Logistics.
• Entero Healthcare-Distribution/Supply chain of Pharma/Healthcare Products (B2B)
• Leela Palace, Hotels & Resorts-Luxury Hospitality (Hotels)

Also, during this period, I have handled the following profiles/projects:

Business Finance: I have handled business finance for

• JM Baxi, comprising Commercials, tendering process, Business Modelling, Management reporting (MIS), Budgeting
• Entero Healthcare- Controlling the P&L for Institutional sales, Third Party Marketing, Commercials, acquisitions/partnerships, Working Capital management, etc

IPO activities: Led IPO preparedness to listing, dealing with bankers and lawyers, preparing prospectus, responding to queries of SEBI

Investor Relations: Meeting investors (both buy side & sell side), nurturing the story and growth drivers of the Company, peer analysis, walkthrough of business model to sell-side analysts for research coverage

Equity Fund raise: Raised a Private Equity fund of ~200 Mn USD from Bain Capital and ~750 Mn USD from Hapag Lloyd (Strategic Investor). I have worked with marqee PE firms such as Bain Capital, Orbimed, Brookfield. I have also dealt with PE such as KKR, Blackstone, GIC, BoFA, etc, for the fund raise.

Financial Reporting

Audit and Assurance

Q2. How are leading PE backed companies redesigning FP&A from static annual budgeting toward driver based, rolling forecasts, and which operational drivers typically explain the bulk of EBITDA variance in those models?

The FP&A requirement has become more dynamic. There is a need to showcase real-time dashboards that prompt stakeholders to make decisions that matter at the right time. This involves timely and accurate forecasts and also includes an element of flexibility to adjust to various situations/outcomes.

The focus also shifts from the EBITDA to KPIs, the drivers of EBITDA such as sales, customer count, wallet share, etc.

The role of FP&A is also to guide data towards the right decision.

Q3. Where is AI driven or predictive FP&A actually being used at scale across the finance stack, and where is it still a "nice to have" with little or no observable impact on real business decisions?

AI-driven FP&A should be used for bulky/companies with voluminous transactions such as

• FMCG
• Telecom
• Pharmaceuticals
• Banks and Financial Services
• Manufacturing etc

This can be used for:

• Rolling forecast
• Variance analysis
• Real-time analysis
• Predictive ordering
• Predictive manufacturing etc

This is nice to have for any businesses that have not yet adopted AI-based FP&A.

Q4. Which operational levers are delivering the most repeatable combination of margin uplift and multiple expansion in the current environment?

This depends upon business-to-business/sector-to-sector. However, revenue plays the biggest role in margin uplift on account of leverage over cost, as not all costs are variable. The fixed cost will not increase in proportion to the revenue increase. Other factors, such as operational efficiency, operational KPIs, etc., also contribute to margin uplift.

Q5. As budgets shift from annual cycles to continuous planning, which specific driver based models have proven most predictive in your industry, and how have they concretely altered capital allocation choices or risk taking?

Yes, the business demands continuous budgeting and forecasting, hence a flexible model is most suited for the current environment. One should be aware of all the assumptions and drivers used in the forecasting and the resultant impact on the outcome of each of these drivers.

Q6. Which governance or incentive changes have had the biggest impact on the quality of capital allocation decisions, and where do you still see misalignment between the KPIs disclosed to the market and the metrics that actually drive how management is paid?

According to me, below are the KPIs that actually drive how the management is paid:

• ROCE (Return on Capital Employed)
• ROE (Return on Equity)
• IRR
• Payback period
• OCF (Operating Cash Flows)
• FCF (Free Cash Flows)
• Capital Allocations
• Growth drivers
• Holding period
• Margin profile etc

Q7. If you were an investor looking at companies within the space, what critical question would you pose to their senior management?

• What are the plans for future growth, with a breakdown into organic/inorganic plans
• How is the Company performing vis-à-vis its competitor
• What are the valuation multiples compared to the peers
• Financial Matrices such as EBITDA, margin profile, ROCE, ROE, Growth
• Macros for the Industry/Segment. How is the industry performing etc.