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Vineet Gupta

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Vineet Gupta

Finance

OCTAL SAOC FZC

Recommending References

I think leaders usually have quality to 'Stay Motivated’; they normally trust their instinct and keep faith in their actions. Hence, I would recommend any publication which motivates you to achieve your goal.
Personally I prefer to read biography of the successful personalities who have influenced the world and currently I am reading ‘Steve Jobs’, I really admire this entrepreneur, his vision and how he changed the digital world.

Family Background

I come from a middle class family based in Haridwar, Uttranchal. Father worked in Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd, a PSU setup in Haridwar. We are total four members in the family including parent and one elder sister, who is married and settled in haridwar only.

Changes in My Profession

Professional environment is changing everyday and becoming more and more competitive and challenging. Efficiency is the key to keep routine work on silent run and to be able to concentrate on strategic and value adding activities. Staying up to date and growing your network are the keys to remain competent. Use of technology to automate the routine tasks, eliminating the manual intervention and non-value added activities has grown rapidly in every area of business and for that matter finance is not an exception. Use of ERP systems, electronic platforms (like SWIFT for Corporates) to interact with banking partners have become a standard nowadays.

Essential qualities

Treasury has been evolved within finance as an important function parallel to accounting. it entails forward thinking and managing the stakeholders inside and outside the organization.
Treasury is an area which entails dynamism, pre-emptive approach and prudent decision making, if one aspires to embrace these characteristics, Treasury is a right career. Treasurers, nowadays, to cope up with changing regulations and role is becoming more and more demanding, possessing fundamental and technical skills is a key to success.

Important Career Decision

I am born and brought up in Haridwar and as for any other small town, Haridwar also had limited options for higher studies and certainly lack of guidance on of right career stream. Fortunately BHEL had a chapter of ICAI within their HRD center, with some guidance I got enrolled for CMA and that was the turning point, I got a career path. Intuitively this subject was of my interest as it was more incline towards decision making in the business and less incline towards accounting/auditing.
I started my career as accountant but soon after I realized that accounting is not my cup of tea. I wasn’t really enjoying the monotonous nature of accounting job and knew I had to find something more interesting. I was looking for a role which is interactive and involves active participation in the success of business. Eventually I was offered a role of Treasury Manager by Kraft Foods Dubai and within no time I realized that this is exactly what I was looking for as my career! and Journey continues..

Way to ensure growth

Finance landscape is changing rapidly, one needs to keep himself up to date to embrace the change and perform in those conditions.
hence "keep on sharpening your blade”, the moment you take up a new role in your existing or new organisation all your past experience and qualifications are paid off (as you got the new role based on that only) hence to take you to next level you need to keep on updating and upgrading yourself.
I believe right qualification is the key to grow fast in your career, it arms you with the tools and ammunition to not only perform well in your role but to exceed in it.

Challenges in profession

Biggest challenge I see for accounting/finance profession today is increased financial regulations and maintaining compliance with them.
Treasury is becoming financial nerve center of the organization. With ever increasing cross border trades, changing credit/financial regulations and technological advancements I expect treasury to evolve as an active contributor to the success of the organization.

Outlook about India as A developed country

I believe 'Investors Trust' is the most important factor to attract more and more investment in Indian industries which will lead India to be a developed nation. Hence professionalism, transparency and fair trade practices become imperative for all the professionals in India.

Outlook about option to start career again

Looking back on my career path so far, I regret about a couple of years which were wasted in absence of proper guidance to find right career stream for me. If I had to start my career all over again, I would like to eliminate those years. Right guidance and support during one's academic years plays a crucial role in shaping his career for future.

Current Job & Role

Currently working with Octal Petrochemicals LLC FZC, Oman as Asst. Corporate Treasurer. Being a Treasurer I am responsible to manage the most vital element of any business known as Cash and its most productive use. Responsible to ensure that business remains solvent all the time, both in term of short term and long term commitments. Determining the funding structure both debt and equity to achieve most cost effective financing for on-going operating activities and for new project financing. Assessment and monitoring of Business risk in term of operational and financial risk. Ensuring risks are either eliminated (i.e. eliminating forex risk, interest rate risk, commodity risk) or mitigated (i.e. by appropriate insurance policies to cover property damage or business interruption).
Bringing-in efficiency in treasury operation using technology, working on project like ‘SWIFT for corporates’to ensure minimal manual intervention and eliminating non-value added activities.

Achievements

I started my career as an accountant but with a vision and determination, could climb the ladder in my career. I won’t say the word ‘Proud’ about it but I definitely have a ‘Sense of Accomplishment’. There have been several moments along this journey which reinforce my confidence to achieve more, for example – Completing my Cost Accountant qualification despite of being in job, Receiving regional award during my tenor with Kraft Foods, earning CFA designation despite of having full time job and a new born baby and same year receiving ‘Student achievement award’ from ACT for CertITM exam.
But I feel this is still the beginning, there is a long journey ahead……

Advice for followers

A Career in Treasury is rewarding but at the same time it’s demanding also, you can’t afford to be in status quo and treasurers get involved in most of the areas of the business which impact cash. Treasurers needs to have ‘AAA’ (Access All Areas), hence having robust technical skills, dynamism, pragmatic decision making are crucial.

New trends in domain

Technology is becoming imperative in any field now days, because it brings efficiency in any manual process. In the Treasury field I could see most of the communications are becoming electronic rather than a written instruction, automation of non-value added activities like reconciliations etc. In the area of Trade Finance there have been quite a developments and I could see BPO (Bank Payment Obligation) is going to be a big thing in overseas trade and eventually will replace Letter of Credit.

Career Expectation

I aspire to be Group Treasurer of an organisation having multiple subsidiaries at different locations, eventually I might become a CFO but will remain Treasurer instinct.

Journey in corporate world

I have earned rich experience in Treasury field, both in MNC (Treasury Manager with Kraft Foods) and in fluid & high growth environment (Asst. Treasurer with OCTAL). It’s been a fantastic journey so far, I have been fortunate to get challenging roles in my career and accepting those challenges and performing them has been an integral part of my career success so far.