He was a Telugu, retired and aged banker, living in Mumbai. I do not know how he has got associated with a mumbai based promoter who ran a finance company in south India
He was on the board of this company, till the rot was let out. There used to be a monthly review meeting and he used to be there almost all the time along with all directors including promoter directors. All senior executives , regional managers and branch managers were invitees. The marketing team - car and truck finance used to have sleepless night as the meeting date approached, all the time, without fail. Their problem was either number or rate; worse delinquency/ overdue.
Howsoever better prepared the team appeared and sounded before the meeting, they were almost molested by this man. Any finance professional would like him because he knew the business thoroughly and appeared more prepared than the top executives of the companies. He was sharp and too good at data crunching. He was capable of finding a current slide logically inconsistent with past slides very accurately; he was never wrong.
He used to call hoax - a hoax; especially when it was projected as a hype in the previous meetings.
His way of summing up was too good and it was enough for anybody to be there to understand what went through the whole day in the meeting and what was expected to be improved upon by the next meeting.
One wonders why this smart man did not question the absence of CFO in all those meetings. Was it because that accounting figures of marketing never tallied with performance claims of marketing? May be, he knew always that accounting figures would never match the marketing because both are questionable. I read somewhere that Japanese always ensured that there are unshakable facts and figures for review, so that strategy and remedial measures are right.
There were hardly any serious review of delinquency levels and losses even in those meetings; No wonder the company went belly up. Was it also because of window dressing of annual reports at such disproportionate levels?
All said and done, he was a great guy and each company needs an analyst like him, who could review threadbare in monthly meetings. MNCs are averse to such meetings; they favour tele-conference. is it effective?
Are there serious review meetings in finance companies and banks ? In recent times, the trend, I believe, is that many such meeting are scheduled in Bangkok and I sincerely hope that the right figures are reviewed.
