Sanjiv Keshri: Driving Growth In Component Manufacturing For Automotive & Transport Industry
Sanjiv Keshri
Chief Financial Officer
To solve this problem at hand and helping push global preference for the Indian manufacturing industry, Jupiter Wagons Limited (formerly Commercial Engineers and Body Builders Co Limited) a Madhya Pradesh based company strives to provide quality products and dependable service for clients across geographies. With vast experience in designing and manufacturing of automobile bodies for nearly 40 years, Jupiter has competence of working with both domestic and international vendors operating in three business Segments - Commercial Vehicles applications, Railways and ISO containers.
Read the snippets from the interview with Sanjiv Keshri, CFO, Jupiter Wagons Limited (formerly Commercial Engineers and Body Builders Co Limited) sharing his wealth of knowledge and experience for upcoming talents in the industry.
Read the snippets from the interview with Sanjiv Keshri, CFO, Jupiter Wagons Limited (formerly Commercial Engineers and Body Builders Co Limited) sharing his wealth of knowledge and experience for upcoming talents in the industry.
Tell us about your professional background and experience. What motivates you as a new-age leader?
After graduating from Calcutta University with a degree in commerce, I went ahead to prepare and become a chartered accountant. I have over 20 years of professional expertise in a variety of financial fields, and have enjoyed the opportunity to work with companies like Ambuja Cements, Adhunik Power, VISA Power, and Meenakshi Energy, before joining to head financial planning & strategy at Jupiter Wagons Limited at the moment. I enjoy crunching numbers and making sense of it to drive business insights. What keeps me motivated is working with future-ready businessmen and helping them analyze financial data and build purpose-driven strategy for intelligent business investments.
How would you define Jupiter Wagons Limited as an organization and its current position in the manufacturing industry?
Over the years the company has successfully established and maintained its name in the automotive component manufacturing industry in India for production and distribution of railway wagons, application-based load bodies for commercial transport vehicles, and ISO containers. Jupiter Wagons Limited currently enjoys the top spot as the most preferred comprehensive railway engineering company for freight wagons. It has expanded into the production of ISO containers and applicationbased load bodies for commercial vehicles.
As a CFO, how do you determine the profitability of an Investment of the company
Though the task is not easy as a company's growth is directly impacted by its investments, I always consider the big picture while keeping in mind that the company's business decisions have a direct influence on its finances and stake holders' interests. KPIs like NPV, payback period, and internal rate of return as well as the overall worth of the investment over time helps me determine whether certain investments are profitable.
What are the recent industry trends adopted by the company and is it working on an upcoming solution. If so, could you elaborate about the kind of impacts that you plan to bring in through your offerings?
Yes! Jupiter Wagons is committed to manufacture and design products and services that are justifiable and viable in the long run.The pursuit of sustainable practices has emerged as a key worldwide business priority, and we at Jupiter Wagons realize that it is crucial to switch to sustainable methods now that the effects of global warming are clear to everyone. Given the pressing necessity, we have improved our capacity to create electric commercial vehicles an initiative to move toward 'green production'.
Reflect on some of the major challenges you have encountered so far. How did you overcome them and what did you learn from them?
On the personal front, the major challenge I have had in the past few years is managing a work life balance. Given the dynamics and the scale of development in the last 5-6 years, one has had to quickly adapt to an ever changing world. This required me to be agile & always be thinking on my feet, without much data or precedence to go by. What has helped me overcome these moments has been the support of my family. We live in a joint family, with two elder brothers. All of us being CAs and having distinguished careers in the field of finance, their knowledge and experience has enabled me to develop a keen sense of perception regarding all things finance. My
Jupiter Wagons currently enjoys the top spot as the most preferred comprehensive railway engineering company, and has also expanded into the production of ISO containers and load bodies for commercial vehicles
As a CFO, how do you determine the profitability of an Investment of the company
Though the task is not easy as a company's growth is directly impacted by its investments, I always consider the big picture while keeping in mind that the company's business decisions have a direct influence on its finances and stake holders' interests. KPIs like NPV, payback period, and internal rate of return as well as the overall worth of the investment over time helps me determine whether certain investments are profitable.
What are the recent industry trends adopted by the company and is it working on an upcoming solution. If so, could you elaborate about the kind of impacts that you plan to bring in through your offerings?
Yes! Jupiter Wagons is committed to manufacture and design products and services that are justifiable and viable in the long run.The pursuit of sustainable practices has emerged as a key worldwide business priority, and we at Jupiter Wagons realize that it is crucial to switch to sustainable methods now that the effects of global warming are clear to everyone. Given the pressing necessity, we have improved our capacity to create electric commercial vehicles an initiative to move toward 'green production'.
Reflect on some of the major challenges you have encountered so far. How did you overcome them and what did you learn from them?
On the personal front, the major challenge I have had in the past few years is managing a work life balance. Given the dynamics and the scale of development in the last 5-6 years, one has had to quickly adapt to an ever changing world. This required me to be agile & always be thinking on my feet, without much data or precedence to go by. What has helped me overcome these moments has been the support of my family. We live in a joint family, with two elder brothers. All of us being CAs and having distinguished careers in the field of finance, their knowledge and experience has enabled me to develop a keen sense of perception regarding all things finance. My
family has provided me with an avenue to discuss crucial subjects with an educated and understanding audience.
On the professional front, developing efficiency for organizations through a streamlined work flow process was a challenge. Therefore, I have strived to ensure adoption of best practices in the development of redundancy systems and processes. This has not only resulted in effective workflows but also helped in developing permanent practices that ensure efficiency, regardless of external challenges that are not always within one's control.
Going forward, what are the changes in market behavior that you anticipate, and what are the opportunities that you foresee?
The world around us is shifting, in every way. The rise of the use of the Internet and the abundance of information available, business is being conducted differently than it was just a decade ago. People are more demanding, negotiate more fiercely, and put more pressure on price, quality, scope, and so on. There is no doubt that market behavior is changing and will continue to do so for years to come. The sooner we reinvent our selves and come out with new and differentiated skills, the sooner we start to keep up.
In this perspective new age concepts like Blockchain, bitcoin, NFTs, Web3 etc are so much in the news. There are debates and discussions about their implementation, acceptability in various fields of business. We read and hear about tech enabled developments and honestly, I did not get a chance to study and evaluate their pros and cons but I am sure they will take the world in a new technological direction. For me these are opportunities for all of us to learn and catch-up with the new world. The younger generation is much ahead of us and more talented as well. I realize this on a day to day basis when I have conversations with my daughter and son. And we don’t have to focus the conversation on a tech agenda, just their regular life is so much tech driven. They are so much updated and fast paced and talking to them is enriching and updating with the new age practices.
As market behavior is evolving, we at Jupiter Wagons are equipped to realize & catch on with the trends at an early stage to reinvent ourselves and develop fresh, unique skills. This will allow us to put forward better product and service offerings for the perennially evolving market.
Sanjiv Keshri, Chief Financial Officer, Jupiter Wagons
Sanjiv Keshri is the Chief Financial Officer at Jupiter Wagons Limited. He has over 20 years of well-rounded experience in a variety of areas, including finance and fund management, plans for corporate expansion, mergers, and CAPEX contracts with famous organizations. Sanjiv enjoys occasional Cantonese cuisine and reading fiction novels for leisure.
On the professional front, developing efficiency for organizations through a streamlined work flow process was a challenge. Therefore, I have strived to ensure adoption of best practices in the development of redundancy systems and processes. This has not only resulted in effective workflows but also helped in developing permanent practices that ensure efficiency, regardless of external challenges that are not always within one's control.
Going forward, what are the changes in market behavior that you anticipate, and what are the opportunities that you foresee?
The world around us is shifting, in every way. The rise of the use of the Internet and the abundance of information available, business is being conducted differently than it was just a decade ago. People are more demanding, negotiate more fiercely, and put more pressure on price, quality, scope, and so on. There is no doubt that market behavior is changing and will continue to do so for years to come. The sooner we reinvent our selves and come out with new and differentiated skills, the sooner we start to keep up.
In this perspective new age concepts like Blockchain, bitcoin, NFTs, Web3 etc are so much in the news. There are debates and discussions about their implementation, acceptability in various fields of business. We read and hear about tech enabled developments and honestly, I did not get a chance to study and evaluate their pros and cons but I am sure they will take the world in a new technological direction. For me these are opportunities for all of us to learn and catch-up with the new world. The younger generation is much ahead of us and more talented as well. I realize this on a day to day basis when I have conversations with my daughter and son. And we don’t have to focus the conversation on a tech agenda, just their regular life is so much tech driven. They are so much updated and fast paced and talking to them is enriching and updating with the new age practices.
As market behavior is evolving, we at Jupiter Wagons are equipped to realize & catch on with the trends at an early stage to reinvent ourselves and develop fresh, unique skills. This will allow us to put forward better product and service offerings for the perennially evolving market.
Sanjiv Keshri, Chief Financial Officer, Jupiter Wagons
Sanjiv Keshri is the Chief Financial Officer at Jupiter Wagons Limited. He has over 20 years of well-rounded experience in a variety of areas, including finance and fund management, plans for corporate expansion, mergers, and CAPEX contracts with famous organizations. Sanjiv enjoys occasional Cantonese cuisine and reading fiction novels for leisure.