Even if we try to convince ourselves that gender disparity across the corporate sector has been an issue of the past and equality prevails across almost all the industry verticals now, the numbers prove otherwise. Amongst some of the key areas that bear the assumption of being male-dominated, the finance sector comes at the top, because of a significantly fewer percentage of women currently being positioned in executive ranks across this segment. To challenge this ongoing trend and prove that women can also envisage themselves ascending the position of finance officers in distinctive organizations, many noteworthy personas have come forward and Deepika Daga is one of them. Adding value to her current organization Rishabh Enterprises HVAC&R since her very first day, Deepika has played a pivotal role in ensuring a significantly good growth of 25 percent even during the crucial stage of the COVID pandemic. As an impeccable finance professional equipped with varied expertise owing to her previous engagements with top-notch MNCs, such as PwC and Vedanta Group, Deepika tries to implement her garnered expertise across her present professional environment. Presently positioned as the CFO of Rishabh Enterprises HVAC&R, which is regarded as a premium distribution and manufacturing organization providing end-to-end solutions for the HVAC&R segment, Deepika is streamlining the company’s processes to enable the company to go forward.

Deepika engages in an exclusive interaction with the Women Entrepreneur magazine.

What are some critical business outcomes that you have facilitated by leveraging your expertise?

Introducing my financial and professional outlook to this organization, I have refined internal controls, improved quality checks, defined process walk-throughs and implemented customer relationship management across this organization. Using technology as a virtue, I have ensured that everything from point to point has been streamlined in the company. Apart from that, I have worked on strengthening the regulatory compliances and helped company avail the benefit of various government benefits designed for MSME companies, subsidies on capital and technology advancement schemes. Many MSMEs fail to avail all these government-provided aids. Running a MSME company registered with the start-up India as well, my expertise lies in improvising processes with right technology to ensure we mitigate risks, achieve compliance and lead the company to innovative growth.

What are some of the most challenging aspects of your role as the CFO and how do you overcome them?

As a family-run business, toughest challenges include building the right teams & then guiding them. The people with whom you work, belong to different spheres including some worked in same organization even from the age of traditional book-keeping. Training them to amalgamate their expertise & experience with tech based solutions to form a unified organization requires patience and expertise. Taking the challenge seriously, I studies entire organization structure, each person’s roles and how their expertise can be effectively modernized to introduce technology and replace the manual work done within the organization.

What are the most significant milestones that you have achieved so far in your professional journey?

After I completed my graduation from Shri Ram College of Commerce (Delhi University), I joined PwC as CA intern which was the turning point of my career. In the initial stage of my career, I was privileged to work with multiple top-notch conglomerates, startups and industry veterans and it has framed my professional & personal skills. I have audited the financials of these companies, done risk assessments analysis & evaluated their internal controls & so on. All this expertise that I have acquired in my journey has framed my professional journey and it can be termed as milestones of my career.

“Success and profitability is outcome of focusing on processes, internal checks, employees & customers, these unified actions will lead to achieving company vision”

The leadership philosophy that I acquired in this journey is about to help those who are doing poorly to do well and to help those who are doing well to do even better. As a CFO, I ensure everybody comes under one umbrella and direct their energies to achieve overall vision of the company.

How has the financial industry evolved over the past few years? How do you keep up with the evolving industry trends?

The financial industry has been very volatile in the last few years in terms of ever-changing regulatory compliances, taxation complications and a changing financial landscape. I try to keep myself updated with the ongoing updates in the industry by continuous reading and remaining in touch with the industry experts.

As a successful business leader, what would your advice be to young women aspiring to become business leaders and entrepreneurs in the future?

My advice for women is that they need to be fierce and believe that they are capable to achieve anything in life. When you take on something, give your everything to it and you can break any glass ceiling with your will & determination. You just have to keep moving & keep winning.

Deepika Daga, CFO, Rishabh Enterprises HVAC&R

A Chartered Accountant by profession, Deepika has worked with some of the leading MNCs including PwC and Vedanta Group. Currently working as CFO in Rishabh Enterprises HVAC&R Private, Deepika holds prolific expertise across areas pertaining to accounting, financial statement preparation and consolidation, financial planning & analysis, cost sheet modelling, projections, and taxation. She has also worked as business consultant to more than 100+ startups and helped them in pitch decks, market & industry research reports. Her strong financial, analytical and research skills have got her featured in India 5000 Women Achievers Awards 2021 as well.