Ramani Dathi has a vast expertise in terms of financial control, accounting, M&A and related areas. Over the years she has built expertise over partnering with the business teams in formulating the strategies, their expansion plans, identification of their addressable market, alignment of the strategy to structures and the execution plans. Concerning mergers and acquisitions, in three years, Ramani completed eight acquisitions. These acquisitions have helped the company to build adjacencies and enter into new markets. Also being in the listed company is extremely important for Ramani.

TeamLease Services has over two and a half lakh employees on its payroll who are spread across 7,500 locations of India including Tier2 and Tier 3 locations. The company has given employment close to 19 lakh people and this is something that the team takes pride in. “Even the vision of the company is putting India to work and in the process, we give employment to many who are from smaller cities and bring them under the benefits of formal employment. Currently, our services are spread across 3 Es- Employment, Employability and E-workforce solutions,” says Ramani. E-workforce is enhancing the productivity of employees by giving them additional tools to increase their productivity or enable ease of doing business with the clients.

In an interview with the Women Entrepreneur Team, Ramani shares her views on her professional journey at the organisation and her approach towards leadership. Here are a few snippets from the conversation.

Take us through your early educational journey and prior industry experience that you bring to the table. What motivated you to venture into the field of finance?

I am one of the earliest qualifiers for CA in my family and region. I finished my class 10th in 2001, was a school topper and also district topper and then in class 12th scored 96 percentage with mathematics and science as my main subjects. I even cleared the IIT Prelims for entrance. That’s when I met one of the people from a leading firm in my hometown and after talking to him I was motivated in terms of the kind of work that they are doing, the kind of visibility that they have about the businesses and the economy, GDPs, how the external market influence the companies and their growth. I thought of moving to a domain where I get to bring value to the businesses in these terms. So, I switched from engineering to the finance domain.

What are the various roles and responsibilities that you currently shoulder as the CFO of TeamLease Services? Highlight the challenges in your current role and how do you overcome them.

I would put my current role as the CFO under five buckets. 1. Governance- For any company to sustain itself for a long period, strong corporate governance is extremely required. 2. Financial control- Financial control is the regular accounting, book close, audits and ensuring there are no leakages in your revenues. For this, I have built a strong team and delegated. 3. Treasury Capital allocation- Treasury and capital allocation is extremely critical because this can impact the return on capital employed for the company making sure that we are making the right investments. 4 Strategy & Expansion- For building adjacencies we continuously do acquisitions and engage with the opportunities in our space. 5. Performance management- Making sure the business plans are aligned to addressable market and are being met. it is the most critical challenge for me right now.

“Since pandemic, finance as a profession has evolved a lot in terms of adoption of technology.”

What have been some of the most significant milestones that you have achieved so far? In your opinion what is the driving force behind your professional success?

I have had promotions throughout my career and currently, I am one of the youngest CFOs in the country for a listed company. The TeamLease IPO was one of the most successful IPOs at that time with an over subscription of 65 times. We did 350 investor meetings in 2 months across the US, UK, Singapore, Hong Kong and the Middle East and made sure that all the acquisitions turn successful to the company. Lastly, the transition that I made in my career, from pure financial control to a strategic role, is also my biggest achievement. After doing the finance and accounting work over years, I saw the value that a finance professional can bring in to the table and help businesses accelerate their growth.

How has the finance industry evolved over the past few years? How do you keep yourself aligned with the periodic revolutions occurring within your respective industry?

Before pandemic, the finance as a profession has evolved a lot from being pure paper-oriented to being digitalized. Currently, more and more finance professionals are aligned towards business goals. Post pandemic, we are forced to make all our processes and systems agile and flexible. Also, there is a substantial change in approach towards risk management. I also ensure to have more participation with the peer group in terms of final discussions or webinars.

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

Women by nature are more honest, committed and hardworking which are essential traits of any business leader. Women should be more confident and more open to working with diverse groups. My recommendation for women would be to grow in their careers and prefer working outside of their comfort zones so that they get a lot of opportunities. They should also bring diversity to their team as that’s when you get ideas and perspectives from different angles.