CII, has recognised CEAT’s Executive Director & CFO Kumar Subbiah, among the Leading CFOs of the year at the 2nd edition of the CFO Excellence Awards in 2022. Subbiah has been recognised in the Auto Category for his stellar work at the company in business partnering, capital allocation and driving operational excellence.
Under Subbiah’s guidance and leadership, CEAT has put in place several systems and processes that have helped enhance corporate governance standards and compliances. The finance team has also emerged as a true partner to the business, finding the optimum balance between growth and leverage to help the organisation meet its strategic objectives. As a result of its efforts to bring efficiencies in working capital across all elements that helped in making Rs 750 crore of cash available to invest in businesses over the last few years. The company has also undertaken several other initiatives including sourcing raw materials efficiently and competitively through strategic sourcing and tie-ups with partners. Initiatives in driving efficiencies in cash flows and funding helped in bringing down interest costs. The company has upgraded its SAP to SAP HANA and automated various operational activities through the deployment of RPAs and blockchain.
Another key initiative that has helped CEAT bridge the margin gap has been leveraging cross-functional teams to identify large cost-saving opportunities through a structured zero-based approach to costs. What started off as a pilot during the pandemic, has now become a practice at CEAT to identify a few large programmes every year to drive large cost savings leveraging technology and a structured Quality Based Management (QBM) approach.
For Kumar Subbiah, ED & CFO, CEAT, this award is a recognition of all that the company has been doing to drive business excellence using a QBM approach that has delivered results for the business. He hopes that this award marks another milestone in the journey as they set new benchmarks in the industry in delivering a safe, sustainable, and smarter future.