My joining CRISIL in 2000 and then Acuité in 2014 wasnt planned. They just happened. I never wanted to be anything, let alone be a CEO. I have seen CEOs like Sameer Bhakhri and R Ravimohan. They were so good at their job and making impact that I would not dare take that path on my own. Still, when I received the call to take up this assignment, I checked with a few ex-bosses. They knew that I aspire to build my own business someday. So all of them encouraged me to take it up. One of them assured me, 'it will be just like building your own business, without the financial risk'.
This is what brought me here.
And alongwith me I brought some solid bad luck. The company then was engaged into SME Ratings and was completely dependent on a government subsidy. Within three months of my joining, the subsidy was stopped. I must thank God for taking the subsidy away, because without that we would never reach here.
If it was bad luck to lose the easy peasy business of subsidy, we were also very lucky to have received the licences from SEBI to rate bonds and RBI to rate bank loans, just before the subsidy was taken away. Which led us to the path of a transformation from being a SME focused rating agency to a full service rating agency. This required us to write criteria, build statistical models, develop software workflows, retrain people, repurpose whole departments, builld a new brand, and adopt new regulations fast. All this, while managing profitability, paying dividends to shareholders and without raising equity or borrowing.
In a fiercely competitive market, surviving could have been enough. But our pride is we did the right thing the right way, without chasing marketshare or growth mindlessly. We brought ESG ratings long before it became regulated. We disseminated rating through mobile app. We allowed verification of rating letters and releases through QR codes.
All this was possible thanks to colleagues who were willing to stretch and go the extra mile without rewards, the clients and investors who trusted us, the auditors who pointed out mistakes, partners who supported in marketing, research & ESG data, the Board members who supported us during difficult times, and the regulators who consistently demanded higher standards.
Building Acuité felt like changing the tires, the engine and the chassis of a moving car. But in the end it worked.
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