Operations & Supply Chain · Dubai

I'm Akshay Barthaki. I turn operational complexity into something that runs quietly.

Operations as craft — rigorous, humane, and built to last.

Eight-plus years building and fixing the machinery behind growing companies — sourcing, international logistics, fulfilment, demand planning, and the daily decisions that keep a business moving.

Now I'm in Dubai as Executive Assistant to the CEO at Rapid Global Growth — the family office and international venture group behind Puffy. I manage the CEO's priorities, stakeholders and cross-functional coordination across the USA, Armenia, Dubai and Mykonos — and I rebuilt how the company captures decisions, automating meeting notes from Gemini to Claude to Asana, so nothing slips.

Before Dubai I spent nearly eight years at Svatantra Online Services (Aditya Birla Group), growing from management trainee to assistant general manager. I built the supply chains behind the luxury homeware brands Ikai Asai and CuroCarte — from sourcing and warehousing to global export — and took operations from early-stage scramble to 99% on-time, in-full.

MBA from SP Jain in Dubai, PGDM from IIM Indore, and mechanical engineering from BIT Mesra. I'm most useful where strategy meets the loading dock.

How I got here → Story The work in detail → Case studies Hiring in the Gulf? → Say hi

How I work

Good operations is invisible.

When it works, nobody notices. When it doesn't, everybody does. My job is to keep it in the first state — and to make the business a little cheaper, faster and calmer every quarter.

Plan honestly

A forecast is a promise to the rest of the business. I build them from the messy reality of long-tail demand, not the tidy average — fewer stockouts, less dead inventory.

Cut what doesn't earn

Every contract, every leg of freight, every day of lead time is negotiable. I go looking for the 40% nobody else was counting.

Automate the dull

The best process removes itself from your calendar. Lately that means wiring AI into the workflow so the busywork quietly disappears.

"A rare combination of exceptional IQ and EQ—I see myself in him."
Kanupriya Verma · CEO, Svatantra Online Services (Aditya Birla Group)

Impact

Numbers I've moved.

A decade of operations, in the figures that mattered to the P&L.

40%

YoY cost saving in warehousing & logistics

70%

freight cost cut, moving air → container

99%

OTIF, with 3-day turnaround & 0.2% returns

50%

YoY reduction renegotiating 3PL & warehousing

20%

revenue growth from pricing & new channels

25%

shorter operational lead time, end to end

Also: 20% lower import duty through Free-Trade-Agreement optimisation · 20% efficiency gain on an ERP migration to Microsoft Dynamics NAV and beyond · trade-fair programmes delivered across the US, France & UK.

Selected work

Four problems worth the long hours.

A brand launched in Paris, an ERP rebuilt around artisans, a warehouse re-engineered under cash-flow pressure, and planning for demand that refuses to average out. Full write-ups on the case studies page.

2019 · Launch

Ikai Asai in Paris

Built a luxury homeware brand's front and back end from scratch and launched it at a Paris trade show.

Read → Change management

An ERP for artisans

Left Microsoft Dynamics NAV for a custom system that fit how artisans actually work. 20% more efficient, 50% cheaper.

Read → Negotiation · Ethics

Re-engineering the warehouse

Moved 3PL partners and the whole team without dropping a parcel. 40% cost saving.

Read →

Experience

Executive Assistant to the CEO

Feb 2026 — Now

Rapid Global Growth · Dubai, UAE · family office & venture group

Provide high-level strategic and operational support to the CEO — managing priorities, stakeholder communication and cross-functional coordination across the USA, Armenia, Dubai and Mykonos.
Designed and rolled out a new Minutes-of-Meeting process, automating the flow from Gemini transcripts to Claude to Asana so action items are captured and assigned without manual note-taking.
Led a change-management initiative routing all Asana task creation through Claude via the Claude–Asana connector, standardising prioritisation and delivering measurable time and cost savings.

Puffy — flagship D2C mattress brand

Management Trainee → Assistant General Manager

Apr 2016 — Dec 2023

Svatantra Online Services (Aditya Birla Group) · Mumbai, India

Owned annual business planning and the company budget; led program and project management toward long-term objectives.
Redesigned business operations for 40% YoY savings in warehousing and logistics; renegotiated 3PL and warehousing contracts for a further 50% YoY reduction.
Stood up a Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) process with multiple forecasting models for long-tail SKUs — improving accuracy and cutting both stockouts and excess inventory.
Built domestic and international supply chains end to end — sourcing, warehousing, packaging, fulfilment — reaching 99% OTIF, 3-day turnaround, 0.2% returns.
Drove market research and pricing across retail, B2B and export for 20% revenue growth; optimised imports under FTAs for 20% lower duty and moved air freight to containers for 70% savings.
Managed the ERP migration from Microsoft Dynamics NAV to a custom platform, and spearheaded international trade-fair management across the US, France and UK.

Ikai Asai — luxury homeware CuroCarte — global curated e-commerce

Core competencies

Business Planning & StrategySupply Chain Management International LogisticsS&OP & Demand Forecasting Pricing StrategyNegotiationProject Management Market ResearchProcess Improvement ERP (MS Dynamics NAV)AI Workflow Automation Executive Support

Education