An engineer who fell for how things are built.

Top Gear, at thirteen.

I was thirteen when I stumbled onto Top Gear on the BBC, and something clicked. It wasn't only the supercars. It was the idea that a machine could be engineered to feel a certain way, that behind anything impressive there is a system someone designed on purpose. I wanted to understand those systems, so I studied mechanical engineering at BIT Mesra.

Somewhere in that degree the question shifted. I cared less about individual parts and more about how the whole thing came together — how a company turns raw material, people and money into something that reaches a customer. That pulled me toward management, and to a PGDM at IIM Indore.

Five people and a blank page.

In 2016 I joined a design-led startup under the Aditya Birla Group, before it had really launched. There were about five of us and a founder-CEO with a clear vision. Over nearly eight years I watched it grow into a real company across three verticals — hospitality, e-commerce and international retail — and I got to build a lot of the machinery underneath it.

I set up the global and pan-India supply chain from scratch: sourcing, import and export, duty optimisation, warehouse layouts, 3PL negotiations. Over time the remit widened to accounting, statutory compliance, technology, go-to-market for exports and production. I was promoted six times and finished as Assistant General Manager of Business Processes and Projects.

My first time abroad, running a launch.

I was made project, program and portfolio manager for the launch of our new homeware brand, Ikai Asai, at a prestigious Paris trade show. I had to build both ends at once: the brand's front end — merchandise plans, stall design, brand films, retail partnerships — and the back end of logistics and supply that made it real.

It was my first time out of the country, and I spent it coordinating a French consultant, a celebrity designer, marketing agencies and artisans from remote parts of India, all pulling in different directions. Keeping timelines and budgets intact through that taught me more than any classroom. It also taught me something about myself: I love dropping into an unfamiliar culture — its food, its language, the way it does business — and finding my feet.

Empathy is an operating principle.

India's craft sector is fragmented, unorganised and deeply human. Early on I tried to run artisans through the same rigid ERP steps as everyone else, and it created real problems — late payments to people who could least absorb the wait. So I changed the system to fit them, not the other way around, securing advance payments for clusters like Longpi that were vital to our revenue. The path to profitability, it turns out, can run straight through empathy.

The other principle is simpler. When we needed to cut warehousing cost, our incumbent partner came back with a last-minute discount, and it would have been easy to take it. The honest cost-benefit pointed elsewhere, so I held firm and moved us to the better option. Doing the right thing instead of the easy thing has compounded well, and it's how I try to work.

"His integrity and work ethic are of the highest calibre — a democratic leader who earns the trust of colleagues and leaders alike."

Kanupriya Verma · CEO, Svatantra Online Services (Aditya Birla Group)

From third world to first.

The figure I admire most is Lee Kuan Yew. I read From Third World to First and kept thinking about how he turned a small place with almost no resources into a global hub — long-term vision backed by pragmatic, unglamorous execution, and a refusal to let circumstance set the ceiling. As someone who likes building things from very little, that is the standard I measure myself against.

Dubai, and the builder's itch.

Today I'm in Dubai as Executive Assistant to the CEO at Rapid Global Growth, the family office and venture group behind Puffy. I run the office around the CEO and keep rebuilding how we work — most recently wiring AI through our meeting and task flow so the busywork disappears. The Gulf is where strategy, logistics and ambition meet right now, and I want to build here.

Off the clock, I chase the joie de vivre: new cities and cuisines, time with family, and getting better at sport. And somewhere down the road there's a quieter ambition — an advisory firm of my own, helping creative and cultural businesses grow sustainably. For now, I'm happiest where strategy meets the loading dock.