Message from MD – June 2017

Dear friends,

The month of May was rewarding and rejuvenating on the sales and construction fronts. The financial segment was slow across the country and showed positive signs by the end of the month. The team work and innovations created successful results. The two ‘Mehfil’ events at UAE – at Abu Dhabi and Dubai – were successful with good client participation and new prospects. We hope to see positive trends in the industry with the introduction of RERA and GST in the coming months.

We talk a lot about many departments…HR, sales, marketing, construction, planning… but never about finance. Financial gain or income in business is the most crucial factor of existence. INCOMES ARE LIKE OUR SHOES. If too small, they gall and pinch us. But if too large, they cause us to stumble and to trip. Financial discipline allows the company to evaluate, in a continually objective and systematic manner, the variances that are generated by previously established strategic and operational lines. Discipline can be defined as behaviour that shows a willingness to obey rules or orders. Though most people associate discipline with social behaviours, it also applies to how we manage our money. Financial discipline refers to how well we are able to conform our spending and saving to the plans that we set to achieve our monetary goals.

A plan is a must for financial discipline. If we don’t have a financial plan in place, it’s really hard to be disciplined about how we spend our money, because we haven’t created any guidelines for ourselves to follow. When creating a plan, look at both the short-term and long-term goals. While a budget is part of the plan, the purpose isn’t to prevent us from spending any money. Instead, having financial discipline allows us to make sure we have money for what’s most important.

Accountability on spending is the second important aspect of financial discipline. Making sure we track our spending makes us accountable and helps money management. For example, if we know that we are going to review our spending each week by entering the data in a program like Quadra, we can motivate ourselves to think twice before we make an impulse purchase or do an impulse activity, because we know we are going to see the mistake when we review the spending. What’s more, as we build financial discipline, we will see the fruits of our efforts on our account balances.

On a lighter side, I would like to share a small story. A preacher in his church was praying to God. While he was praying, he asked God, “How long is 10 million years to you?” God replied, “1 second.” The next day the preacher asked God, “God, how much is 10 million rupees to you?” And God replied, “Just one rupee.” Then finally the next day the preacher asked God, “God, can I have one rupee please?” And God replied, “Just wait a sec.”

Friends, managing good business means managing good finance office. Let’s all put in great efforts to manage, preserve and utilise our resources wisely and in a timely manner.

Warm regards,
Sunil Kumar