Having a great idea, and assembling a team to bring that concept to life is the first step in creating a successful business venture. While finding a new and unique idea is rare enough; the ability to successfully execute this idea is what separates the dreamers from the entrepreneurs. Dr. Uppiliappan Gopalan who is astutute strategist with impeccable business acumen is a Chemical Engineer (B Tech) and an MBA from IIM-Bangalore with Finance & Operations Specialization. He holds an Executive Diploma in Advanced Financial Analytics from globally renowned London Busines School (LBS). Adding feather in his cap, he holds a Doctorate Degree in Supply Chain & Finance Integration from Indian School of Business & Management. Prestigious awardee of Peter Drucker Award for the year 2016 for the outstanding performance in Finance & Business Process Improvement in strengthening & turning around business operations.
Visionary Executive with close to 17 years of corporate exposure in FMCG/Retail/EPC/ Automotive/Trading of Fortune 500 Companies, Dr. Gopalan is a strategic think-tank cum implementer with recognized proficiency in spearheading operations/business with an aim to accomplish corporate plans and goals successfully. Dr. Gopalan is a well-known adjuct faculty for Finance & Supply Chain and has been invited by various forums as Conference Speaker & Conference Chair.
- Technical Advisory Committee (Titanium Conference (Ireland) – Finance).
- Keynote Speaker – Northwest Business Group Conference in Mastering HR (Istanbul) – Role of TQM in Value Addition for Business.
- Session Planery Speaker – 7 HR & Training Congress – Manila (Asia-Pacific- Re-engineering Towards a Strategic and Driven Workforce.
- Conference Co-Chair for 17 International Symposium of Banking, Finance, & Economics (Singapore).
Exemplars of Absolute Accolades
Under U Gopalan’s guidance, organizations attained various expertise in financial services and solutions. Being the Top 100 Globally acclaimed SAP Certified Resource for Finance, Treasury, & Supply Chain Modules & Top 10 Operational Excellence Certified Professional in APAC, Dr Gopalan’s core strength lies in Strategy Planning, Mergers and Acquisitions, Emerging Markets Development, Techno-commercial Evaluations, Financial Modeling and Business Valuations, Project Management (Greenfield / Brown Field), & Blue Ocean Strategies. With the hands-on expertise in handling aa revenue size of 600 Million USD, Dr. Gopalan is versatile on P & L Management, Operational Excellence, Excellence in Financial Management, & Projects Management.
Inspiration is a Requisite Even for Leaders
U Gopalan’s responsibilities lies in streamlining operations, optimizing cash conversion cycle, increase market share, augment business strategies that is focused on bottom-line with right blend of people and task.
Leadership Journey of Mr Gopalan is quite inspirational and noteworthy to mention in his diary of events. DNA of personal values and corporate values have been seeded inside him through his acquaintances and corporate honchos. Dr. Gopalan is grateful to Mrs Bama Gopalan, Mrs Revathi Anantharaman (Dr Gopalan’s Mother & Paternal Aunt respectively, who were instrumental in setting up basic DNA of Inspirational Values), & Mrs Uberoi (Chairman – SIVOKO Holdings) who has set the pace for augmenting personal values and ethical leadership.
Gopalan is respectful and feels indebted to Mr. Arif Muhammad Sayani (Managing Dircetor of Trinity Holdings, UAE), Mr. M V Subbaiah (Chairman Emeritus of Murugapp Group), Mr NC Venugopal (Ex MD of Lotte India Corportation Limited), Dr. C R Rajan (Emeritus Director of Corporate Strategy -Murugappa Group), & Dr. Prof. Bala V Balachandran (Distinguished professor in the renowned Kellogg School of Management at Chicago & Founder of Great Lakes Institute of Management), Mr Mayur Shah (Sr Executive Director – Kenafric Industries Limited), & Mr Ahmed Hashi (Chairman – Hashi Energy Holdings -Mauritius). Dr. Gopalan under the tutelage of corporate honchos imbibed the art of empowering people, demonstrating humility, & exhibiting down-to-earth attitude besides Managing Interpersonal Relationships, Effective Decision Making Skills, Fostering Cross-Functional Competencies & Co-creating invigorating work culture amongst workforce.
U Gopalan’s Mission has always been to Optimize Finance Solutions
Being a Finance Professional by design transformed out to be an Operations Expert , Uppiliappan always emphasize on data and data management. He says, right data enables us to take right decision and his SAP experience has facilitated him to augment bottom-line and make the Operations Lean.
Uppiliappan considers his mission lies in designing a leaner team with reduced costs and increased productivity. With Finance Acumen, managing large-scale operations becomes very easy. Empowering people fosters multi-tasking culture and in turn augments productivity and reduces overall costs of operations.
Enlightening Organizations to be Bold
Dr. U Gopalan has enlightened organizations to take courageous actions like Promoting Cross-Functional Competence across Organizations, Contemporary Asset Restructuring Exercise, Factoring without Recourse, and Debt Resturcuting, Deployment of Article 391 of Indian Company’s Law to manage the long term creditors as part of debt restructuring exercise has made them different from others which has also yielded them incomparable achievements like:
- Implementation of SAP for a large conglomerate with more than 20 Branches / Locations and Global Operations in a span of 86 Days.
- Cash conversion cycle Optimization for Midddle-East based operations through focused efforts and effective reduction of working requirements capital squarely.
Effort towards Happier Employment
U Gopalan has always tried to give his best to employees with employee engagement & non-monetary benefits, institutionalizing culture of transparency and trust, creating a culture as a manifestation of performance & role. His values deployment drive from top to bottom as part of value cascading exercise to reinforce value systems.
Casting Vision to Employees
U Gopalan has a vision which is highly dynamic with 100% transparency to all employees and stakeholders. With his insights, companies leads to year on year growth without violating the principles of corporate ethics and corporate governance – grow with deep rooted values and demonstrate values through sustainable growth.
Encouraging Creative Thinking within your organization?
U Gopalan recommends “The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs: Insanely Different Principles for Breakthrough Success” and “ Dare to dream: the journey of distinguished Prof. Bala V. Balachandran” to scrutinize leadership qualities. And as a leader, you need to be clear and concise at all times–there is no question of their vision and what needs to be accomplished. Future clarity gravitate others and so he does know what his future lies in: I would like to be a 100% academician in 5 year’s time incorporating value-based leadership into the minds of youngsters.
Source :- The 10 Most Admired Financial Leaders to Watch in 2017
