Vice President - Operations & Finance

Position Snapshot:

Designation: Vice President - Operations & Finance

Reports to: Managing Director

Location: Mumbai (Head Office), with regular presence at the Palghar factory

Function: Operations + Finance & Accounts - the day-to-day second-in-command to the MD

Direct reports: Manufacturing, Procurement, Quality, Installations (Gaaia), Accounts & Finance, Admin

Employment type: Full-time, on-role

My client is the leader in quality cement tiles and flooring, a reputation held for over 100 years. In 1922, they pioneered the cement-tile industry in India as part of the Swadeshi movement, producing tiles of international quality to replace imports. Today the company is a heritage brand with a genuinely differentiated product - handmade and epoxy terrazzo floors that are fully customisable and co-created with architects and interior designers.

The group operates showrooms in Mumbai, Delhi, Goa, Ahmedabad and Bengaluru, manufactures at its Palghar factory, and runs an in-house installation arm, Gaaia, that handles specialist on-site work. The business combines a craft, heritage positioning with mechanised capacity.

Why This Role Exists Now:

This is a succession hire. The company is bringing in a senior operator to run operations and finance day-to-day, so the Managing Director can focus on brand, strategy and growth. The outgoing Operations & Finance head will remain available to groom the new hire from August 2026, ensuring a structured handover of relationships, systems and factory know-how.

The mandate is to bring system and predictability to a strong heritage brand - to move the business from firefighting to running on systems, with clear numbers, tight operations and dependable delivery.

Role Purpose:

Own the operational and financial engine of the business end-to-end - manufacturing, procurement, quality, installations, and finance & accounts - and install the reporting and process discipline that lets the company grow steadily and profitably without depending on the promoter for every decision.

Key Responsibilities:

Operations & Manufacturing:

- Own end-to-end operations at the Palghar factory - production planning, capacity utilisation and throughput.

- Drive down the order-to-install cycle (currently around 90 days) through process mapping and bottleneck removal.

- Institute quality gates that eliminate shade variation and cracking on large orders.

Procurement & Supply Chain:

- Lead raw-material procurement (cement, stone powder, white cement); build supplier scorecards and re-negotiate rates.

- Manage inventory, reduce holding, clear dead stock, and secure supplier co-op / subsidy where available.

Installations & Projects (Gaaia):

- Oversee the Gaaia installation arm; improve on-time handover and reduce site rework.

Finance, Accounts & MIS:

- Own the P&L and balance sheet for both the organisation and Gaaia; establish true net margins and cost-of-manufacture by SKU.

- Tighten receivables and ageing (recover written-off debt, cut DSO); manage cash flow, budgets and forecasts.

Systems, Reporting & Process:

- Install a weekly KPI / MIS dashboard and department reporting into the Monday Management Committee Meeting.

- Document SOPs and build the operating discipline for a business run on systems, not firefighting.

People & Team:

- Lead and develop department heads; set KRAs; drive performance and accountability.

Commercial Coordination:

- Partner with Sales & Marketing (which report to the MD) to align supply, delivery and cost with demand.

First 12 Months - What Success Looks Like:

- True net margins for the organisation and Gaaia established, understood and improving.

- Order-to-close cycle reduced materially from the current ~90 days.

- Receivables recovered and DSO down; ageing under control.

- Rs. 1 crore of dead stock cleared and raw-material holding optimised.

- Weekly KPI reporting live across every department, feeding the Monday MCM.

- Quality gates in place; rework and post-handover complaints falling.

Candidate Profile:

Experience & Background:

- 12 - 18 years in operations leadership in manufacturing - ideally building materials, tiles or interior products, or an SME with a factory-plus-project-install model.

- Demonstrable ownership of BOTH operations and the finance / commercial numbers - direct P&L exposure is essential.

- Track record of building systems, MIS and process discipline in a founder-led or family business.

Qualifications:

- Engineering / operations background with an MBA (Operations or Finance) preferred; or a finance / CA background with strong hands-on operations exposure.

Competencies & Attributes:

- Hands-on - gets into the factory and the numbers; not a pure strategist.

- Strong on cost, margin and cash discipline.

- A calm systems-builder who can institutionalise reporting and accountability.

- Able to work closely with a hands-on promoter and earn the second-in-command mandate.

Reporting & Transition:

- Reports to the Managing Director.

- Works alongside the Sales, Marketing and department heads through the weekly Management Committee Meeting.

- The outgoing Operations & Finance head will be available to groom the new hire from August 2026 - a structured handover of relationships, systems and factory know-how.