Having a great idea and putting together a team to bring it to life is the first step in launching a successful business. Finding a new and distinctive concept is difficult enough; the ability to put that idea into action is what distinguishes the dreamers from the entrepreneurs. Dr. Uppiliappan Gopalan is a successful and results-driven business leader with extensive knowledge of all aspects of business, including new firm start-ups, turnarounds, expansions, and diversification. By reorganising corporate strategy and implementing strategic initiatives, he has demonstrated expertise in regularly expanding business turnover, CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate), EBIDTA, and market share year after year.
Dr. Gopalan is an astute thinker with exceptional business acumen. He is a chemical engineer (B Tech) with a finance and operations specialisation from IIM-Bangalore. He graduated from the prestigious London Business School with an Executive Diploma in Advanced Financial Analytics (LBS). He has a Doctorate Degree in Supply Chain & Finance Integration from the Indian School of Business & Management, which is a feather in his cap. For remarkable achievements in finance and business process improvement in improving and turning around firm operations, he received the prestigious Peter Drucker Award in 2016.
Dr. Gopalan is a strategic think-tank and goal implementer with recognised proficiency in spearheading operations and business with the goal of achieving corporate plans and goals successfully. Dr. Gopalan is a strategic thinker and goal implementer with demonstrated expertise in leading operations and business with the goal of successfully achieving corporate plans and goals. Dr. Gopalan is a well-known adjunct faculty member in Finance and Supply Chain who has been invited to speak at conferences and chair them.
- 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).
Renowned for Excellency
Organizations gained a variety of competences in financial services and solutions under Dr. Gopalan’s leadership. His core strengths are Strategy Planning, Mergers and acquisitions, emerging markets development, techno-commercial evaluations, Financial Modeling and Business Valuations, Project Management (Greenfield / Brown Field), and Blue Ocean Strategies. He is a Top 100 globally acclaimed SAP Certified Resource for Finance, Treasury, and Supply Chain Modules and a Top 10 Operational Excellence Certified Professional in APAC. Dr. Gopalan is flexible in P&L management, operational excellence, excellence in financial management, and project management, having handled a revenue size of 600 million dollars.
An Inspiration for Leaders
Dr. Gopalan developed sensitivity to the dynamics of cross-cultural workplaces through extensive travel to 25 countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, Germany, Austria, Singapore, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Fiji, Jordan, Lebanon, Switzerland, Vietnam, Uganda, Kenya, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Togo, Malawi, Sudan, Somalia, Tanzania, Maldives, Mauritius, Thailand, Malaysia, Italy, Rwanda, Sudan, and Congo (DRC).
Dr. Gopalan’s duties include simplifying processes, improving cash conversion cycles, increasing market share, and augmenting bottom-line business initiatives with the correct mix of people and tasks.
His leadership journey is highly inspiring and worth noting in his diary of occurrences. Through his acquaintances and business bosses, he has been instilled with the DNA of personal and corporate ideals. Dr. Gopalan is grateful to Mrs Bama Gopalan, Mrs Revathi Anantharaman (Dr Gopalan’s Mother and Paternal Aunt, respectively, who were instrumental in setting up the basic DNA of Inspirational Values), and Mrs Uberoi (Chairman – SIVOKO Holdings), who has set the pace for augmenting personal values and ethical leadership.
A Proven Track Record of Success
Dr. Gopalan has a proven track record of successfully managing the P & L for company divisions with annual revenues of over $600 million. He devised tactics that assisted corporate expansion into highly competitive regions such as Europe, the Middle East, the Gulf Cooperation Council, and Africa, while also generating top and bottom-line growth despite economic challenges.
He has led dynamic, large-sized, cross-cultural teams of up to 75 direct and 2000 indirect reportees and has managed mergers and acquisitions involving $ 20 million in transactions. He has also managed diversified product portfolios and led dynamic, large-sized, cross-cultural teams of up to 75 direct and indirect reportees.
Uppiliappan, a finance professional by trade who has evolved into an operations expert, places a strong emphasis on data and data management. According to him, having the right data allows us to make the best decisions, and his SAP knowledge has helped him boost the bottom line and streamline operations.
Dr. Gopalan believes that his aim is to create a smaller team with lower expenses and more production. Managing large-scale businesses becomes a breeze with Finance Acumen. Empowering employees promotes a multitasking culture, which boosts productivity and lowers total operating expenses.
Taking Bold Steps
Dr. Gopalan has inspired organisations to take bold actions such as promoting cross-functional competence across organisations, contemporary asset restructuring exercises, factoring without recourse, and debt restructuring, and the deployment of Article 391 of the Indian Company’s Law to manage long-term creditors as part of a debt restructuring exercise, which has set them apart from the competition and resulted in incomparable achievements such as:
- Implementation of SAP for a large conglomerate with more than 20 branches or locations and global operations in a span of 86 days.
- Cash conversion cycle optimization for Middle-East-based operations through focused efforts and effective reduction of working capital requirements
Efforts to Make Work a More Pleasurable Experience
Dr. Gopalan has always attempted to provide his best to his staff through employee engagement and non-monetary perks, institutionalizing a culture of openness and trust, and building a culture that reflects performance and role. As part of a value cascade activity to strengthen value systems, he deploys values from top to bottom.
Leading Team with a Vision
Dr. Gopalan has a dynamic vision that is completely transparent to all workers and stakeholders. With his ideas, firms may achieve year-over-year growth while adhering to corporate ethics and governance standards — growing with deep-entrenched values and showing values via long-term success.
Aspire for Innovation
Dr. 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 scrutinise leadership qualities. And, as a leader, you must always be clear and concise—there should be no doubt about their goal or what has to be completed. Others are drawn to future certainty, and he knows what he wants to achieve with his life: I want to be a 100 percent academician in 5 years, instilling value-based leadership in the brains of children.
